Top four seeds struggle through to quarterfinals in Mumbai Open

Mumbai, Sep 28 (UNI) The top seeds took their appointed places in the quarterfinals after coming through tough matches in the second round of the 3,80,000 dollar Kingfisher Airlines Open tennis tournament being played at the CCI courts here today.

The only seed to be shown the door today was number eighth seed Weslie Moodie of South Africa who lost a close match against qualifier James Auckland of Britain 6-7, 6-7.

With the early loss of fifth seed Carlos Moya and seventh seed Juan Monaco of Argentina, five of the eight seeds have proceeded into the quarterfinals.

Top seed Tommy Robredo survived a scare from Michael Berrer of Germany before scoring a come from behind victory after dropping the first set to win in three at 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Robredo started off slowly dropping his serve early on to go down 1-2 in the first set. He, however managed to break back to level the score at 3-3.

Berrer however was not to be denied as he kept the world number 7 pinned to the baseline with powerful shots. The German broke the top seed again to pocket the first set at 7-5 and raise hopes of a major upset in the tournament.

However, Robredo came into his own in the second set as he started serving well and his groundstrokes also started working pocketing the second set at 6-2.

Berrer by this time looked sapped in this humid climate but still put up a brave fight before giving in to the top seed 4-6 in the third. The Spaniard thus entered the quartefinals where he will take on Ramon Delgado.

Second seed Mario Ancic raced through the first set to wrap it up 6-1 but was met with a stiff resistance from Italian Stefano Galvani in the second set which went to the tie-breaker before the world number 11 finally booked his place in the quarters with a 8-6 win in the tie-breaker. Ancic won at 6-1, 7-6 (6).

Ancic looked like wrapping the match early as his serve and ground strokes working for him in the first set which he wrapped up at 6-1.

However, Galvani did a good rearguard action in the second troubling Ancic with his return of serve and the Italian himself serving well.

The set saw both the players holding onto their serve thus forcing the tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker, the two traded early mini-breaks as the score went to 6-6. A superb rally saw Ancic score a winner with a cross court backhand which gave the Italian no chance to get another minibreak and go up 7-6. Ancic completed his victory when Galvani put a forehand into the net.

Ancic will now meet Stephen Koubek of Austria who beat Nicolas Devilder of France in straight sets at 7-5, 6-3.

Fourth seed Dmitry Tursunov survived a huge scare before overcoming Kristian Pless of Denmark before booking his quarterfinal berth in a tough three setter 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3, while tird seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic though not being his fluent self still packed enough guns to beat the challenge of Simon Greul of Germany in straight sets at 7-6 (4), 6-4 to book a quarterfinal berth.

Also making it to the quarterfinals was number six seed Bjorn Phau of Germany who beat qualifier G Motomura of Japan in straight sets at 6-3, 6-3. Phau will now clash with Berdych for a place in the semis.

In other matches qualifier James Auckland scored an upset win over the eighth seed Weslie Moddie of South Africa 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), while Ramon Delgado of Paraguay won after his opponent for the second time in two matches had to retire following an injury. Juan Martin Del Potro who had upset the number five seed Moya in the first round had to retire while trailing 3-6, 1-4 following a stomach ailment.

Results: Singles second round: (3) Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt. Simon Greul (Ger) 7-6, 6-4; (6) Bjorn Phau bt Gouichi Motomura 6-3, 6-3; (4) Dmitry Tursunov bt Kristian Pless (Den) 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3; Ramon Delgado bt Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) 6-3, 4-1 (Potro retires due to stomach ailment); James Auckland bt (8) Weslie Moodie (RSA) 7-6, 7-6; (2) Mario Ancic (Cro) bt Stefano Galvani (Ita) 6-1, 7-6 (6); Stefan Koubek (Aut) bt Nicolas Devilder (Fra) 7-5, 6-3; (1) Tommy Robredo (Esp) bt Michael Berrer (Ger) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Quarterfinal pairings: D Tursunov vs J Auckland; M Ancic vs S Koubek; T Berdych vs Bjorn Phau, Tommy Robredo vs R Delgado UNI GS MAZ AD RAI0248