Andy Roddick brushed off a second set fightback by Ryler DeHeart to defeat the qualifier 6-1, 7-6 and advance to the second round of the San Jose Open on Wednesday.
Roddick, the world No. 7, breezed through the first set but was broken early to trail 3-0 in the second.
Fellow American DeHeart served for the set at 5-3 but could not close it out as the big-serving Roddick fought back to force a tie-breaker, then sealed it 7-1 with a forehand winner.
PHOTO: EPA
Earlier, Czech Radek Stepanek became the first defending champion to lose in the tournament’s first round in 20 years when he was ousted by Belgian Xavier Malisse 6-3, 6-4.
German fourth seed Tommy Haas was also eliminated, falling 7-6, 6-2 to Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in the second round.
Another seed, Fernando Verdasco of Spain, had to battle hard to avoid joining Stepanek and Haas on the way home but the second-seed prevailed over Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 in the last match of the day.
PHOTO: AFP
Third seed Stepanek had four break points against Malisse, but it was the Belgian who made the most of his chances, breaking once in each set to win.
Haas failed to convert five break point chances in the opening set against Istomin, who will play sixth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals after the German thrashed Israel’s Dudi Sela 6-2, 6-0.
Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych also made the quarter-finals, posting a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen.
■ROTTERDAM OPEN
AFP, ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Russian second seed Nikolay Davydenko pulled off an impressive win over in-form Spaniard Feliciano Lopez on Wednesday in the first round of the Rotterdam Open beating him 6-4, 6-2.
Davydenko was a surprisingly easy winner over Lopez, who arrived on the back of the second title of his career the South African Open on Sunday.
Davydenko took full advantage in his 75-minute victory, and will play Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis after he came through in straight sets against American James Blake 6-4, 6-2.
“It’s tough to make the change from Africa to here,” said a sympathetic Davydenko. “It was always going to be difficult for him [Lopez].”
Fourth-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils, up half the night feeling ill and feeling the need to document his sorry state on Twitter, scraped through with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Olivier Rochus.
But Monfils, world ranked 13, denied that he should be wary of giving constant updates lest his information be used by gamblers.
“I love to play tennis but I don’t think about it much off the court,” Monfils said. “I’m a 23-year-old person. What we do off court with Twitter or Facebook — it’s private life. I don’t even know all of the rules of tennis, I just play.”
Monfils tweeted on Tuesday evening that he was feeling poorly a day prior to his opening match at the Ahoy stadium, then came back online at 1 am saying he could not sleep. But despite a slow start, he managed to earn only his second win over Rochus, who held a career 3-1 lead over the Frenchman.
Austrian Jurgen Melzer put out eighth seed Viktor Troicki when the Serb retired trailing 6-3, 3-0 with an arm injury. Michael Berrer of Germany won a massive first-set tiebreaker as he completed a victory over Frances Arnaud Clement 7-6 (18-16), 4-6, 6-4.
■PARIS INDOOR OPEN
AFP, PARIS
Russian top seed Elena Dementieva beat compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals of the WTA Paris Indoor Open on Wednesday.
Dementieva took the first set 6-4 and was 4-1 up in the second set before Pavlyuchenkova staged a mini-revival, only for the world No. 7 to eventually prevail 6-4, 6-4.
Dementieva, who received a bye in the first two rounds, was joined in the last eight by Italian second seed Flavia Pennetta, who beat Russia’s Alisa Kleybanova 7-6 (7/4), 6-1.
Tathiana Garbin followed compatriot Pennetta into the quarter-finals after downing Russian No. 8 seed Elena Vesnina 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.
Croatian wild card Petra Martic earlier sprung a surprise by ousting third seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgian after winning their first-round encounter 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Wickmayer was left to lament a heavy schedule that saw her feature in Belgium’s 3-2 Fed Cup World Group II victory in Poland last weekend.
“I was super, super tired today. I had a very hard weekend, playing in Fed Cup, so it was very hard for me,” said the world No. 15.
Martic faces Hungary’s Agnes Szavay in round two, while French fifth seed Aravane Rezai will play Germany’s Andrea Petkovic following a 6-4, 6-4 win against qualifier Evgeniya Rodina of Russia.
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