Potito Starace Beat Ninth Seed Jeremy Chardy

Written by: Staff on 23rd April 2012

Potito Starace Beat Ninth Seed Jeremy Chardy

Potito Starace of Italy returns the ball to Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia during their quarterfinal match at the St. Petersburg Open ATP tennis tournament in St.Petersburg, Russia, 28 October 2011. EPA/ANATOLY MALTSEV |

Original story:http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2012/04/17/Bucharest-Monday-Starace-Beats-Chardy.aspx

Italian Potito Starace beat ninth seed Jeremy Chardy of France 6-3, 6-0 on Monday at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest. Starace dropped 12 points on his serve for victory in 65 minutes. It ended a three-match losing streak against Chardy, this year’s VTR Open semi-finalist (l. to Monaco).

“I played very well today,” said Starace. “I was solid. I’m really happy about this win since Chardy is a tough player and I never beat him before. I like the conditions here.

“The court and the ball is pretty fast. One of my cousins lives here and therefore I always like coming back to Bucharest. I have to go step-by-step but I hope to go far this week.”

Seventh-seeded Pole Lukasz Kubot saved nine of 10 break points to beat World No. 418 Gabriel Moraru of Romania 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 33 minutes.

Gilles Simon, the 2007 and 2008 titlist, and defending champion Florian Mayer headline the field at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Daniel Brands, Jurgen Zopp, Guillaume Rufin and Attila Balazs all qualified for the main draw.

Topics: 10sballs.com, BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest, French tennis news, Italian tennis news, Jeremy Chardy, Potito Starace, Sports, Tennis News