Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun missed out on the chance of a showdown with World No. 1 Rafael Nadal when he lost to Frederico Gil of Portugal in the first round of the Barcelona Open on Monday. Gil won 6-2, 6-1 on the clay at the Real Club de Tenis in the first match between the two in an ATP event. The defeat dropped Lu to 7-8 for the year in ATP singles events.
Nadal received a first-round bye and will be confident of progressing further against the 75th-ranked Gil.
In another match on Monday, Igor Kunitsyn of Russia beat Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 7-6 (3).
The 38th-ranked Kunitsyn broke four times to eliminate the Spaniard, who won his first title since 2003 this month in Casablanca.
All three seeded players in action Monday also advanced.
Victor Hanescu was leading 10th-seeded Nicolas Almagro 3-6, 7-6 (7), 2-2, but was forced to retire with a cramp. Almagro saved two match points in the second set before taking the tiebreaker.
The Spaniard will next play Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, who beat Thomaz Bellucci 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
Fifteenth-seed Tomas Berdych advanced after Martin Vassallo Arguello pulled out while trailing 5-2 in the first set, and 12th-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia defeated Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. He will next play Alberto Martin of Spain, who beat Marc Gicquel of France 6-3, 6-4.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Taiwan’s top women’s badminton doubles duo, Hsieh Pei-shan (謝沛珊) and Hung En-tzu (洪恩慈), achieved a straight-sets victory over Japan’s Kaho Osawa and Mayui Tanabe at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 300 Macau Open on Sunday. The Taiwanese pair won the final 21-18, 21-12, marking the duo’s second title this year after their win at the BWF Super 300 Taipei Open in May. The match on Sunday was their first encounter with the Japanese duo, ranked No. 63 in the world. Hsieh and Hung, ranked No. 12, began the opening game well. Hung, who plays left-handed, performed strongly at both the net and the
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