Wellington, Melbourne: David Ferrer put last week’s Doha disappointment behind him with a comfortable straight-sets win in his opening match at the Auckland Classic on Wednesday.
The 6-2, 6-4 victory over Australian qualifier Matthew Barton put the top seed and four-time champion into the quarter-finals to face Czech Lukas Rosol, a surprise winner over fifth seed Benoit Paire of France.
Ferrer had rushed to Auckland for a wild card entry after his opening-round loss to Ukraine’s Ilya Marchenko in the Qatar Open, and immediately showed his class as he won 23 of 26 first-serve points.
The top four seeds all had first-round byes, and all won their opening matches in the second round.
Second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was untroubled as he beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4 but it was a different story for the third and fourth seeds, John Isner and South African Kevin Anderson.
Isner took the first set in a tiebreaker against fellow American Sam Querrey, and then dropped the before fighting back to take the match 7-6 (10/8), 6-7 (4/7), 6-4.
Anderson was also tested in tie-breaks before overcoming Robin Haase of the Netherlands 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/5).
“It was a really tough match,” said Anderson.
“It was a little windy. It was tough to find your rhythm. But I just stuck with it. It’s my first match. Given that, I thought I played pretty well.”
Anderson, ranked 12th in the world, won the first set on a Haase double fault and was down 1-4 in the second-set tiebreaker before winning six of the next seven points.
Roberto Bautista Agust reached the last eight with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) win over American Donald Young, while Fabio Fognini took just 47 minutes to beat Thiemo de Bakker 6-1, 6-1.
Meanwhile, Nick Kyrgios will be fit for next week’s Open despite pulling out of his Kooyong Classic match against David Goffin with a foot injury on Wednesday.
The outspoken Australian had called for a medical time out at 3-2 in the first set of the exhibition event before winning it in a tiebreaker against his Belgian opponent and called for the trainer again at 1-1 in the second.
The world number 30 carried on briefly but opted to quit at the next changeover while trailing 3-2.
“Hate withdrawing, so sorry to everyone @KooyongClassic,” Kyrgios posted on Twitter.
Results
Auckland Classic
(x denotes seed)
Second round
Kevin Anderson (RSA x4) bt Robin Haase (NED) 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/5)
David Ferrer (ESP x1) bt Matthew Barton (AUS) 6-2, 6-4
Jack Sock (USA) bt Vasek Pospisil (CAN) 6-2, 6-4
John Isner (USA x3) bt Sam Querrey (USA) 7-6 (10/8), 6-7 (4/7), 6-4
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x2) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-3, 6-4
Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x8) bt Donald Young (USA) 6-4, 7-6 (7/3)
Lukas Rosol (CZE) bt Benoit Paire (FRA x5) 6-4, 7-6 (7/5)
Fabio Fognini (ITA x6) bt Thiemo de Bakker (NED) 6-1, 6-1
Sydney International
Women’s singles Quarterfinals: Monica Puig (Puerto Rico) beat Samantha Stosur (Australia) 6-4 6-4 1-Simona Halep (Romania) beat 5-Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) 6-4 7-5/sSvetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) beat Sara Errani (Italy) 7-6(1) 6-0.
