Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Past Indianapolis Finalist Dancevic Avenges Loss; Isner Returns

Canadian Frank Dancevic returned to the site of his first tour-level breakthrough, the Indianapolis Tennis Championships presented by Lilly, and successfully avenged last year’s loss to Bobby Reynolds at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament. Reynolds had knocked out the returning finalist in three sets in the 2008 first round, but Dancevic prevailed 6-2, 7-6(5) on Monday to post his first win in three matches against the American.

Dancevic made a surprise run to the Indianapolis final in 2007, upsetting top-seeded Andy Roddick in the semi-finals to become the first Canadian to reach an ATP final in 12 years (l. to Tursunov). The 24 year old recently faced a re-match with Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the grass-court final at Eastbourne, but once again fell short of his first ATP World Tour title.

Third-seeded American Sam Querrey, making his first appearance since a runner-up finish in Newport two weeks ago (l. to R. Ram), opened his title campaign with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Frenchman Arnaud Clement in one hour and 13 minutes. The 21-year-old Querrey is a two-time Indianapolis semi-finalist, falling to eventual champion Tursunov in 2007 and Gilles Simon in '08.

French No. 7 seed Marc Gicquel made a strong debut at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, dismissing Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-2, 6-3. The 32 year old won 85 per cent of his first serve points, and broke his opponent twice in each set to comfortably close out the match in one hour. Gicquel, who entered the tournament ranked No. 82, achieved his best hard-court showing this season as a qualifier in Rotterdam, where he split sets with then-World No. 4 Andy Murray before retiring in the third set with a groin injury.

Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin also posted a win in his first Indianapolis appearance, edging past American Kevin Kim 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 47 minutes. Istomin had also defeated Kim in their opening match at Eastbourne last month, going on to reach the quarter-finals before falling to Tursunov. Istomin next faces 6'9" American John Isner, who fired 15 aces in a 6-1, 7-6(6) win over Frenchman Josselin Ouanna.

Isner is making his first tour-level appearance since a quarter-final run in April at Houston (l. to Odesnik), having been sidelined with mononucleosis the past two months. He has a 10-6 season record, also reaching the quarter-finals in Auckland (l. to Soderling) and the fourth round at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells (l. to del Potro).

American Wayne Odesnik earned his first tour-level match win since April in Houston by ousting 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-4 in two hours and 15 minutes. The 100th-ranked Odesnik reached his first ATP World Tour final in Houston (l. to Hewitt), but then lost in the first round on his next three main draw appearances.

Qualifying rounds also concluded Monday with the top four seeds - Jesse Levine, Alex Bogomolov Jr., Go Soeda and Sebastien De Chaunac – all securing their places in the Indianapolis main draw.

In doubles action, Gulbis and Tursunov upset No. 3 seeds Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky 6-3, 3-6, 11-9, while James Cerretani and Travis Rettenmaier accounted for Jeff Coetzee and Jonathan Erlich 6-1, 6-3.

(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2009/07/Indianapolis-Monday-Dancevic-Avenges-Loss.aspx)