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Spanish on song in South America


Spanish duo Juan Carlos Ferrero and Tommy Robredo began their Brasil Open campaigns in style on Tuesday, one of five tour events taking place this week.

Former world No.1 Ferrero enjoyed one his best wins for some time when he clawed his way past third seeded compatriot Albert Montanes 6-7, 6-2, 6-2 at the $562,500 Brasil Open.

Second seed Robredo also continued his decent start to 2009 when he eased past wild card Thiago Alves 6-4, 6-2.

Elsewhere in the Brasil Open draw, seeds Jose Acasuso (No.4) and Nicolas Devilder (No.7) both breezed through their first round matches while two qualifiers also made it through, Portuguese Rui Machado and Lukasz Kubot of Poland.

At the SAP Open in California, Andy Roddick began his campaign to land a fourth San Jose title strongly by seeing off Swedish qualifier Michael Ryderstedt 6-0, 7-6. Roddick next plays Latvian Ernest Gulbis in what will be an intriguing second round encounter.

In other first round matches, Mardy Fish prevailed over Lleyton Hewitt 7-6, 6-3 hitting 19 aces along the way. Qualifier Todd Widom upset No.8 seed Robby Ginepri 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 while Aussie Chris Guccione took out Argentine Guillermo Canas 7-6, 7-5.

At the ABM AMRO World Tennis Tournament there were first round wins for second seed Andy Murray over Croat Ivan Ljubicic and sixth seed David Ferrer who battled past Jurgen Melzer 3-6, 7-6, 7-5.

Bulgarian wild card Grigor Dimitrov won his first ever ATP World Tour match with a three-set victory over world No. 23 Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Other seeds through are Gaels Monfils whos opponent, Stephane Bohli, withdrew in the second set and Paul-Henri Mathieu who upset countryman Richard Gasquet 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.

On the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour there were no big upsets in Paris as seeds Alize Cornet and Agnieszka Radwanska cruised past qualifiers at the Open GDF Suez.

Tenth seed Radwanska crushed Oxana Lyubtsova 6-1, 6-2 while Cornet bounced back from an emotional weekend to beat Anastasia Sevastova 6-1, 6-3.

There was more success for France as wildcard Nathalie Dechy battled past out of form Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.

Part-time Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Daniella Hantuchova and another Romanian, Monica Niculescu, also got through their first round matches.

At the Pattaya Open in Thailand there were no surprises as seeds Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Sybille Bammer all sailed through their first round matches.

Sania Mirza, Neuza Silva, Yuliya Beygelzimer and Ivana Lisjak were the other first round victors at the WTA International event.


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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.