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  • Ginepri, Odesnik charge into Pilot Pen second round

    8/19/08 7:08 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - Americans Robby Ginepri and Wayne Odesnik win first-round matches on Monday in New Haven. Fabio Fognini advances thanks to an opponent's retirement.

    Fabio Fognini d. Nicolas Lapentti 6-4, 4-4, ret.

    Lapentti retired with a left knee injury late in set two. He was already trailing one set to love but was all square in the second frame of play. Fognini led despite some awful serving. He put in exactly half of his first serves and double-faulted four times. Nonetheless, the Italian broke once in the first set to win it and broke twice in the second to stay even. Fognini will meet countryman and No. 10 seed Simone Bolelli in round two.

    Wayne Odesnik d. Sebastien Grosjean 7-5, 6-4

    Neither player's serve proved to be big enough or effective enough to make this anything other than a baseline battle. The result was a contest to see who could break serve more than his opponent. Both Odesnik and Grosjean broke once as the opening set went to 5-5, after which the American seized a decisive second break to take the lead. Grosjean's service percentage plummeted under 50 percent in set two and that allowed Odesnik to break three times in five return games. The Frenchman responded with two breaks of his own to keep things competitive, but it was not enough. Odesnik will take on eighth-seeded compatriot Mardy Fish on Tuesday.

    Robby Ginepri d. Luis Horna 7-6(4), 6-2

    Ginepri and Horna traded breaks of serve as a tight first set went to a tiebreaker. From there, however, Ginepri dominated the rest of the match. He took the decider seven points to four and never looked back throughout set two. The American's serve improved dramatically as he fired six aces (nine total for the match) and dropped a mere two points over his last four service games. Ginepri also picked up the pace with his return game and won more than half of the Peruvian's first-serve points in the second set. He will kick off second-round action in the Stadium against No. 12 seed Agustin Calleri.

    Potito Starace, Belgians Steve Darcis and Olivier Rochus, and Washington runner-up Viktor Troicki also moved on to the second round.

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