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  • Great opening day in Vienna for Spain

    10/6/08 9:33 PM | Ricky Dimon
    Great opening day in Vienna for Spain Fernando Verdasco, Carlos Moya, and Feliciano Lopez joined Juan Carlos Ferrer as winners on Monday at the Bank Austria Tennis Classic. The four Spaniards booked their places in the second round.

    Fernando Verdasco d. Victor Crivoi 6-4, 6-4

    The Romanian qualifier's stay in the main draw was a short one, as Verdasco sent Crivoi home on the first day of action in Vienna. Crivoi put up a decent fight, but it just wasn't enough in either of the two sets. He looked utterly hopeless when he had to throw in a second serve and that cost him one break in each set. Verdasco did not drop serve a single time and he did not even face a break point throughout the opening frame of play. The fifth-seeded Spaniard saved three Crivoi break chances in the second. In round two Verdasco will meet Guillermo Canas, a straight-set winner over Andreas Seppi.

    Feliciano Lopez d. Agustin Calleri 7-6(2), 7-6(4)

    A straight-set match cannot get any closer than this. There was not a single break of serve over the one hour and 35 minutes of play, although Calleri saved a whopping eight break points while Lopez fended off one. The stats could not be any more even, either. Lopez fired 13 aces with one double-fault while serving at 64 percent; Calleri sent 12 aces past Lopez with two double-faults while serving at 63 percent. The two men had won the same number of points going into the first-set tiebreaker, and Calleri won three more points than his opponent during the second set until fading in yet another 'breaker. Lopez will face either Tommy Robredo or Stefan Koubek in the second round.

    Carlos Moya d. Michael Berrer 7-6(5), 7-6(6)

    Well, perhaps a straight-set match can get closer than the Lopez-Calleri showdown. Moya and Berrer also went to two tiebreakers without a single break of serve, and these two 'breakers were more hotly-contested than those of the previous match. Neither player even had a break chance in set one as Moya eventually eked out the decider seven points to five. Both men saved one break point each as the second set also progressed to a tiebreaker. Once again Moya's experience won out in the end. The veteran Spaniard stole the tiebreaker eight points to six to set up a second-round clash with either Gilles Simon or Eduardo Schwank. The point total finished 82-81 in favor of Moya.

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