By Anand Philar, IANS
Chennai : World No.2 and top seed Spaniard Rafael Nadal scored his 6-2, 6-4 win against unheralded Frenchman Mathieu Montcourt and advanced to the second round of the $436,000 ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament, here Tuesday.
The 21-year-old Nadal’s victory brought some cheer to the crowd that was left disappointed following the shock defeat of second seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus who went down 6-3, 6-4 to Robin Haase of the Netherlands earlier.
Though not at his very best in the match that lasted for one-hour and 38 minutes match Nadal, the reigning French Open champion, still carried enough firepower to cut down Montcourt, ranked 123 on the ATP tour.
The only hiccup for the southpaw Spaniard was when he dropped serve in the eighth game of the second set as the 22-year-old Montcourt saved a couple of match points and then held serve to move from 2-5 to 4-5. However, Nadal served out the match in the 10th.
Earlier, Haase, the 6.3 feet tall 20-yearold from Netherlands and ranked No.114, used his booming serve to good effect even as Baghdatis struggled to find his rhythm, unable to counter the power game of his opponent.
So much so that Baghdatis, 22, was barely on pace with his rival as he committed far too many unforced errors besides blowing chances to come back into the match that lasted for one hour and 23 minutes.
Haase, who had lost to Baghdatis in three games in Montreal last year, began well with a break of serve in the very first game of the first set. The only time Baghdatis, finalist at the 2006 Australian Open, looked anywhere close to his best was in the sixth game that he won on a couple of good serves and well-angled winners.
But then, Haase sustained the early momentum to wrap up the set in 33 minutes and went on to break Baghdatis in the second game of the next to go 2-0 up.
Under pressure, Baghdatis continued to blunder. His best chance of staging a comeback was in the sixth game that went to deuce five times with Baghdatis throwing away three breakpoints when ahead 40-0 on Haase’s serve.
The next couple of games went to serve and Haase appeared poised to pocket the match leading 5-4 on serve. But Baghdatis saved six matchpoints before netting a forehand to present Haase a memorable win.
While the highly-rated Baghdatis, who was among top 10 ranked players in 2006, appeared rather flat and jaded, Haase built his game around his serve and crunching groundstrokes from the backcourt.
Haase paid tributes to Baghdatis. “He is a great player. I was a bit lucky today. I was surprised at the number of mistakes he made,” said Haase after the match.
Regarding the number of deuces in the final game of the match, he said: “I was a bit nervous and either over hit or miss hit my shots. But then, I played the big points well and I thought I served well. I also did not hesitate in going for my shots.”
He admitted that today’s win was one of his biggest ever. “I had beaten Berdych (No.10) in Montreal before losing to Baghdatis in three sets in the next round,” said Haase.
For Baghdatis, his second appearance in the tournament was as disastrous as the first in 2005 when he lost in the first round.
“I don’t think my defeat today had anything to do with the heat or court conditions. I just did not play well and my game had no rhythm. Also, my opponent served well and played good tennis. He had nothing to lose and for me, it was my first match in two months. I guess, it will take some time for me to get back my form,” said Baghdatis after the shock defeat.
He said he committed far too many mistakes. “My game from the backcourt was not solid enough and I gave away far too many easy points. Haase made the best of the chances. I tried different things, but nothing worked for me today,” he said.
On the outside courts, eight seed Marc Gicquel (France) lost his first round match 7-6 (5), 6-4 to Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) while seventh seed Werner Eschauer (Austria) overcame wild card Bartolome Salva-Vidal (Spain) 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-4.
Also through to the second round was qualifier Lovro Zovko (Croatia) who ousted Theirry Ascione (France) 6-4, 6-0.
Later, two times champion and third seed Carlos Moya (Spain) ousted Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia) 6-2, 6-1, in just 65 minutes while Nicolas Mahut, the fifth seeded Frenchman, packed off Denis Gremelmayr (Germany) 6-3, 6-3.
Late last night, the Amritraj cousins, Stephen and Prakash, lost 6-2, 7-6 (4) to Jaroslav Levinsky (Czechoslovakia) and Michal Mertinak (Slovakia) in a first round match of the doubles competition.