Moselle Open underway – Malisse break losing streak

Written by: Global Chick on 21st September 2011

Moselle Open underway – Malisse break losing streak

Belgian tennis player Xavier Malisse returns the ball to Austria's Andreas Haider-Maurer during their singles match on the first day of the Davis Cup World Group play off between Belgium and Austria in Antwerp, Belgium, 16 September 2011. EPA/JULIEN WARNAND BELGIUM OUT |

The Moselle Open in Metz, France is underway. The ATP World Tour 250 tournament saw 10sballs.com’s favourite player break a losing streak of seven matches since Wimbledon. The number six seed took out Germany’s Michael Berrer 6-4 3-6 6-4 to advance into the second round where he will face the winner of Igor Kunitsyn of Russia and French wildcard Kenny De Schepper.

Top seed Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s second round opponent will be French qualifier Mathieu Rdogrigues who had a surprise win over Mikhail Kukushkin in three sets. Another French player winning in the first round was Nicolas Mahut, who breezed past Argentina’s Diego Junqueira winning 6-3 6-2.

Another surprise win today was down to Dutchman Igor Sijsling who demolished Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-2 6-2. The French qualifiers and wildcards were having a great day with another two players making it through to the second round. Nicolas Renavand took out Tobias Kamke of Germany in two sets. Renavand’s second round opponent will be the number four seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia. Benoit Paire won 7-5 6-2 over the more experienced player Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 7-5 6-2.

ATP Tour veteran Olivier Rochus of Belgium stormed through with a win over Stephane Robert of France 6-1 6-3. Rochus will meet the number two seed Richard Gasquet of France. Gasquet leads 5 – 2 in matches and the last time the two players met was in Nice in 2010.

The Moselle Open doubles event has also kicked off. The number two seeds Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic and Marcel Melo of Brazil had a two set win over Croatian team Ivan Ljubicic and Lovro Zovko. Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Waske from Germany will play Melo and Dlouhy in the next round. Kohlmann and Waske beat James Cerretani of the United States and Philipp Marx of Germany 6-3 7-5.

The number four seeds British duo Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins were given a walkover by Germany’s Matthias Bachinger and Tobias Kamke to proceed into the second round.

Australia’s Paul Hanley and Dick Norman of Belgium suffered a surprise defeat in the first round. French wildcards Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Renavand took the match in two tiebreak sets.

SCHEDULE – WEDNESDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER, 2011

CENTRE COURT start 12:00 noon

[7] P Kohlschreiber (GER) vs [Q] J Dasnieres de Veigy (FRA)

[8] G Muller (LUX) vs [WC] B Paire (FRA)

Not Before 4:00 PM

[WC] A Clement (FRA) vs [5] M Llodra (FRA)

Not Before 6:00 PM

[3] A Dolgopolov (UKR) vs M Baghdatis (CYP)

[Q] N Renavand (FRA) vs [4] I Ljubicic (CRO)

O Rochus (BEL) / M Zverev (GER) vs J Murray (GBR) / A Sa (BRA)

COURT 1 start 12:00 noon

I Kunitsyn (RUS) vs [WC] K de Schepper (FRA)