Former Champ Robredo Bounced in Germany; Blake and Dent Highlight Atlanta Play
July 20, 2010 · Print This Article
International German Open—Hamburg
Former champion and No. 11 seed Tommy Robredo was ousted from the second-round of the German Open on Tuesday by Potito Starace.
Losing the match 7-6(10), 5-7, 6-1, Robredo lost his first meeting against the Italian in sixth encounters. Needing two hours and 12 minutes to prevail, Starace won 74 percent of his first serve points, while striking four aces.
Improving to 16-16 on the year, Starace will next face either Pere Riba or recent Stuttgart champ Albert Montanes.
Robredo won the Hamburg event when it had Masters 1000 status in 2006.
Elsewhere, Florian Mayer reached the third-round after dismissing talented youngster Alexandr Dolgopolov 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Using his tricky two-handed drop shot to off set the rhythm of his Ukrainian opponent, Mayer recorded his 12th win of the season and will next face Albert Ramos-Vinolas or Maximo Gonzalez. Ramos-Vinolas took the spot of Gael Monfils after the Frenchman withdrew with an ankle injury.
Other second-round matches that will take place on Tuesday will include:
No. 1 seed Nikolay Davydenko vs. Florent Serra, Jan Hajek vs. No. 6 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, No. 9 seed Gilles Simon vs. Jarkko Nieminen, Andrey Golubev vs. Marcel Granollers, and Fabio Fognini vs. Marc Gicquel.
First-round results that were completed on day two action included:
Houston champ Juan Ignacio Chela defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-3; Andreas Seppi brushing aside Stephane Robert 6-4, 6-3, and Eduardo Schwank dismissing Tobias Kamke 6-3, 6-4.
Big serving German Daniel Brands will also be in action later today against countryman Julian Reister.
Atlanta Tennis Championships—Georgia
Two older statesmen of American tennis will lock horns today in Atlanta, Georgia. Once viewed as the future of USTA, James Blake and Taylor Dent have now moved into the twilight of their respective careers.
Both men have been struggling this year—recording under .500 records—while hovering in and out of the top 100.
For Blake, his year has been marred by injury, while Dent has enjoyed a new son as his highlight of the season. Blake does hold a 4-1 career head-to-head lead over Dent, which includes three wins on hard-courts. Blake did pick up a doubles victory with John Isner on Monday evening, but that result should mean very little on the singles court.
Blake’s go-for-broke return game will be tested severely by Dent’s serve, but the former world No. 4 still moves better than his younger opponent.
Elsewhere, Americans Ryan Sweeting, Donald Young, and Robby Ginepri will also be in action.
Sweeting will battle tough Belgium Xavier Malisse, Young (the home pride of Atlanta) will go up against rock-solid Dudi Sela, and Ginepri will challenge flamboyant Australian Nick Lindahl.
Other matches that will take on Tuesday will include:
No. 5 seed Janko Tipsarevic vs. Kevin Anderson, Michal Przysiezny vs. Giulles Muller, and Lukas Lacko vs. Igor Kunitsyn.
For updated scores on today’s matches, click the live-scores section, or for live streaming click here.
Robredo is moving the wrong way in his career.