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  • Second Round in Vegas Serves Up Surprises

    3/7/08 4:57 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - The top two seeds at the Tennis Channel Open both cruised in their opening matches, but suddenly both are gone after round two. Lleyton Hewitt fell in straight sets to Julien Benneteau on Wednesday and top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez lost to talented 20-year-old Evgeny Korolev on Thursday.

    There were a few surprising scores in the second round, but arguably none bigger than Julien Benneteau's 6-3, 7-5 win over second-seeded Lleyton Hewitt. This should have been a good matchup for the Aussie, who has always been lethal against net-charging players and already held a 1-0 head-to-head edge over Benneteau. As expected, Hewitt fared OK against the Frenchman's serve, breaking three times, but the real problem was his own serve. He put in just 46 percent of his first offerings and gave Benneteau 16 break chances, of which the underdog converted five. The combination of Hewitt's dismal serving and Benneteau's quickness at the net was way too much for the defending champion to overcome.

    One day after Hewitt was dispatched, No. 1 seed Fernando Gonzalez also tumbled out of Las Vegas. Evgeny Korolev was too steady from the baseline for the Argentine and even managed to dictate play against the big hitter with some massive forehands. The Russian squandered a whopping 10 match points in the second set before finally persevering 6-3, 7-6(4).

    In another surprise—even though both players were unseeded and just out of college—Kevin Anderson sent John Isner packing thanks to a 7-6(2), 7-5 victory. With Isner standing 6’9’’ and Anderson at 6’7’’, it’s no surprise that there was only one break of serve the entire match; and it came right at the end when Isner served at 5-6 in the second set.

    That Sam Querrey dispatched injury-plagued Nicolas Kiefer was no huge surprise, but the fashion in which he did it was unexpected. The up-and-coming American destroyed Kiefer 6-3, 6-1 in just 58 minutes. Querrey served at a dismal 43 percent rate but the rusty German was still no match for him. The wind wreaked havoc on Kiefer's ball-toss and frustrated him throughout the proceedings as he just never got into any rhythm whatsoever.

    Also scoring relatively routine victories were Guillermo Canas (6-2, 7-5 over Chris Guccione), Amer Delic (6-3, 3-0 ret. over Potito Starace), and Ernests Gulbis (6-2, 6-1 over Peter Luczak). Canas simply made the big-serving Aussie hit too many shots and Delic took advantage of the fact that Starace had an apparent back problem and doesn't enjoy hard courts in the first place. Canas and Delic will square off for the first time in their careers on Friday. Gulbis again showed that when he plays well, he doesn’t just beat his opponents, he simply eradicates them.

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