Frederico Gil of Portugal, ranked 120th in the world, upset sixth-seeded Florian Mayer 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in the first round of the Estoril Open on Tuesday.
Fifth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beat Xavier Malisse 6-2, 7-6 (7), and eighth-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay rallied to defeat Pablo Andujar of Spain 1-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Alberto Martin, Daniel Gimeno-Traver and Bjorn Phau also advanced against unseeded opponents.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Top-ranked Roger Federer has a bye into the second round of the clay-court tournament.
In the women’s event, second-seeded Sorana Cirstea overcame Iona Raluca Olaru 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
Fourth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues trounced Portugal’s Magali de Lattre 6-0, 6-0. Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland beat fifth-seeded Melinda Czink 6-4, 6-3, and Jarmila Groth of Australia downed sixth-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4, 6-3.
PHOTO: EPA
Portugal’s Michelle Larcher de Brito defeated Alize Cornet of France, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, while Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, beat another Portuguese player, 17-year-old Maria Joao Koehler 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
■MUNICH ATP
AFP, MUNICH, GERMANY
Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis had to come from a set down to book his place in the second round of the Munich ATP tournament on Tuesday before heavy rain affected play.
The 24-year-old, who made the Australian Open final in 2006, made a slow start to the game with seven double faults in the first set alone, but rallied for an ultimately comfortable 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk.
Baghdatis, who broke into the world’s top ten in 2008, needed a little over an hour and a half to see off his 20-year-old opponent, ranked 384th in the world.
The fifth-seeded Cypriot will now play Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli in the second round.
The Swiss needed just 52 minutes to beat France’s Thierry Ascione 6-0, 6-4 in their one-sided first-round tie, while Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer made a first-round exit at the hands of compatriot Simon Greul, 7-5, 6-2.
The Munich tournament’s top seed Marin Cilic, ranked 11th in the world, had been due to face Germany’s Michael Berrer on Tuesday evening, but heavy afternoon rain forced several matches to be postponed until yesterday.
■SERBIA OPEN
AP, BELGRADE
Richard Gasquet of France and eighth-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy advanced to the second round of the Serbia Open on Tuesday.
Gasquet routed Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-0, 6-1, while Seppi rallied to beat Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Serbian wild card Filip Krajinovic scored his first ATP Tour victory by defeating Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 5-7, 7-6 (7), 6-1.
Italy’s Alessio Di Mauro saved two match points before downing Marko Djokovic 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-0. Djokovic is a younger brother of defending champion Novak Djokovic. Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia pulled out of the tournament because of unspecified health problems.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
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