Tommy Robredo beat last week’s Open 13 singles finalist and doubles champion. The Spaniard had an easy time with Julien Benneteau 6-2 6-1 after just 44 minutes of work. Benneteau double’s partner from last week and the Open 13 champion did not fare much better today. Michael Llodra had to withdraw from his match with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with a hamstring injury.

Robredo will advance to play Austrian Jurgen Melzer in the second round. The Spaniard leads their head-to-head 4-3. The new world no. 23 dropped 6 spots this week and has struggled this year. He is 2-4 before his match today. Since he was last year’s Juan Carlos Ferrero, he lost 500 points for not defending or replacing his championship points in Costa Do Sauipe and Buenos Aires.

Tuesday’s Order of Play
Singles First Round
4 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) def. Florent Serra (FRA) 6-7(5) 6-4 6-1
5 WC Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) def. Michael Llodra (FRA) 7-6(9) RET. (left hamstring)
6 Marin Cilic (CRO) def. Arnaud Clement (FRA) 6-2 6-4
7 Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) def. Lukas Lacko (SVK) 6-7(3) 7-6(5) 6-1
Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) def. Andreas Seppi (ITA) 7-6(4) 7-5
Michael Berrer (GER) def. Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 6-4 7-6(3)
Tommy Robredo (ESP) def. Julien Benneteau (FRA) 6-2 6-1
Q Somdev Devvarman (IND) def. Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) 6-4 7-5
Q Bjorn Phau (GER) def. WC Mohammad Ghareeb (KUW) 3-0 RET. (back)

Doubles First Round
S. Aspelin (SWE)/P. Hanley (AUS) def. N. Djokovic (SRB)/D. Vemic (SRB) 6-4 6-3
J. Tipsarevic (SRB)/V. Troicki (SRB) def. F. Serra (FRA)/G Simon (FRA) 7-6(4) 6-0
C. Kas (GER)/D. Norman (BEL) def. I. Ljubicic (CRO)/J. Melzer (AUT) 6-4 7-6(4)

Wednesday’s Order of Play

(Image: Getty Images)

Top-seed Marin Cilic looks to go two-for-two tomorrow in defending his titles this year. The Croat is having a banner year so far with a 14-1 record. The 21-year-old successfully defended his title in Chennai in January and will defend his title tomorrow in the Zagreb final. Cilic beat third-seed Jurgen Melzer in today’s first semifinal 7-6(5) 6-4.

The last player standing in his way is Michael Berrer. The German beat his compatriot, Philipp Petzschner 7-6(6) 7-5 in the second semifinal. Cilic and Berrer have never played before, but the German will have his work cut out for him tomorrow against the defending champion.

Saturday's Matches
Singles Semifinals
1 Marin Cilic (CRO) def. 3 Jurgen Melzer (AUT) 7-6(5) 6-4
Michael Berrer (GER) def. Philipp Petzschner (GER) 7-6(6) 7-5

Doubles Semifinals
J. Melzer (AUT)/P. Petzschner (GER) def. 3 M. Damm (CZE)/F. Polasek (SVK) 7-6(4) 6-4

(Image: Hrvoje Polan/AFP/Getty Images)

Feliciano Lopez stretches it out during his victory over Jurgen Melzer 5-7 7-6(3) 6-1. This is the Spaniard’s best result in an ATP tournament this year. Lopez will now meet Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals. They have not played in three years, but Lopez leads their head-to-head 3-2. It would be nice to see the Spaniard pull off the upset tomorrow.

(Image: Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

Top-seed Rafael Nadal passed James Blake 6-3 6-7(4) 6-4 after 2 hours and 11 minutes of play. Blake gave the Spaniard trouble last week in Beijing and proved to be slightly problematic again this week.

It looked like the Spaniard might wrap up the match quickly after taking the first set and getting a break in the second set. Blake, who is not known for having a plan B or C, was able to change up his tactics a bit and also started to play better. Blake broke back in the second set and was able remain on serve. He finally walked away with the second set in the tiebreak.

In the third set, the players remained on serve until Nadal broke in the fifth game of the third set. Blake was able to break back in game seven. After holding serve at love, Nadal went on attack in game ten. The attack proved too much for the American, and Nadal finally closed out the match.

Nadal now advances to the round of 16 to play compatriot Tommy Robredo. The Majorcan was also aided today when his draw opened up after third-seed Juan Martin del Potro retired in his match with Austrian Jurgen Melzer. The recent US Open champion has had Nadal's number of late, so the Spaniards's possible trip to the final has been made a lot easier.

Fifteenth-seed Tommy Haas also retired to allow Rainer Schuettler to advance. Other downed seeds today include Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer, who loss to Feliciano Lopez no less. Lopez will play Melzer in the next round.

(Image: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

Marat Safin was killing Jurgen Melzer when I left the stadium after the first set on Wednesday. Somehow the Russian managed to lose the match 6-1 4-6 3-6 4-6 and exits the US Open for the final time, as he retires this year. In a strange, masochistic way, I am going to miss the big, cranky Russian giving me headaches like these.

(Image: Denise/tennisfiend)

City: S-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Surface: Outdoor Grass
Championship Points: 250
2008 Singles Champion: David Ferrer
2008 Doubles Champions: Mario Ancic and Jurgen Melzer

David Ferrer will defend his title. The Spaniard will have his hands full this year, as Fernando Verdasco and Tommy Robredo will also be in attendance. The three Spaniards should keep the tournament interesting.

Tournament Draw
Singles / Doubles

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(Image: Ordina Open)

Novak Djokovic had a routine win over Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-1 6-4 after just 66 minutes of play. Today's victory was a much easier win for the Serb after yesterday's match with Florent Serra where he had to save five match points before securing the victory.

