Tursunov was up a set and a break, but conceded the lead as he lost all three break points faced on serve in the second set. He decisively recovered in the third set, however, limiting the German to just 10 points total as he clinched the win in one hour and 36 minutes.
Tursunov won the Indianapolis title in 2007 with victory over Canadian Frank Dancevic in the final, and finished runner-up to Frenchman Gilles Simon last year. The 27 year old recently won his sixth ATP World Tour title at the grass-court tournament in Eastbourne, once again defeating Dancevic in the title match. His other five titles have all come on hard courts.
Fifth-seeded German Benjamin Becker posted his 10th tour-level win of the season, easing past Japanese qualifier Go Soeda 6-2, 6-3 in 56 minutes. The 28-year-old Becker won his first ATP World Tour title last month as a qualifier in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (d. Sluiter), capping off an impressive six-tournament stretch that began in April with four straight Challenger finals (3-1 record) and a quarter-final appearance at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Halle (l. to O. Rochus). He has risen from a No. 131 ranking on 6 April, 2009, to his current position of No. 45.
Israeli Davis Cup hero Dudi Sela, the No. 2 seed, had no problems getting though his opening match as he beat American Vince Spadea 7-5, 6-1. Sela had led his country into the Davis Cup semi-finals for the first time with a home victory over Russia two weeks ago, and entered the week ranked a career-high No. 29. Spadea, the oldest player in the draw at 35 years of age, had reached the Indianapolis final in 1999 (d. Sampras in QF, l. to Lapentti).
American qualifiers Jesse Levine and Alex Bogomolov Jr. had better luck than their countryman, advancing to the second round with respective straight-sets wins over Thailand’s Danai Udomchoke and Italian Flavio Cipolla. The 21-year-old Levine is coming off a third round showing at Wimbledon (d. Safin) and quarter-final effort in Newport (l. to Ram), while Bogomolov Jr. defeated Arnaud Clement two weeks ago in Newport to win his first tour-level match since March 2006.
Argentine Eduardo Schwank snapped an 11-match losing streak beginning with a quarter-final exit in February at Costa do Sauipe as he ousted No. 6 seed Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and six minutes. Schwank will next confront 2005 Indianapolis champion Robby Ginepri, who advanced with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 win over French qualifier Sebastien de Chaunac.
Meanwhile, Russian No. 4 seed Igor Kunitsyn converted four of his six break point chances to defeat Argentine Brian Dablu 6-4, 6-1 in 71 minutes. He will face American Wayne Odesnik for a place in the quarter-finals.
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2009/07/Indianapolis-Tuesday-Tursunov-Opens-Title-Campaign.aspx)
15 years ago