Mathieu out in round one

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:34

Frenchman Mathieu, the world number 37, was outplayed by unpredictable Serb Tipsarevic, going down 6-4 6-2.

Seventh seed Andreas Seppi was another casualty on the opening day of play, experienced Croat Ivan Ljubicic triumphing 7-6 (7/4) 7-5.

There were mixed fortunes for the USA in today’s other two first-round matches. Robby Ginepri beat Andrey Golubev 6-3 6-4 but Kevin Kim went down 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 to Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.

There was success for Britain in the final round of qualifying as Alex Bogdanovic defeated Julian Knowle 7-5 6-7 (8/10) 7-6 (7/1) to seal his place in the main draw of an ATP Tour event for the first time this year.

The main draw of the women’s event begins tomorrow but Mel South battled into the final round of qualifying with a 6-3 6-3 victory over former top-10 star Nicole Vaidisova.

She will face third seed Vera Dushevina for a place in the first round but Katie O’Brien’s hopes are over after she was beaten 6-4 6-2 by Ekaterina Makarova.

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