Taiwan’s Peng Hsien-yin fell at the first hurdle at the Estoril Open on Tuesday, exiting in the first round of the doubles.
Peng and his partner, Gong Mao-xin of China, fell to a comprehensive 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Gilles Muller of Luxemburg and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan in 1 hour, 2 minutes.
Muller and Qureshi saved four of the five break-point chances the cross-strait duo managed to manufacture, while converting four of nine to wrap up the straight-sets victory and set up a quarter-final against either fourth seeds Nicholas Monroe of the US and Artem Sitak of New Zealand, or Martin Emmrich of Germany and Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden.
Photo: EPA
In the singles, fifth seed Richard Gasquet and Australian seventh seed Nick Kyrgios made winning starts, as both players began gathering confidence for the clay-court run to Roland Garros.
Gasquet marked a victorious return after nearly six weeks out with a back injury as the Frenchman beat Marinko Matosevic of Australia 7-6 (9/7), 6-1.
The former world No. 7, currently ranked 28th, took less than 90 minutes to dispatch the world No. 82 in the opening round.
Kyrgios managed to avoid the fate he suffered last week in Barcelona as he also competed for the first time in a month-and-a-half, missing out on two match points before securing his win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/3).
A week ago, Kyrgios lost in the first round after holding match points against Sweden’s Elias Ymer in Barcelona. This time, the Aussie held his nerve after missing on his pair of match-winners in the 12th game of the third set.
Instead, the player who turned 20 on Monday came back in the tiebreaker for a 5-3 lead and served out the victory.
“When I was down a break in the third set, I was struggling, but somehow I broke back in the tiebreaker. It was a fun match in the end and I’m very pleased to get through. I was frustrated at the end of the second set. I’ve not played a lot of tennis in the last few months,” said Kyrgios, who rolled his ankle last month after returning from back problems.
“Having match points last week and not converting did not help the confidence. I just need to play a lot more matches right now,” he said.
Gasquet was one of two French winners as qualifier Kenny de Schepper put out Portugal’s Gastao Elias 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to move into a second-round meeting with Gasquet.
Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta advanced over Constant Lestienne of France 6-3, 6-1; two-time champion Albert Montanes beat Austria’s Martin Fisher 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez put out Roberto Carballes Baena 6-2, 6-2; and wild card Rui Machado beat Portuguese compatriot Joao Sousa 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
Gasquet has played a pair of finals in Portugal, losing to Novak Djokovic in 2007 and Juan Martin del Potro in 2012.
Gasquet last took to a court on cement in Indian Wells on March 15, retiring with a herniated disc in his back against Germany’s Michael Berrer in the second round.
The 28-year-old improved to 11-4 on the season after his winning debut on clay.
“I’m feeling better, it’s as important for me to finish the match as win,” Gasquet said. “I’m feeling better than a week ago, I’m more confident with my body. I’m very happy with the way I won today. I had no pain, but recovery is a long process. I have nothing to lose and can only get better. I need to play as many matches as possible. I’m feeling good now, but I had this injury for three months last year and it came back this year. It’s in my head a bit, it’s tough to play right now without thinking about it.”
Gasquet finished with nine aces and three breaks of serve. He won the opening set in a tiebreaker and broke early to dominate the second on the way to victory.
Matosevic saved match points and forced the seed to salvage a break point in the final game, before Gasquet claimed the win.
ISTANBUL OPEN
AP, ISTANBUL, Turkey
Ivan Dodig of Croatia had nine aces as he beat fifth seed Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria 7-5, 6-3 to reach the second round of the inaugural Istanbul Open on Tuesday.
Dodig saved six of the seven break points he faced and broke Haider-Maurer’s serve four times.
In other matches, sixth seed Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan saved seven of eight break-point chances on his serve as he beat countryman Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6-3, 6-4, while eighth seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina broke qualifier Blaz Kavcic’s serve seven times in a 6-2, 6-1 win.
World No. 2 Roger Federer was due to be in second-round action yesterday, when the Swiss star was looking to improve to 15-0 in career matches against Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen.
Nieminen advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan.
In other first-round matches, there were wins for Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Russia’s Andrey Rublev, Austria’s Jurgen Melzer, Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin, Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili and Dusan Lajovic of Serbia.
Melzer was 5-2 up against Steve Darcis when the Belgian player retired with a wrist injury.
BMW OPEN
AP, MUNICH, Germany
Wild-card entry Janko Tipsarevic rallied to beat sixth seed Bernard Tomic 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7/3) in the first round of the BMW Open on Tuesday.
Tipsarevic, once ranked eighth in the world, is making a comeback after being sidelined for 17 months following two surgeries to remove a benign tumor from his left foot.
After the start of play was delayed for several hours because of rain, Tipsarevic overcame cool conditions to win in just over two hours. He served 11 aces to Tomic’s five.
Fifth seed Philip Kohlschreiber eased into the second round with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Jiri Vesely, while Lukas Rosol, Dominic Thiem, Radek Stepanek and Sergiy Stakhovsky also advanced.
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