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Thursday October 1, 2009

Soderling and Davydenko brush aside their opponents

By LIM TEIK HUAT

KUALA LUMPUR: The big guns kicked off their campaign in style in the Proton Malaysian Open tennis championships, blasting into the quarter-finals at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil last night.

Third seed Robin Soderling of Sweden brushed aside American qualifier Brendan Evans 6-1, 6-1 in just 57 minutes in a second-round match on centre court.

Top seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia later warded off a late charge from another American, Taylor Dent, to win 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Davydenko, who got the better of the American wildcard entry after fighting for almost two hours, will take on either Gael Monfils of France or Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina in the quarter-finals tomorrow.

Soderling, who was the runner-up to Roger Federer in the French Open this year, converted five of 16 break-point opportunities to record the fastest victory in the tournament thus far.

The 25-year-old Soderling will play against either sixth seeded Czech Tomas Berdych or Simon Greul of Germany tomorrow for a place in the semi-finals.

Soderling is playing in the Malaysian Open fresh from a career-best quarter-final outing in the US Open last month.

The world No. 11, who has won the Catella Swedish Open this year, is not worried about the lack of match practice from a weaker opponent as he gets ready for the tougher stages.

“It’s not any different as I’ve been playing a lot of tennis. I prefer to win my first match quickly,” said Soderling.

“It is always difficult to win the first game. But I was playing well from the start and I had the match under control, so I was confident of my chances.”

On the conditions at the specially set up hardcourt surface for the US$1mil inaugural ATP Tour tournament in Malaysia, Soderling gave his compliments to the organisers.

“I like it and it is certainly suited to my style of playing,” he said.

Earlier, Russian Mikhail Youzhny reached his sixth ATP Tour quarter-final of the year by knocking out wildcard Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-2, 6-3 in 68 minutes.

Youzhny, ranked 52nd in the world, will next take on either fourth seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez or Indian qualifier Rohan Bopanna in the next round.

It will be the turn of second seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain to take to the court for the first time against Karol Beck of Slovakia tonight.

Swede Joachim Johansson, who sent two-time Grand Slam winner Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, packing in a first-round match on Tuesday, will be looking to stretch his luck further against world No. 42 Richard Gasquet of France in another exciting second-round match.

In the doubles, the Russian-Czech Republic combination of Igor Kunitsyn-Jaroslav Levinsky became the first to check into the semi-finals after defeating Rohan Bopanna-Aisam Al-Haj Qureshi 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 13-11 yesterday.

Bopanna and Aisam from India and Pakistan respectively partnered each other on a wildcard given by the organisers.

RESULTS

SINGLES

First round: Gael Monfils (Fra) bt Denis Istomin (Uzb) 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2); Richard Gasquet (Fra) bt Victor Crivoi (Rou) 6-1, 6-2; Simon Greul (Ger) bt Christophe Rochus (Bel) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

Second round: Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) bt Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) 6-2, 6-3; Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) bt Taylor Dent (Usa) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); Robin Soderling (Swe) bt Brendan Evans (Usa) 6-1, 6-1.

DOUBLES

First round: Martin Damm-Robert Lindstedt (Cze-Swe) bt Johan Brunstrom-Jean-Julien Rojer (Swe-Aho) 7-6 (7-6), 6-4; Mikail Elgin-Frank Moser (Rus-Ger) bt Frantisek Cermak-Michal Mertinak (Ger-Svk) 6-4, 4-6, 10-8; Marcelo Melo- Andre Sa (Bra) vs Joachim Johansson-Si Yew Ming (Swe-Mas) 6-1, 5-7 (10-3).

Quarter-finals: Igor Kunitsyn-Jaroslav Levinsky (Rus-Cze) bt Rohan Bopanna-Aisam Al- Haj Qureshi (Ind-Pak) 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 13-11.

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

Singles (2nd round) and doubles (q-finals): On centre court from 11.30am and on Court 1 from 4pm.

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