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January
30, 2006
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4-time Delray
Beach finalist Xavier Malisse leads Tuesday winners
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Delray
Beach, FL (January 30,
2007)—Third
seed and 2005 champion Xavier Malisse led the parade of
players who won their round robin matches at the Delray
Beach International Tennis Championships (ITC) Tuesday
afternoon. Other round robin winners included American
upstart Sam Querrey, Romanian veteran Andrei Pavel, 2002
Delray Beach ITC titlist Davide Sanguinetti of Italy and
Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia.
In the final match of the elimination round, Fort Lauderdale
resident Ryan Sweeting defeated fellow American Michael
Russell.
Belgium’s Malisse, 26, beat Colombia’s Alejandro Falla 6-4,
7-6(6). Malisse broke his opponent twice and was broken only
once himself, and took 79 points to Falla's 65 .
Malisse, who lives in Sarasota, across the state of Florida
from Delray Beach, now has a career mark of 21-6 at the ITC.
That gives him the most wins in tournament history. “I have
won 21 matches at Delray Beach. I enjoy playing here, and
it's close to home. The courts today, were nice and slow for
my game.”
The Belgian was runner-up here last year (to Haas), in 2001
(to Gambill) and in 1999 (to Hewitt). In 2005, he defeated
Jiri Novak for the title.
Querrey, 19, downed Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 7-6(10),
6-4, a day after winning his match to make the round robin
competition. The 6’6” resident of Thousand Oaks, CA, blasted
20 aces to only four for Lu. Querrey broke Lu once and saved
all seven of the break points he faced on his own serve.
“I served great today, 20 aces,” Querrey said. “It's fun to
pop all the aces.”
The Californian boosted his ATP Ranking to a career best No.
100 with his third-round finish at the Australian Open
earlier this month (l. to Robredo) and will climb even
higher with his performance at Delray.
Pavel, who turned 33 Saturday, downed Igor Kunitsyn of
Russia 6-1, 6-3. The flashy Romanian, who possesses a
blazing backhand, broke his opponent five times and won 59
points to only 39 for Kunitsyn. Pavel evened his career
record at 3-3 in this event with the victory, having won his
elimination round match Monday.
Sanguinetti, 34, upset No. 6 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of
Germany 7-5, 6-3. Sanguinetti broke Kohlschreiber five times
and was broken only twice himself. Sanguinetti won 75 points
to 64 for Kohlschreiber.
The Italian has a career mark of 11-2 at this event. He won
his elimination match Monday. He last played here in 2002,
when he won the crown over Andy Roddick.
Gabashvili emerged victorious in a two-hour-38-minute
marathon over Kristian Pless of Denmark 7-6(9), 6-7(2),
7-6(5). Each player only broke the other once, and Pless
actually won more points, 136-130. But Gabashvili took the
big points to prevail for his second day in a row, having
emerged from the elimination round Monday.
Sweeting, 19, beat Russell 7-6(4), 2-2, with the loser
forced to retire because of an illness. The match was
delayed from Monday because Russell had to fly from Hawaii
where he won a Challenger event in Waikoloa last week.
Sweeting earned his fourth ATP/Davis Cup victory, evening
his career record at 4-4.
Sweeting moved to Fort Lauderdale from his native Bahamas at
the age of 11. “It is my first time playing In Delray Beach.
It’s only 30 minutes from my house in Fort Lauderdale.
Having the support of my family and local friends has given
me the extra oomph to my game.” He also expressed excitement
at being named a practice player for the U.S. Davis Cup
match in the Czech Republic next week.
Sweeting enters the round robin group with No. 8 seed
Vincent Spadea and Simon Greul. |
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