Baghdatis and Anderson win Vienna openers – Two seeds out in St Petersburg

Written by: Global Chick on 25th October 2011

Baghdatis and Anderson win Vienna openers – Two seeds out in St Petersburg

South Africa's Kevin Anderson hits a return against opponent Andy Roddick of the USA during their first round match at the China Open in Beijing, China, 03 October 2011. EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL |

South African Kevin Anderson started his week at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna with a win over hometown favourite Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-4 6-4. The World No. 32 broke his Austrian opponent once in each set to advance into the second round.

Cyriot Marcos Baghdatis will be next for the South African. Baghdatis defeated American Ryan Sweeting 6-4 6-2. “It felt great. I am really happy the way I fought today. Ryan was playing pretty good and I fought good and found a way to win, which is the most important thing, and I’m very happy about that, the World No. 59 said.

The last time the very popular Cypriot with the big smile won a tournament was in Sydney in 2010. A couple of weeks ago Baghdatis reached the final of Malaysian Open losing to Janko Tipsarevic.

The Erste Bank Open tournament organisers gave a wildcard to Austrian veteran Thomas Muster. The former world number one will be on court tomorrow against fellow Austrian qualifier Dominic Thiem.

Only one first round doubles match was played yesterday in Vienna. Italian duo Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini crushed Austrian wildcards Gerald Melzer and Dominic Thiem 6-0 6-3.

The field in the doubles is very strong with Bob and Mike Bryan being the top seeds and Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor seeded No. 2.

SCHEDULE – TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER, 2011  CENTRE COURT start 1:00 pm [

WC] M Fischer (AUT) vs [Q] D Brands (GER)

Not Before 3:00 PM

[5] J Chela (ARG) vs [Q] T Haas (GER)

G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) vs J Blake (USA)

Not Before 6:30 PM

[WC] T Muster (AUT) vs [WC] D Thiem (AUT)

Not Before 7:30 PM

M Lopez (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) vs [WC] A Haider-Maurer (AUT) / P Oswald (AUT)

COURT B start 1:00 pm

[Q] A Bedene (SLO) vs I Karlovic (CRO)

T Robredo (ESP) vs [8] F Fognini (ITA)

P Andujar (ESP) vs P Petzschner (GER)  A Ramos (ESP) vs X Malisse (BEL)

Not Before 7:30 PM

E Butorac (USA) / J Rojer (AHO) vs [2] M Mirnyi (BLR) / D Nestor (CAN)

Monday wasn’t a good day for the seeds at the St Petersburg Open in Russia. First time visitor and top seed Gilles Simon was taken out by fellow Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the first round 2-6 6-4 6-4. Mannarino who is currently ranked No. 86 is limiting Simon’s chances of qualifying for the Barclays ATP Word Tour Finals in London.

Mannarino will face the winner of Latvian wildcard Ernests Gulbis and Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic.

Israel’s Dudi Sela caused the other upset of the day when he flattened World No. 16 Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2 6-2. Sela received a wildcard into the main draw this week. Dolgopolov will not struggle to qualify for the London event.

Italian Potito Starace hardly broke a sweat in his first round win over Russian wildcard Ivan Nedelko. Starace spent 45 minutes on court and lost one game during that time.

Former Top 10 player Mikhail Youzhny overcame the 2009 St Petersburg Open Champion Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3 7-6 (7). The Russian will now face the winner of Pere Riba of Spain and Julien Benneteau of France.

Yesterday in the main draw doubles two teams went through to the second round. James Cerretani and Philipp Marx defeated Julien Benneteau and Jamie Murray 10-5 in the third set match tiebreak.

Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Waske reached the second round by taking out Russian team Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov in straight sets.

SCHEDULE – TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER, 2011  CENTRE COURT start 1:00 pm

M Kukushkin (KAZ) vs M Berrer (GER)

[7] A Bogomolov Jr. (USA) vs I Kunitsyn (RUS)

M Mertinak (SVK) / M Youzhny (RUS) vs [4] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR)

Not Before 7:00 PM

[WC] E Gulbis (LAT) vs L Rosol (CZE)

[8] D Tursunov (RUS) vs [Q] T Gabashvili (RUS)

COURT 1 start 1:00 pm

P Riba (ESP) vs J Benneteau (FRA)

[4] M Cilic (CRO) vs [Q] S Bubka (UKR)

S Devvarman (IND) vs K Beck (SVK)