Former champion Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia barely got past qualifier Sebastien de Chaunac of France 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1) in the first round of the Open de Moselle on Tuesday.
The eighth-seeded Ljubicic, who won the title in 2005, hit 21 aces to set up a match with Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia.
Tipsarevic beat 2003 winner Arnaud Clement of France 6-4, 6-4.
The Serbian broke Clement once in each set and relied on a solid serve, winning 80 percent of his service points without allowing any break opportunities.
Richard Gasquet of France saved two break points at 5-5 in the third set to outlast Michael Berrer of Germany 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5).
The Frenchman is trying to rediscover his form after the International Tennis Federation banned him for two-and-a-half months for testing positive for cocaine at a tournament in Miami in March.
Gasquet said he inadvertently ingested the drug by kissing a woman in a nightclub.
Gasquet will next face Christophe Rochus of Belgium, who edged fifth-seeded Fabrice Santoro of France 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Sixth-seeded Benjamin Becker of Germany was also ousted, as Evgeny Korolev of Russia converted all of his four break chances to win 6-2, 6-3.
Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan defeated Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-4, Marc Gicquel of France cruised past Roman Valent of Switzerland 6-3, 6-1, and qualifier Thierry Ascione upset Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (5), 6-4 in an all-French matchup.
■ROMANIA OPEN
AP, BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
Oscar Hernandez knocked out top-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the first round of the BCR Open Romania.
The unseeded Spaniard broke three times and dropped serve twice at BNR Arenas as Hanescu lost in the opening round for the second straight year.
He was beaten by Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina last year.
Another unseeded Spaniard, Santiago Ventura, beat fourth-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia 6-4, 6-1.
“I played well and I feel excellent on the court,” Ventura said. “Andreev is a good player and it’s hard to beat him.”
Second-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain also advanced, defeating Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-4, 6-3.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with