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  • Safin, Nishikori, and Tipsarevic all falter in opening round matches on Friday

    3/15/08 5:43 PM | Jonathan Morgan
    Safin, Nishikori, and Tipsarevic all falter in opening round matches on Friday Jurgen Melzer and Nicolas Massu were able to defeat their favored opponents in their first round matches, while Marin Cilic sent Kei Nishikori home.

    Marin Cilic def. Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-4

    After 2 struggling wins against Alex Bogdanovic and Frederic Niemayer, Nishikori's main draw match was a toughie. His qualie matches both went 3 sets with breakfests as the order of the day. Cilic would not offer Nishikori such a luxury. The match was played quite late at night, ending near midnight. It was cold and windy, tough conditions to play under for two youngsters. Cilic served big as usual and was able to win the first set rather comfortably. Nishikori was unable to deal with the conditions as he made many errors in the bottom of the net. Kei's very weak serve (especially 2nd, some were hit in the 80 mph range) were being eaten alive by the Croat as he won half the points on Kei's serve, first or 2nd. The 2nd set was better for Nishikori as he actually got a break and led 4-2, before totally melting away. Cilic won the last 4 game rather easily to take the match.

    Jurgen Melzer def. Marat Safin 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-2

    The usual story for Marat Safin it seems. The former big man on circuit has been on a physical decline for a while now as that knee injury has hampered his movement considerably. One can see that Safin still cares about tennis and that he is trying all he can, but his body is simply not allowing him to. Safin's once mighty serve was sketchy at best as he served 6 aces to 7 double faults while hitting it at barely 50% first serves. Melzer wasn't much better, and most of the stats look the same. Melzer won 90 points to Safin's 88. The first set tiebreak was crucial as Melzer was able to hold his nerve to take it. Marat was able to win the 2nd set albeit harder than the scoreline suggests. The 3rd set was rough for the Russian as Melzer was able to cruise on serve, losing just 4 points while Safin was struggling the whole way. Things looking bleak for the Safin camp.

    Nicolas Massu def. Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4)

    A wild match this one was that lasted over 3 hours on court. The total points won were 121 for Massu to 120 for Tipsarevic. Every point was a dogfight despite who's serve it was on. Tipsarevic threw down 20 aces to 10 double faults, while Massu had a pedestrian 10 aces to 4 doubles. Lots of defense from both players, especially Massu, in this match. While winners were present, errors were far more common. It seemed like a clay court match. Massu showed some skills in Acapulco a few weeks ago in winning a few matches while Tipsarevic has been sketchy since that Federer match in Australia in January. Serving at 4-5 in the 3rd, Janko was able to save 2 matchpoint before serving at 5-6 in the 3rd, where Tipsarevic was able to save 5(!) matchpoints including one on a 2nd serve ace! Massu won the match on his 9th match point, his 2nd in the tiebreak.

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