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January
31, 2007
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SLOW START FOR
HAAS BUT ADVANCES
WHILE
MAYER,
GARCIA-LOPEZ ADVANCE TO QUARTERFINALS
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 Delray
Beach, FL
(January 31,
2007)—No. 2
seed Tommy Haas shrugged off jet lag and a slow start to win his first match in
Delray Beach, while No. 5 seed Florian Mayer and No. 7 seed Guillermo
Garcia-Lopez were the first players to win their round robin groups and advance
to Friday’s quarterfinals.
Other winners in their round robin matches were Fort Lauderdale, FL resident
Ryan Sweeting, a wild card; Boca Raton, FL resident Jesse Levine, a qualifier;
big-serving American Robert Kendrick; and Colombia’s Alejandro Falla.
Haas, 28, beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Haas had trouble
finding his groove in the first set before recovering in the one-hour-58-minute
match. As evidence of just how close the match was, Haas captured only one more
point than Lu, 82-81.
Haas was playing in his first match since falling in the semifinals of the
Australian Open last Friday night (Australian time) to Fernando Gonzalez. The
turnaround to Delray Beach wasn’t easy.
“It’s definitely tough,” Haas said. “I’m not complaining. I had a great run in
Australia. But this is the toughest trip to get around. It’s been tough to
sleep. But you have to block it out and not use it as an excuse. That’s what I
did, and I won.”
Haas said Lu’s hot start put him on his heels. “I was flustered. He didn’t give
me a chance to get comfortable,” the German said. “But when I broke to win the
second set, I got a positive vibe.”
Haas ran his record in this event to 6-0 with Wednesday’s win. In his first
appearance last year, he took home the trophy by defeating Xavier Malisse. Haas
has a record of 6-1 so far this year and an ATP Ranking of No. 9.
 Mayer, 23, beat Andrei Pavel 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, giving him a 2-0 record in his round
robin group. The German broke Pavel three times and lifted his career mark at
Delray to 4-1 with the win. He reached the quarterfinals in his debut last year
too (l. to Malisse).
Garcia-Lopez, 23, defeated Kristian Pless of Denmark 6-3, 7-6(5). He too is 2-0
in his round robin group. Garcia-Lopez broke Pless twice and didn’t face a break
point on his own serve.
Like Mayer, Garcia-Lopez is in the quarterfinals here for the second straight
year. Last year, in his ITC debut, Garcia-Lopez ousted Andre Agassi in the
quarters before losing to Malisse in the semifinals. “I played very well today
and am happy to be in quarterfinals. It’s fun and comfortable playing here,”
said Garcia-Lopez, who has a career-best ATP ranking of No. 65.
Haas plays up-and-coming American Sam Querrey in his next match Thursday. “He’s
a huge guy with a big serve,” Haas said of the 6’6” Californian. “But he doesn’t
move as well, so hopefully I can take advantage of that.”
Sweeting, 19, downed Simon Greul of Germany 6-2, 6-2. The American broke Greul
four times and wasn’t broken himself.
“It was a good feeling to get the wild card and to get two wins under my belt,”
Sweeting said. “I was a lot more focused today. I didn't want to give away any
points.”
Sweeting is 1-0 in his round robin group. Next, he will play No. 8 seed Vincent
Spadea. "This is his home turf,” Sweeting said of Spadea, who lives in nearby
Boca Raton. “He's playing well and I'll have to bring my 'A' game."
Sweeting moved to Fort Lauderdale, a short drive from Delray Beach, after living
in the Bahamas until the age of 11. His two wins this week account for 40
percent of his five career ATP victories (against four losses). He is ranked a
career-best No. 363 and will move up next week.
Levine, 19, upended veteran fellow American Kevin Kim 6-2, 6-2. The University
of Florida freshman, who promised he will return to school when the tournament
ends, dominated Kim, winning 56 points to Kim’s 27. Levine broke Kim four times
and was broken only twice himself.
“I was ready for battle and had some fun today,” Levine said. “He (Kim) played
really fast. No time to think. It played to my advantage.”
 Levine is 1-0 in his round robin group after taking his elimination round match
Monday. The two wins in Delray Beach are the first of his ATP career. Levine is
No. 1 on the University of Florida tennis team and No. 508 in the ATP Rankings.
He will jump up next week.
Kendrick, 27, defeated compatriot Scoville Jenkins 6-4, 6-4, evening his round
robin record at 1-1, following his loss to James Blake Tuesday. Kendrick hit
eight aces and won 78 percent of his service points, compared to 56 percent for
Jenkins.
“The new (round robin) format has given me a second chance to play,” Kendrick
said. “Today I was loose, served well. But it was gusty, and I had to adjust.”
Kendrick, who was two points from beating Rafael Nadal in the second round of
Wimbledon last year, needs Jenkins to handily beat top seed Blake to advance to
the quarterfinals.
Falla, 23, beat Germany’s Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-3, evening his record at 1-1
in his round robin group. Falla lost to Xavier Malisse in his first round robin
match Tuesday. Falla needs Schuettler to decisively beat No. 3 seed Malisse to
reach the quarterfinals.
Falla’s win over Schuettler was his first ATP victory of the year. He lost in
the first round at Chennai (to Mahut).
In doubles play Wednesday, American Hugo Armando and Belgian Xavier Malisse
upset the second-seeded American duo of Eric Butorac and Travis Parrott 6-4,
7-6(3) in the quarterfinals.
Malisse, the singles winner here in 2005 (d. Novak) and runner-up here last year
(l. to Haas) and in 1999 (l. to Hewitt), has a career ITC doubles mark of 4-1.
He reached the semifinals in 2004 too, with Mark Merklein (l. to Etlis-Rodriguez).
Top seed Jeff Coetzee of South Africa and Rogier Wassen of the Netherlands
defeated Alejandro Falla of Colombia and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6(5),
6-2 in the first round. And No. 4 seeds James Auckland of Britain and Stephen
Huss of Australia beat Americans Amer Delic and Robert Kendrick 7-6(4), 4-6,
11-9 (Match Tiebreak).
Ticket packages to the 2007 event are now on sale and can be
purchased by calling 561-330-6000. The Reserved Series
package for all tournament sessions is $250 while the
Weekender package—including the quarterfinals, semifinals
and finals—is $200. Box seat packages range from $980 for
two seats to $2,200 for four seats.
For more
information on the 15th annual tournament and its ancillary
events, visit
www.YellowTennisBall.com. |
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