Juan Carlos Ferrero knocked out the last remaining seed at the Mercedes Cup when he beat No. 3 Mikhail Youzhny 6-7 (6/8), 6-2, 6-2 in the second round on Thursday.
Earlier, wild-card Lukasz Kubot of Poland came back to upset eighth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 for a place in the quarter-finals.
Garcia-Lopez and Youzhny, who won the clay-court tournament in 2002 for his first title, were the only two seeded players to make it into the second round.
Jeremy Chardy of France, the 2009 champion, also went out, losing to Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. Chardy won the first set when the match was suspended a day earlier because of rain, but Giraldo rallied when the match resumed on Thursday to win 1-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Qualifier Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 7-6 (8/6). Hanescu had defeated top-seeded Gael Monfils in the first round.
Federico del Bonis of Argentina, another qualifier, defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3.
Wild-card Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, who comes from near Stuttgart, upset French Open quarter-finalist Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-6 (7/5), 6-4. Stebe posted his first win on the ATP Tour in the first round by upsetting Nikolay Davydenko.
Marcel Granollers of Spain defeated Benoit Paire of France 6-4, 7-5.
SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, SWEDEN
Second-seeded David Ferrer reached the Swedish Open quarter-finals by beating countryman Pere Riba 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) in a late-night match on Thursday.
Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia advanced in a walkover when his opponent, Argentina’s Juan Monaco, withdrew from the tournament.
Other second-round matches were postponed until yesterday because of rain over the clay courts in Bastad.
GASTEIN LADIES
AP, BAD GASTEIN, AUSTRIA
Sybille Bammer lost the final match of her career 6-2, 6-1 to fellow Austrian Yvonne Meusburger in the second round of the Gastein Ladies on Thursday.
The 31-year-old Bammer, who reached a career-high ranking of 19th in 2007, retired from professional tennis after losing in the first round at Wimbledon last month, but then decided to play her final tournament at the Austrian clay-court event. A two-time WTA Tour winner, she never fared well in Austrian WTA events.
“I will take a break now and enjoy some time off with my family,” said Bammer, who has a nine-year-old daughter. “I won’t regret my decision ... A comeback like Thomas Muster is having won’t happen with me.”
Bammer broke Meusburger in the opening game, but immediately lost her own serve and again at 2-3 down. From then on, 2007 finalist Meusburger dominated.
“We had a lot of good rallies, but Yvonne just played better,” Bammer said.
Meusburger will next take on Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain, who defeated Sandra Zahlavova of Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2 to enter her second straight quarter-final after Bastad, Sweden, last week.
Dia Evtimova of Bulgaria rallied to beat Austrian wild-card Nikola Hofmanova 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach her first career quarter-final.
The 239th-ranked Evtimova, who won two titles on the lower-ranked ITF circuit this year, next plays Patricia Mayr-Archleitner of Austria, who defeated Petra Martic of Croatia 6-1, 6-4.
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