Robin Soderling shrugged off a slow start, firing 26 aces as he lifted his game to earn a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Frenchman Florent Serra on Monday to reach the second round of the Rotterdam Open.
The Swede showed no signs of the elbow complaint that knocked him out of the Australian Open first round, but the third seed said he could have used a quicker start.
“The first match of the week is always the most difficult for me,” last year’s Roland Garros finalist said. “I could have had a better start. But my game got better and better. I know I can play a lot better. I’m satisfied with the win but not really with my form.”
PHOTO: EPA
The victory was the first of the season for Soderling after losses in Chennai and Melbourne last month. Soderling cranked up his huge serve, which apart from his numerous aces also saw him break his opponent’s serve three times.
The world No. 8 finally sealed victory with an easy third set in a match that lasted 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Soderling dropped the first set on an early break, but turned the tables after fighting through the second and sweeping the third against his 60th-ranked opponent. German Florian Mayer got stuck into an opening-day marathon, requiring almost three hours to advance over Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (8/6).
The marathon took up most of the afternoon inside the Ahoy stadium in contrast to the day’s opening contest when Italy’s Andreas Seppi defeated Swiss qualifier Stephane Bohli 6-1, 7-5 in a shade less than 90 minutes.
“I had chances in the second set [match point] and led 3-0 in the third,” said the 63rd-ranked Mayer, who lost in the Australian Open third round to US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, “I couldn’t hold onto to either one. In the end I was just lucky to win.”
Mayer’s victory marked the third straight match that Tipsarevic had been beaten by a German. He went out in the Zagreb opening round to eventual finalist Michael Berrer and lost in the second round of the Australian open against Tommy Haas — who received a US passport a few weeks ago.
Tipsarevic has now lost three of four career matches in Rotterdam dating back to 2007.
Tipsarevic’s countryman Novak Djokovic is the top seed as he strives to hang onto his new world No. 2 ranking on the ATP list behind Roger Federer.
■PATTAYA OPEN
PATTAYA, THAILAND
Germany’s second seed, Sabine Lisicki, needed just 32 minutes to advance to the second round of the Pattaya Open on Monday when her opponent Akgul Amanmuradova from Uzbekistan retired injured. Lisicki was leading 5-0 when the trainer was called to administer on-court treatment to her Uzbek rival who was suffering from a stomach muscle injury. After dropping the next game, Amanmuradova conceded the match.
Russian Anna Chakvetadze earned a welcome 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory over American Jill Craybas but was still unhappy with her form.
The Russian has struggled for some time to recover the form that once took her as high as world No. 5. Now she is ranked 74 as her slump that began after the 2008 US Open has extended from last year into this season.
Last month she was beaten by Date Krumm in the first round in Auckland, and she then failed even to survive the qualifying rounds in Hobart. At the Australian Open she fell to 12th-ranked Flavia Pennetta in the first round.
“I just didn’t feel the ball,” Chakvetadze said. “I don’t know what happened. I think I have to go and hit more balls today because it’s really tough to win matches if you play like this. I came just a couple of days ago from Russia and it’s a little tough for me, you know. But that’s not an excuse. I have to play better if I want to win some matches.”
Wimbledon junior champion Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand led South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers by a set and 4-1 but then fell 6-7 (9-11), 6-4, 6-4 in a battle that stretched to two hours 40 minutes.
■BRAZIL OPEN
AP, COSTA DO SAUIPE, BRAZIL
Second-seeded Albert Montanes of Spain has opened his clay-court season with a 6-2, 7-6 (2) win over German Simon Greul on the first day of the Brazil Open.
Fellow Spaniard Daniel Jimeno-Traver also reached the second round on Monday, beating Spanish countryman Santiago Ventura 7-6 (7), 6-1. In the day’s other match, wild card Ricardo Mello of Brazil beat Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-2, 7-5.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but