Second-seeded Alex Bogomolov Jr of Russia beat wild card Dino Marcan of Croatia 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the second round of the Zagreb Indoors on Tuesday.
Bogomolov reached the quarterfinals in Zagreb last year and was untroubled by Marcan, who was making his debut on the ATP Tour.
In November last year, Bogomolov decided to play for the country of his birth, Russia, rather than the US, where he has lived and trained since 1992.
Another Russian, third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, also advanced to the second round, defeating 2008 champion Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
Youzhny wasted two match points at 5-4, allowing Stakhovsky to break and force a tiebreaker.
Sixth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus rallied to beat Lukas Rosol from Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Baghdatis wasted a 4-0 lead in the first set, and saved three break points at the start of the second.
Eighth-seeded Croat Ivo Karlovic, known for his hard serve, hit two aces less than his opponent Blaz Kavcic from Slovenia, but still won in two sets 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
Poland’s Lukasz Kubot defeated Matteo Viola from Italy 6-2, 6-1, while two-time finalist Michael Berrer of Germany ousted Marco Chiudinelli from Switzerland 7-6 (7/3), 6-1. Berrer next faces top-seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic. Jurgen Melzer from Austria easily advanced against Philipp Petzschner of Germany, 6-1, 6-3.
? OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
AP, MONTPELLIER, France
Feliciano Lopez beat Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Open Sud de France.
The fifth-seeded Spaniard finished with 19 aces, earning the only break of the match in the third game of the opening set. He then jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second-set tiebreaker.
Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland also advanced.
The seventh-seeded Kohlschreiber broke serve twice in each set to defeat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 6-4. French qualifier Maxime Teixeira saved 11 break points, but still lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to the eighth-seeded Nieminen, who won the Sydney International last month.
Flavio Cipolla of Italy, American veteran Michael Russell and Frenchmen Paul-Henri Mathieu, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Nicolas Mahut and Florent Serra also moved into the second round.
Cipolla rallied past Marc Gicquel of France 1-6, 6-4, 7-5, Russell dismissed Adrian Mannarino of France 6-3, 7-5, and Mathieu beat Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany 6-4, 6-4 to earn his first victory this year after missing the 2011 season because of a knee injury.
Roger-Vasselin downed Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain 7-5, 6-2, Serra ousted Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-3, 6-3, and Mahut was hardly troubled in his 6-3, 6-2 win over Albert Ramos of Spain.
? VINA DEL MAR
AP, VINA DEL MAR, Chile
Albert Montanes of Spain and Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, the only seeded players in action on Tuesday in the Vina Del Mar VTR Open, reached the second-round with few problems.
The fifth-seeded Berlocq defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain, 7-5, 6-0, and No. 7 Montanes won over fellow Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-2, 6-4.
The tournament is the first in a month-long stretch of clay-court events across Latin America.
The top four seeded players in the tournament have byes into the second round. Juan Monaco of Argentina is seeded No. 1 and countryman Juan Ignacio Chela is the second seed.
Brazilian player Thomaz Bellucci is No. 3 and Pablo Andujar of Spain is No. 4.
In other action on Tuesday, Frederico Gil of Portugal defeated Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, and Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil recovered from a poor start to defeat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina, 0-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Also, Jeremy Chardy of France beat countryman Eric Prodon 6-4, 6-3, and Argentine Horacio Zeballos defeated Adrian Unger of Romania 6-0, 7-5.
Local favorite Fernando Gonzalez of Chile won against Pere Riba of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, and Diego Junqueira of Argentina defeated Ricardo Mello of Brazil 6-4, 6-2.
Argentine Federico defeated Chilean Nicolas Massu 6-0, 6-3.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB