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  • Gulbis ousted, Almagro and Moya through

    9/10/08 4:56 AM | Cheryl Murray
    - Most of the seeds through to the second round in Bucharest, with one upset to spoil the day.

    Ernests Gulbis, the Latvian youngster with bright prospects on the ATP tour was knocked out in the first round by Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili in an upset in Bucharest 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Gulbis, the French Open and Cincinnati quarterfinalist. He pressed Andy Roddick at the US Open, but the American ultimately overcame Gulbis . Perhaps the missed opportunities two weeks ago rattled the Latvian.

    Gulbis had the same number of break point opportunities as Gabashvili, he just did not convert as well as the Russian. In the end, the match was determined by a single break of Gulbis’ serve. Gabashvili will take on Romanian wildcard Adrian Cruciat in the second round.

    Carlos Moya fared better, but still had to work hard to get past countryman Albero Martin. Moya’s ranking has now dipped to 61 in the world and his play on Tuesday reflected that lower ranking. Moya was the number one player in the world in 1999. The former number one needed three sets to get past Martin, a player who is 117 in the world and spends most of his time playing on the Challenger circuit. The final scoreline was 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4.

    Nicolas Almagro had an equally difficult time as his Spanish compatriot. The tournament number three seed played 244 ranked Somdev Devvarman from India. Almagro lost the first set in a tiebreaker, before taking the second set in hand. A competitive third set just barely gave Almagro the 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-5 win. Almagro’s second round opponent is Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, also of Spain.

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