Sports / Tennis |
Youzhny and Ferrero make early Austrian exits(Reuters)Updated: 2007-07-26 09:38
Russian second seed Mikhail Youzhny and Spanish third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero were both dumped out of the Austrian Open on Wednesday after defeats in their opening matches. The two seeds had received byes into the second round but failed to progress, with Youzhny suffering a one-sided 7-5 6-0 loss to local favourite Alexander Peya. Ferrero was beaten 7-6 4-6 6-2 by in-form Italian Andreas Seppi. "I started well but I was actually very tired from all the matches I have played this year," said Youzhny after surrendering the last eight games without reply. Ferrero put up a stronger fight against Seppi, an Italian from the mountainous South Tyrol region who appears to save his best tennis for high altitude tournaments. Having reached his first ATP final in the Swiss Alpine resort of Gstaad less than two weeks ago, the 23-year-old world number 86 demonstrated his ability once again on Wednesday by shrugging off a second-set loss to break Ferrero twice in the deciding set. Spanish top seed Tommy Robredo easily booked his spot in the third round with a 6-1 6-4 win over Argentina's Juan-Pablo Guzman, who was forced to play two matches on Wednesday following rain disruptions earlier in the week. Fourth seeded Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela faced a much tougher time before finally overcoming controversial Austrian opponent Daniel Koellerer 3-6 6-3 6-2. Known as "Crazy Daniel" by his fans, the world number 169 stretched the encounter to nearly three hours with a well-honed routine of line call challenges, racket-hurling and general time-wasting before finally giving way. Defending champion and sixth seed Agustin Calleri made the third round with a more straightforward 6-3 7-6 win over Austrian Rainer Eitzinger. Having beaten Eitzinger by a similar 7-6 6-3 scoreline in his opening match last year before going on to win the title, Calleri said he was hoping for history to repeat itself. "I saw the score was like the same so I am thinking that's a good thing," said the Argentine with a grin. "I am also staying in the same hotel and even the same room as last year."
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