Second-seeded Joachim Johansson, whose serve hasn't been broken in his last two tournaments, easily beat Adrian Garcia of Chile 6-4, 6-2 t the US$822,000 Stockholm Open on Tuesday.
The Swede never faced break point against the unseeded Garcia at the Royal Tennis Hall's fast Plexipave court.
PHOTO: EPA
"I got off to a good start in both sets, then I was able to relax," said Johansson, a candidate for ATP Newcomer of the Year after climbing from 113th in the ATP rankings at the beginning of the season to 11th.
Last year, Johansson was a wild card in the Swedish capital, where his father Leif scored one of the biggest upsets by beating former top-ranked Stan Smith of the US in 1971.
This time, the 22-year-old Johansson is among the favorites after a year that has included a quarterfinal win over Andy Roddick at the US Open.
Johansson, a quarterfinalist last year in Stockholm, is coming off a tough three-set tiebreak loss in the last eight at the Madrid Masters and needs to win his second ATP title on Sunday to stay in the hunt for one of the remaining spots in the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston next month.
Fourth-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany, No. 5 Feliciano Lopez of Spain, No. 6 Robin Soderling of Sweden and Olivier Rochus of Belgium also posted straight-set wins.
Haas, a two-time winner this year, topped qualifier Davide Sanguinetti of Italy 7-6 (5), 6-4. In the US Open this year, Haas needed five sets to beat Sanguinetti.
Lopez was pushed by American Jeff Morrison before winning 7-6 (5), 7-5. Lopez has displayed good form recently, winning the ATP tournament in Vienna earlier this month. Morrison made the semifinals in Metz two weeks ago.
Rochus had an easier time against qualifier Johan Settergren of Sweden, winning 6-3, 6-2 in the first center court match of the day.
Soderling, a finalist last year and winner of his first ATP title in Lyon two weeks ago, edged former three-time Stockholm Open champion and Royal Tennis Hall member Thomas Enqvist in an all-Swedish match 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic became the first seeded player to fall, losing to qualifier Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia-Montenegro 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Andre Agassi, who has not played in the Swedish capital since 1994 when the tournament was held across town in the much bigger Globe Arena, is seeded No. 1. He'll play Kristof Vliegen of Belgium on Wednesday.
"I played well last week and it feels good to continue here," said Agassi, who lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Marat Safin of Russia at the Madrid Masters. "I need to take one match at a time. It's very simple, if you don't concentrate on the first one the rest of them won't matter."
Swiss Indoors
Fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain rallied from a break down in the final set to beat Swiss qualifier Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4 on Tuesday, advancing in the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament which earlier in the day lost top-seeded Roger Federer.
"Being a break down in the third set, I tried to run a bit more and be a bit more aggressive," Robredo said. "I knew I needed to do something. He played really well."
Also, French Open champion Gaston Gaudio, seeded third, defeated qualifier Dick Norman of Belgium 7-6 (3), 6-4 to reach the second round of the tournament for the first time.
Gaudio, who lost in the opening round in his last two appearances here in 2000 and 2001, has qualified for his first Tennis Masters Cup.
American Taylor Dent was toppled by Swiss wild card Ivo Heuberger 6-2, 6-3, while Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand was upset 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-3 by Austrian Stefan Koubek.
"It was a long match and he just did better," said Paradorn, ranked 25th by the ATP Tour, 67 spots above Koubek. "I won the first set but after that he turned everything around and I was trying hard but just lost my serve once in the second set and once the third and that was enough to lose."
Earlier, Federer's woes in Basel continued when he was forced to withdraw with a thigh injury.
The Swiss had felt pain in his left thigh Monday and underwent an examination after the pain worsened during his warmup Tuesday morning. An MRI revealed a torn muscle fibres in his left upper thigh, tournament doctor Felix Marti said, and Federer will need to rest for at least 10-14 days, putting in doubt his participation at both next week's Tennis Master Series Paris and the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston, which starts Nov. 15.
"This is a big blow for me," said Federer, the winner of three Grand Slams this season. "I hope I can play in Houston. But I don't know. I know it will be very tight, very difficult and I don't want to take too much risk."
Federer, a former ball-boy at the tournament, had been seeking his first tournament title in seven appearances in his home city.
