Fish avoids early upset

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:20

The top-seeded Fish saved four of the five break points he faced and converted three of his nine to win the first career matchup between the two.

The world number 20 will face countryman Vincent Spadea in the next round.

The difficult start of the season for Ernests Gulbis continued against popular Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis as the number three seed suffered a 7-5 6-2 setback. The Latvian has now lost all three career meetings with Baghdatis, who blasted 13 aces to just one double fault.

Fourth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn also was eliminated in an upset by qualifier and fellow Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-4 7-6 (7/3).

A pair of former champions were also knocked out in the first round as unseeded German Tommy Haas (2006) was defeated by number seven seed Jeremy Chardy of France 7-6 (9/7) 6-3, while Australian wild card Lleyton Hewitt (1999) was upended by eighth-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 7-5 2-6 6-2.

Elsewhere Evan King, a 16-year-old American wild card, lost in his ATP tour debut 6-2 6-4 to Andrey Golubev.

Dudi Sela also advanced when German Philipp Petzschner retired trailing 2-6 1-4. Vincent Spadea also continues after coming back from a set down to top German Denis Gremelmayr 2-6 7-5 6-1 and grab his first win of the season.

Germany’s Mischa Zverev and Gilles Muller of Luxembourg also moved into the second round, defeating American qualifiers Taylor Dent and Ryan Sweeting, respectively.

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