Top seed Robredo leads charge of seeds into second round

Mumbai, Sep 27 (UNI) Tommy Robredo led the charge of the seeded players into the second round of the 3,80,000 dollar Kingfisher Airlines Open tennis tournament as he brushed aside the challenge of Alexander Peya of Austria in straight sets at 6-4, 6-2.

For India their challenge ended in the singles draw when wildcarder Akash Wagh went down gallantly to the number four seed Dimitry Tursunov of Russia at 2-6, 5-7.

Third seed Tomas Berdych also had an easy ride into the second round overwhelming his opponent Lukasz Kubot in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.

Tommy Roberdo totally outplayed Alexander Peya who had no answer to the power play of the world number seven. Peya, however still managed to keep himself in the first set before giving away a crucial break which was enough for the top seed to pocket the first set at 6-4.

With this set under his belt, Robredo piled on the pressure on Peya and raced to a 4-0 lead with breaks in the first and third games. Peya managed to put up a semblance of a fight and did earn a break point when down 5-2, but the power and precision of Robredo was too much for him as the top seed won the set and the match when Peya put a return of serve into the net.

In another match Nicolas Devilder of France needed three sets to quell the challenge of South African Rik De Voest winning at 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

The left-handed 16-year-old Akash Wagh playing his first match on the men's tour, stretched world No 23 Dmitry Tursunov before going down 2-6, 5-7 in the first round.

Tursunov, coming in from a marathon four-hour 48-minute battle against Andy Roddick in the Davis Cup semi-finals, did not look in best shape though he managed to outpace the Indian youngster. He made a lot of errors on his backhand and seemed surprised by some of the pacy serves by Wagh.

The 16-year-old lost his serve in the very first game and then again lost it in the fifth game to hand over the first set to the fourth seed in just 21 minutes.

Wagh however, never seemed overawed by the situation. He didn't care for his opponent's reputation and focused on the job at hand.

the youngster had a chance to break Tursunov in the first game of the second set but the Russian served two aces to level at deuce.

The players traded breaks in the next two games, with Wagh showing great power to stay in the rallies and induce errors from the Russian.

The set went on serve till 5-5 till a double-fault by Wagh gave Tursunov a break point. He grabbed the chance and served out the match easily, taking the second set 7-5.

''I went for my shots; I had nothing to lose,'' said Wagh, who last December shifted to Bangalore from Pune in order to train at the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy.

''I need to work on my fitness because I know I am hitting the ball well. I made errors on my forehand because I was not positioned well. But if I play him again I won't make as many mistakes.'' In a first round doubles match J Auckland and J Delgado of Britain defeated S Galvani and D Sanguinetti of Italy in a tough three setter at 6-3, 5-7, 10-8.

Delgado and Auckland ran away with the first set at 6-3. However the Italian pair came back strongly to take the second set at 7-5.

The third set saw both the pairs not wanting to make the first mistake as the match went into a super tie-breaker which Auckland and Delgado won 10-8 to move into the second round.

Results: Singles First Round: (1) Tommy Robredo (Esp) bt Alexander Peya (Aut) 6-4, 6-2; (3) Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Lukasz Kubot (Pol) 6-2, 6-2; (4) Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) bt Akash Wagh (Ind) 6-2, 7-5; Nicolas Devilder (Fra) bt Rik De Voest (RSA) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 Doubles first round: James Auckland/Jamie Delgado (Gbr) bt Stefano Galvani/Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 UNI GS MJ DH KP2112