All seeds came through their matches at the China Open on
Wednesday as defending champion Marcos Baghdatis and fourth seeded
Croat Ivan Ljubicic set up a mouthwatering quarterfinal clash.
Chile's second seed Fernando Gonzalez, who blitzed countryman
Paul Capdeville 2-0 in just 51 minutes, will take on South Korea's
sixth seed Lee Hyung-Taik in the second quarterfinal of the bottom
half.
Fernando Gonzalez
[Photo:Osports.cn]
The South Korean, now 39th ranked in the world after his
stunning run at the U.S. Open, met some real resistance in the
first set before scrambling through Bjorn Phau from Germany 7-6(4),
6-1 on Wednesday.
Lee never hit the top gear in the opening set as he allowed his
opponent four break points but luckily saved them all.
The 31-year-old finally found his groundstrokes back in the
second set to sail through with three breaks.
While the 27-year-old Gonzalez, who has just ended a four-match
losing streak since the Wimbledon after beating Austrian Alexander
Peya here on Tuesday, did not have to raise his game much above the
ordinary to thrash Capdeville 6-1, 6-2.
Gonzalez powered five aces against just one from his fellow
Chilean and also won an uncharacteristic 79 percent on his second
serve.
A quarterfinalist here last year, Ljubicic earned his second
easy win after needing only 64 minutes to beat Serb Viktor Troicki
6-1, 6-1 to match his record last year.
Ivan Ljubicic
[Photo:Osports.cn]
The big server did not power a single ace but created seven
break points and converted on five of them while Troicki never took
advantage of the three break points he produced.
"I hope the quarterfinal against Baghdatis will be a turning
point. It is good if he suffers a little bit today," joked
Ljubicic, who lost all three encounters against Baghdatis in
career.
But Baghdatis, the Cypriot who won his first ever ATP career
title here last year, also had a much easier time of it seeing off
Serb Boris Pashanski 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 17 minutes.
The 22-year-old Cypriot converted on four out of five break
points throughout the match and fired seven aces against just one
from the Serb.
Marcos Baghdatis
[Photo:Sportsphoto.cn]
"He (Ljubicic) is a great player. It won't be easy to win the
game. I will still work on tomorrow, keep talking with my coach,
and find the solution to win the game," said Baghdatis, whose
latest win over Ljubicic was from this season's Croatian Open final
where he beat Ljubicic 2-1.
In a first-round match, third seed Tommy Robredo from Spain made
short work of German Denis Gremelmayr with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4
victory.
After breaking in the first and third games for a solid 4-0
lead, the world number eleven dominated the game and never looked
back en route to a 6-2 first set win in 42 minutes.
Tommy Robredo
[Photo:Osports.cn]
The German started to find his range early in the next set,
holding serve for a 3-all tie, only for the Spaniard to convert on
the first break point in the seventh game to take upper hand.
Robredo sealed the victory at 6-4 with a service winner.
The 25-year-old Barcelona resident is not in good shape recently
after compiling a career-best season last year by finishing in top
10 for the first time with a personal-high 49 match wins. He also
qualified for his first tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai last
year.
However, it is the first time for the Spaniard to visit Beijing,
the capital of China.
"I have been to many countries, but I feel the Chinese are the
most enthusiastic audience I have ever seen. People like to watch
me play and give me applauds, it makes me feel like a star," said a
beaming Robredo. "I will try my best to play each match well and
even win the tournament."
In the last match at the main court, Chinese doubles players Yu
Xinyuan/Zeng Shaoxuan lost to German pair of Nicolas Kiefer/Rainer
Schuettler 6-4, 6-1 in the first round, making the US$475,000 ATP
tournament an exclusive arena for foreigners.
(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2007)
