Sport | Tennis

Contrasting wins for seeds

Three of the top eight seeds advanced to the next stage at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday.

  • By Alaric Gomes, Senior Reporter
  • Published: 00:36 March 5, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: Karl Jeffs/Gulf News
  • Second-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain, after an early lapse, regained his form to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.
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Dubai: Three of the top eight seeds advanced to the next stage of the men's competition at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday.

Third seed Novak Djokovic joined eighth seed Tomas Berdych along with second seed and tournament favourite Rafael Nadal moved up in contrasting styles.

Berdych hardly broke sweat for a 6-3, 6-2 win over French youngster Gael Monfils, while Nadal served out a three-set 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber. Djokovic hustled past Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-4, 6-3 to set up a meeting with crafty Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.

This tournament has already lost its top seed and four-time champion Roger Federer, who lost in three sets to Briton Andy Murray late on Monday.

Playing for the fourth straight year in Dubai, Kohlschreiber dominated the world No 2 with some accurate play in the first set, coming up with a break in the sixth for a 4-2 lead to go on to win the set 6-3 in 40 minutes.

In the second, Nadal regained his touch as he sized up his opponent to break him early for a 2-0 lead. The Spaniard then increased the tempo and took the set 6-1 to go into the deciding third.

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Nadal, a winner once here in 2006, broke in the fifth to go 3-2 up and then failed to hold serve. But he upped his effort in the rest of the set to win 6-4 in two hours and 23 minutes and set a second round meeting against qualifier Mikhail Ledovskikh of Russia.

Tougher draw

"I didn't play my best tennis, but I made sure I remained 100 per cent mentally," Nadal stated.

"It's never going to be easy as this draw is tougher than the Masters Series and Grand Slam," he added.

In the day's first match, Berdych was at his best winning 6-3, 6-2 against Frenchman Monfils, who is playing after more than six months off due to a knee injury.

"It is always pretty tough to play someone who is making a comeback as one does not know what to expect. But luckily I had a high percentage of first serves going in and that sort of helped me piece my game together," Berdych stated.

For Monfils, who was playing in only his second tournament for this season, Dubai was more of an experiment.

"The score was not that important to me as I wanted to be on court to get a feel of how it is to be playing again," said the 21-year-old.

"I need to get myself back in shape and then see what the rest of the season holds for me," he added.

Results:

Singles: Tomas Berdych bt Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-2; Mikhail Ledovskikh bt Mahmoud Nader 6-1, 6-1; Paul-Henri Mathieu bt Joseph Sirianni 6-4, 6-4; Olivier Rochus bt Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 6-2; Rafael Nadal bt Philipp Kohlschreiber 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; Feliciano Lopez bt Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Novak Djokovic bt Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3.

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