Highest seed playing on Tuesday gets ousted on Day 2 in Houston

American qualifier Ryan Sweeting earned his first tour-level win of the 2010 season as he knocked out fifth-seeded Kazakhstani Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 on Tuesday afternoon at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Houston.

The 150th-ranked Sweeting converted on three of his six break point chances in the decisive set to close out the victory in one hour and 54 minutes. It was his first win on the ATP World Tour since July 2009, when he reached the second round at the LA Tennis Open.

Sweeting’s upset was a bright spot in a tough day for the American contingent, which saw two players withdraw prior to their first-round matches and two others retire due to injury.

American Mardy Fish withdrew due to the lingering effects of a sciatic nerve injury sustained in a fall last week at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, while No. 7 seed Michael Russell pulled out with a leg injury.

Fish, who won the Houston singles title in 2006, said: “I’m obviously extremely disappointed not being able to play here. I’ve had a lot of success at this tournament. I have great memories here. It’s a real bummer. From my point of view, the way I was hitting the ball, the way I feeling in Miami before I fell in the fourth round there, it’s a bummer not being able to play here.”

Fish was replaced in the main draw by Indian Somdev Devvarman, while Michael Yani took the place of countryman Russell. Yani lost to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 7-5.

A pair of Argentines, No. 6 Horacio Zeballos and Juan Ignacio Chela, were the benefactors of injury retirements in their first-round matches. Zeballos led Taylor Dent 6-3 and Chela had established a 6-2, 3-0 lead against Rajeev Ram before their opponents respectively retired with hip and groin ailments.

American wild card Donald Young also fell at the first hurdle, dropping a 7-5, 6-3 decision to South African qualifier Kevin Anderson. Anderson conceded just three points behind his first serve.

Also Tuesday, Chilean Nicolas Massu advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 win over German Mischa Zverev and No. 7 seed Eduardo Schwank of Argentina defeated Brazilian Marcos Daniel 6-3, 6-2.


Tuesday, 6 April 2010

Singles - First Round
[Q] R Sweeting (USA) d [5] E Korolev (KAZ) 63 46 62
[6] H Zeballos (ARG) d T Dent (USA) 63 ret. (hip)
[7] E Schwank (ARG) d M Daniel (BRA) 63 62
M Kukushkin (KAZ) d **[LL] M Yani (USA) 61 75
[Q] C Niland (IRL) vs *[LL] S Devvarman (IND)
N Massu (CHI) d M Zverev (GER) 64 62
[Q] K Anderson (RSA) d [WC] D Young (USA) 75 63
X Malisse (BEL) vs [Q] N Lindahl (AUS)
J Chela (ARG) d R Ram (USA) 62 30 ret. (groin)

*[LL] S Devvarman (IND) replaced M Fish (USA) - leg
**[LL] M Yani (USA) replaced [8] M Russell (USA) - leg

The Clay Court Season has begun!

The Clay Court season has begun!

The first tournaments of the season will be the US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, Texas, USA and the Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca, Morocco. The next big tournament will be the 1000 points Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, held in Monte-Carlo, Monaco on the 11th of April. The 1000 points Internazionali d'Italia will be held on the 25th of April, and is the next biggest tournament after Monte-Carlo. On the 9th of May, the 1000 points Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open will be held, and is the next biggest tournament before the French Open, which will be held on the 23rd of May.

Good luck to all players and defending champions!

Roddick earns Miami title after straight sets win to Berdych

Andy Roddick capped his best American hard court swing since 2006 when he won his second Sony Ericsson Open title to lift the inaugural Butch Buchholz trophy. Roddick defeated Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-4, ending the Czech’s giant-killing run that claimed a trio of Top 10 seeds: Roger Federer, Fernando Verdasco and Robin Soderling.

Asked what most pleased him about the title run, Roddick said: “I won in different ways. I changed it up against Rafa and today I was smart with chipping and mixing paces, which kept him guessing. I held onto my serve well throughout and played a pretty smart tournament.”

Former World No. 1 Roddick did not face a break point in the match and dropped serve just twice in the tournament, including once during his masterful win over Rafael Nadal in three sets in the semi-finals.

“Obviously it's a big title for me,” he said afterwards. “I felt a little bit of pressure to win this one because I had a pretty good opportunity in Indian Wells and didn't come through there.

“But I think just the last month has been real good for me. I've played well on the big moments. Haven't had an off day mentally. I've been able to execute. I've been able to have a game plan and execute it regardless of what kind of shots it takes. So it's all good. It's all encouraging.”

