Seeds book third round berths in Kingfisher Airlines Open

Mumbai, Sept 27 (UNI) All the seeded players booked their berths in the third round of the 416,000 dollar Kingfisher Airline Open tennis tournament at the CCI hard courts here today.

J Nieminen, Fabrice Santoro and S Koubek, the fourth, fifth and sixth seeds respectively scored over their rivals in the second round.

J Nieminen proved too strong for qualifier T Matsui of Japan winning in straight sets at 6-0, 6-4, while the fifth seed Santoro had to quell a strong challenge from countrymate Nicolas Devilder of France, scoring a come from behind three set victory over him at 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Koubek also was forced to go the distance in his match against Bjorn Phau of Germany, losing the opening set at 4-6 but he came back strongly to win the next two at 6-3, 7-5 to book his third round berth.

Meanwhile, wildcarder N Kiefer of France, who at one point was ranked as high as number four in the world before being saddled by injuries swept past Y Lu of Taipei at 6-3, 6-3 to move into the third round.

The eighth seed Olivier Rochus of Belgian was another seed to enter the third round when he beat Ivan Navarro of Spain at 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Navarro in the morning had ended the Indian challenge by beating lucky loser Purav Raja in straight sets at 6-4, 6-1 in a match carried over from yesterday.

Earlier, in the morning, former world number 1 and second seed here, Lleyton Hewitt cruised into the second round defeating Taipei qualifier Ti Chen 6-3, 6-3.

Results: Singles second round: S Koubek (Aut) bt Bjorn Phau (Ger) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; J Nieminen (Cze) bt T Matsui (Jpn) 6-0, 6-4; Fabrice Santoro (Fra) bt Nicolas Devilder (Fra) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2; N Kiefer (Fra) bt Y Lu (Tpe) 6-3, 6-3, Olivier Rochus (Bel) bt. Ivan Navarro (Esp) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Singles first round: L Hewitt (Aus) beat Ti Chen (Tpe) 6-3, 6-3; Ivan Navarro (Spn) beat Purav Raja (Ind) 6-4, 6-1; Boris Pashanksi (Ser) beat Sergio Roitman (Arg) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

UNI