Djokovic advances to the semifinals to play qualifier Olivier Rochus, who beat Benjamin Becker. Rochus is 2-0 over the Serb. The last time the two players met was in 2005 when Djokovic was just 17 years old, and a lot has changed since then.

(Image: Clemens Bilan/AFP/Getty Images)

Nicolas Kiefer easily took out Viktor Troicki 6-2 6-1 to the delight of the hometown crowd after just 75 minutes of play. Kiefer will now meet Jurgen Melzer in the second round for a Austro-German rematch of their Davis Cup match last March. Kiefer is currently 8-0 over the Austrian, though the two players have never met on grass before.

(Image: Getty Images)

Seventh-seed and ATP world number 46 Mikhail Youzhny defeated Stefan Koubak 6-2 6-4 in front of the Austrian’s hometown fans. The win for the Russian sets up a quarterfinal meeting against another Austrian and second-seed, Jurgen Melzer.

Melzer, who beat Agustin Calleri 6-4 7-5, has been playing well lately, so the matchup should be a good one. The two players are even at 2-2 in their head-to-head matchup, with Youzhny winning their last two meetings.





(Image: AP)

City: Kitzbuhel, Austria
Surface: Outdoor Clay
Championship Points: 250
2008 Singles Champion: Nicolay Davydenko
2008 Doubles Champions: Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa

Nikolay Davydenko will defend his title and is also the top seed. The Russian has been playing pretty well this clay-court season since his return from injury. Second-seed Jurgen Melzer is also playing pretty well this season and should do well in front of his hometown audience. Mikhail Youzhny, who is the seventh-seed, should go deep in the draw. He is on Melzer’s side of the draw, and the two could meet in the quarterfinals.

There are other players who have had good tournaments, but there is still a lot of inconsistency, so it will be interesting to see who steps up this week.

Tournament Draw
Singles / Doubles

And The Qualifiers Are . . .
Mario Ancic (CRO) def. Alexander Peya (AUT) 6-2 6-3
Robin Vik (CZE) def. Julien Benneteau (FRA) 6-4 7-6(5)
Nicolas Lapentti (ECU) def. Paul Capdeville (CHI) 5-5 Ret’d
Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) def. Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) 7-6(4) 7-6(4)

Singles First Round
5 Martin Vassallo Arguello (ARG) def. Christophe Rochus (BEL) 6-2 6-4
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) def. Bjorn Phau (GER) 6-3 6-2

Monday’s Order of Play

(Image: Deco Pires)

The weather behaved today, and the tournament was able to complete all of its singles matches. Three first-round matches had to be played in the afternoon, and the winners had to play again in the evening. The completion of matches was not good news for some of the seeded players. Five seeds were sent home, and some received scares.

Paul-Henri Mathieu defeated last week’s Barcelona Open’s finalist. This is one of the first-round matches that was not completed yesterday. Mathieu upset the eleventh-seed David Ferrer 6-3 2-6 6-2 in their first-round match.

The veteran Frenchman turned around in his second-round match and was upset by German qualifier Mischa Zverev 3-6 7-6(5) 6-0. The 21-year-old already denied Juan Carlos Ferrero in the qualifying rounds and beat Tomas Berdych in the first round. He is probably this tournament's troublemaker.

Jurgen Melzer upset seventh-seed Nikolay Davydenko. Davydenko had played well last week in Barcelona, but Melzer dismantled the Russian 7-5 7-6(5). The Austrian will now play Fernando Gonzalez, who is playing well and coasted through his match.

Richard Gasquet took out ninth-seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his first-round match. He and Radek Stepanek were able to win their first-round matches in the afternoon and then won their second-round matches in the evening. Gasquet then beat Ernest Gulbis in his second-round match after the Latvian rallied to get back into the match.

The Frenchman now advances to play Fernando Verdasco. Gasquet leads in their head-to-head matchup 4-2. Verdasco has won their last two meetings, but Gasquet has won all of their meetings on clay. The Frenchman played solidly today but has played a lot of tennis with the two matches. He may not have enough left in the tank to withstand the Spanish onslaught.

Gilles Simon, Juan Martin del Potro and Fernando Verdasco had scares, but all got it together enough to advance into the next round. Simon beat Italian Fabio Fognini in front of his hometown crowd.

Old faithfuls Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer won their respective matches quite easily. Nadal will play Robin Soderling in the next round. The two have not played since their infamous match at Wimbledon in 2007. Federer will play the Radek Stepanek in the next round. The Swiss leads 7-2 in their head-to-head matchup. The last time Stepanek beat Federer was last year in this very tournament.

With all the upsets in Federer’s quarter, he is almost guaranteed a spot in the semifinals. Gilles Simon is his only obstacle in the quarterfinals if the Frenchman can get past the German troublemaker Zverev in the third round. Simon will have to raise his level of play to stay undefeated against the Swiss.

(Images: AP, Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images)

After being out with an injury, Nicolas Kiefer is back in action and beat Julien Knowle and Jurgen Melzer of Austria with partner Philipp Kohlschrieber, who replaced Christopher Kas. They won 6-3 7-6(6) 3-6 6-4 and have now placed Germany in the driver's seat with 2-1 lead.

Rainer Schuettler is scheduled to play Melzer tomorrow, and Kohlschreiber will play Koubek. There is a possibility that Kiefer will replace Schuettler since Schuettler did not play well on Friday.
(image: GEPA)

It was almost upset number two today. Luckily, David Ferrer of Spain got it together after he lost the first set 3-6. He rallied in the next two sets to beat Austria’s Juergen Melzer 7-6(5) 7-5 after being down 1-4 in the second set. The Spaniard lives on to play Mikhail Youzhny in the second round.

ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament