Russian No. 12 seed Igor Andreev won his first match in four attempts at the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell by edging past Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to reach the second round of the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament on Monday.
World No. 26 Andreev had made first-round exits in each of previous three visits to Barcelona in 2004 (l. to M. Lopez), 2005 (l. to Monaco) and 2006 (l. to Gabashvili). The Muscovite fired nine aces in Monday’s clash and converted five of eight break points to clinch victory in two hours and 10 minutes.
The 25 year old bounced back from the first-round loss he suffered at last week’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters to improve to 12-11 on the season. He best result in 2009 came on clay at Casablanca, where he reached the semi-finals (l. to Ferrero).
Serbian Janko Tipsarevic (pictured) advanced to a potential second-round clash with No. 9 seed Radek Stepanek after disappointing Barcelona resident Albert Montanes with a 6-4, 7-6(1) victory. Meanwhile, Belgium’s Christophe Rochus knocked out Nicolas Devilder 6-4, 6-4 to set up a possible second-round meeting with No. 13 seed Richard Gasquet.
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_3284.ASP)
