Davydenko eases his way back

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:17

The Russian third seed missed last month’s Australian Open with a heel injury but was relatively untroubled in a 6-3 6-2 win.

Another Russian, Dmitry Tursunov, was first on court on Monday morning and he became the first player to win a match at the newly-created ATP 500 level, cruising past qualifier Arnaud Clement 6-0 6-3.

Dutch wild card Thiemo de Bakker came close to upsetting world number 36 Andreas Seppi but the Italian rallied to win a deciding tie-break.

De Bakker, ranked more than 200 places below his opponent, took the first set on a tie-break but Seppi upped his game in the second set to draw level.

The home hope refused to roll over, however, and pushed Seppi all the way before he eventually sealed a 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 7-6 (7/1) victory.

Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny was the other winner on the opening day, defeating French qualifier Laurent Recouderc 6-4 6-4.

Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal and second seed Andy Murray will both be in action tomorrow against Simone Bolelli and Ivan Ljubicic respectively.

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