In 2002, Federer lost in the semifinals to David Nalbandian of Argentina. Last year he was eliminated in the second round by Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic.
Generali Open
Daniela Hantuchova reached the second round of the US$585,000 tournament at the Intersport Arena in Linz, beating American qualifier Lindsay Lee-Waters in three sets Tuesday.
The Slovak won 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 after Lee-Waters had a jump start to the match, breaking Hantuchova twice and rushing to a 4-0 lead.
While favored Hantuchova was struggling with her serve and producing a huge amount of unforced errors, the American showed a nearly faultless opening set.
Lee-Waters continually put her rival under pressure with a crashing backhand return and converted her third set point to take the opener.
In the second set, Lee-Waters broke Hantuchova in the first game, however, this time, the Slovak managed to break back and then showed better nerves to prevail.
While Hantuchova appeared much more determined in the final set and gradually raised the quality of her game, Lee-Waters dropped her intensity and allowed her rival a break in game one.
The 21-year-old Slovak pulled away 4-0 and wrapped up the match -- her second victory over Lee-Waters after their first duel in New Haven this year ended with Hantuchova winning in two sets.
"Lindsay was very strong at the start and my service was terrible. But when I increased the pace, I could turn the tables," Hantuchova said.
In a hard battle, American Meghann Shaughnessy eliminated eighth-seeded Croat Karolina Sprem 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.
Sprem took control in the opener, breaking Shaughnessy early, and she seemed determined to take the set quickly.
However, the Croat's direct game was too faulty to keep her rival down and Shaugnessey came back.
The American settled in her own game and captalized on Sprem's unforced errors and double faults to break back and take the set.
Seat Open
Seventh-seeded Eleni Daniilidou of Greece overcame Jill Craybas of the US 7-5, 6-1 Tuesday in the opening round of the US$225,000 tournament.
Fourth-seeded Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria wasn't as fortunate, losing to Emma Laine of Finland 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
The three other seeded players in action won Tuesday. No. 5 Mary Pierce of France defeated Carly Gullickson of the US 6-0, 7-5; No. 6 Tatiana Golovin of France beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-2, 6-3; and No. 8 Shinobu Asagoe of Japan topped Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-7 (1), 6-1.
Other winners included Dinara Safina of Russia, Marlene Weingartner of Germany, Tina Pisnik of Slovenia, Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, Maria Sanchez Lorenzo of Spain and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic.
Taiwan suffered its first defeat of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12, losing to defending champion Japan 3-1 at the Taipei Dome last night. Japan’s victory put Taiwan’s score at two wins and one loss in WBSC Premier12 championship Group B play. In the top of the first inning, a sacrifice fly from Japanese batter Shota Morishita allowed Masayuki Kuwahara to score a run on Taiwan’s starter Chen Po-ching (陳柏清). Taiwan’s attempt to catch up in the bottom of the first ended to no avail and an uneventful second inning saw the score
Taiwan last night defeated Cuba 2-0 in their World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 Group B game at the Taipei Dome and finished the group second. At the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium, South Korea yesterday defeated Australia 5-2, while Japan last night won 11-3 against the Dominican Republic. On Sunday, Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome to advance to the Super Round. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champions and Group B winners Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the
Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome last night to advance to the Super Round of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 tournament. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champion and Group B winner Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the off. After taking a walk to first base, Taiwan’s Chen Chieh- hsien (陳傑憲) then stole second before Tseng Song-en (曾頌恩) drew a walk to first in the top of the first inning. Chen then
TWO-NIL LOSS: Taiwan’s best chance to score came at the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but Venezuela’s Liarvis Breto got out of the jam Taiwan yesterday suffered a shutout 2-0 loss to Venezuela in the opening game of the WBSC Premier12 Super Round at the Tokyo Dome. Taiwan had seven hits, one more than Venezuela’s six, but catcher Carlos Perez’s two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning delivered the only runs scored by both teams and secured victory for Venezuela. Taiwan’s best chance came at the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and only one out. However, Venezuela reliever Liarvis Breto struck out Chen Chen-wei before reliever Pedro Garcia finished the inning by allowing an infield flyball by Lin
RSS