In the first set against Berdych, Roddick twice rallied from 0-30 deficits, although neither player faced a break point until 5-5, when the Czech was the first to crack. Berdych offered up his second break point of the game with a double fault at deuce and then, after almost double faulting again, sprayed a forehand well long to hand Roddick a 6-5 lead. Roddick then served out the set to love, ending with his fifth ace.

Berdych was unable to exert pressure when Roddick missed his first serve, winning just one of 11 second serve points. He also paid the price for 19 unforced errors – most off his forehand wing - to Roddick’s nine.

Berdych began the second set with two tentative net approaches and Roddick earned a break point with a cross-court backhand passing shot and then claimed the early break when Berdych hit another forehand long. That was all the opening needed by Roddick, who won 61 of 63 service games during the tournament.

“He was playing pretty well as you can see on the court,” said Berdych. “He was really good today. He was really strong, serving well. I was really looking for maybe to get one chance or maybe one is enough. But he [held] pretty well. I didn't get any chance during whole match during both two sets. So that's well played for him.”

Berdych was attempting to become the first player in 20 years outside the South African Airways ATP Rankings Top 20 to win the Sony Ericsson Open title.

“I'm happy for this maybe two weeks, ten days, whatever it is, that I played a couple of really good matches,” said the Czech. “I felt great here. Everything was good. So just give me a lot of confidence [for the] next weeks in the season. Just looking forward to it. Go for another tournament.”

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Singles - Final

(6) Andy Roddick (USA) d. (16) Tomas Berdych (CZE) 75 64

Roddick to face Berdych for Miami title

Andy Roddick produced one of the finest performances of his career Friday to rally from a set down and upset Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Roddick turned the match on its head in an eight-point stretch late in the second set and rode the momentum to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over the two-time Sony Ericsson Open finalist Nadal, who showed very rare signs of frustration as the match slipped away.

In a master class serving performance, Roddick fired 15 aces and won 47 of 55 points on his first serve to claim his first win in his past four meetings with Nadal.

Early in the match, playing from deep behind the baseline, Roddick was unable to put Nadal under pressure. But a change in mindset midway through the second set to go on the attack reaped rich rewards for Roddick, who cracked a series of brutal forehands and made regular, confident forays to the net, winning 15 of 25 approaches.

“Anytime we got neutral [in the point] he was pushing me around,” Roddick said. “I knew I had to be more aggressive. My heavy forehand doesn’t work against him, so I had to hit it flatter, which is higher risk... I took really, really ridiculous cuts at a lot of forehands. They found the purple part [of the court].”

Czech Tomas Berdych continued his giant-killing run at the Sony Ericsson Open Friday night, powering his way into the final with a 6-2, 6-2 win over fifth seed Robin Soderling. Berdych, who took out top seed Roger Federer after saving a match point in the fourth round and 10th seed Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals, will face sixth seed Andy Roddick in the final.

Berdych had lost his past three meetings (and five of the past six) against the heavy-hitting Soderling and knew that he needed to execute a different game plan tonight. “In all my matches with Robin in the past I’ve been too defensive… if you give him time to hit the ball hard it’s really tough,” Berdych said. “I wanted to play more aggressive, but without making mistakes.”

Berdych, who reached the Sony Ericsson Open semi-finals last year, will be appearing in just his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final and is seeking his second title at this level, five years after he won Paris in 2005. The former World No. 9 boasts a 17-6 record on the year. He trails Roddick 2-5 in head-to-head meetings.


Friday, 2 April 2010

Singles - Semifinals
[6] A Roddick (USA) d [4] R Nadal (ESP) 46 63 63
[16] T Berdych (CZE) d [5] R Soderling (SWE) 62 62

Berdych tops Verdasco for spot in semis

Tomas Berdych backed up his marathon fourth-round win over Roger Federer with a grueling three-set victory over Fernando Verdasco Thursday to reach the Sony Ericsson Open semi-finals for the second time in three years.

Two weeks ago in Indian Wells Berdych clipped Verdasco 6-0, 6-3 but today was a much different story. Berdych needed to win a second-set tie-break just to stay alive and ultimately needed 2 hrs., 51 mins. to edge the Spaniard 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in a bruising encounter.

On Saturday the Czech will play Robin Soderling, who defeated Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-4 in the other quarter-final on Thursday. This is Berdych's second semi-final of 2010, having reached the last four in Brisbane in the first week of the season.

“It was a great match, definitely," said Berdych, who saved seven of nine break points - just as Verdasco did - and who won just one more point than his opponent. "The beginning for me was a little bit slow, because I was still feeling a little bit tired after the long, long match against Roger, finishing that late in the night."


Thursday, 1 April 2010

Singles - Quarter-finals
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d [13] M Youzhny (RUS) 61 64
[16] T Berdych (CZE) d [10] F Verdasco (ESP) 46 76(5) 64