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.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two