Retirement gifts Fish winning start
Date published :
24 Feb 2010 - 06:38:00
Defending champion Mardy Fish progressed to the second round of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships after Christophe Rochus retired early in their opening-round match.
The match was level at 3-3 in the first set when a back injury caused the Belgian to call a premature end to the match.
Fish is the only former champion left in the draw after Xavier Malisse and Kei Nishikori were both eliminated today.
Two-time champion Malisse was beaten 6-3 7-6 (7/5) by fourth seed Jeremy Chardy while Nishikori faded badly to lose 6-3 1-6 6-0 against third seed Benjamin Becker.
Second-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic fired 19 aces to fend off the challenge of Philipp Petzschner 6-3 7-6 (7/3).
Sixth seed Florian Mayer booked a second round meeting with his namesake Leonardo Mayer, from Argentina, after they both secured straight-set wins against qualifiers.
Florian Mayer had little trouble in beating Australian Nick Lindahl 6-4 6-1 while Leonardo Mayer had a tougher time of it against big-serving South African Kevin Anderson 7-6 (9/7) 7-6 (7/2).
Eight seed Michael Russell suffered a 6-4 3-6 7-5 defeat to Germany's Mischa Zverev who will now play Fish in the second round.
There were also first-round wins for Ernests Gulbis, Santiago Giraldo, Robin Haase, Jarkko Nieminen and Daniel Brands who beat French veteran Sebastien Grosjean, who had been given a wildcard entry, 3-6 6-3 6-2.
