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1/7/09 12:32 PM | David Cox
There's something about Flavio Cipolla which always brings out the worst in Stanislas Wawrinka's tennis. The second seed crashed out of the Chennai Open at the first hurdle yesterday in straight sets.
Wawrinka must have dreaded this match, with memories of their turgid five-setter at the US Open last year, where Cipolla took the first two sets before the Swiss somehow found a way into the last 16.
Last time around, Cipolla's ability to track balls down and nagging consistency saw the unforced errors flow from Wawrinka and it was exactly the same in Chennai. The Swiss soon found himself down 4-1 in the first set with Cipolla's cleverly angled backhand slices causing particular problems.
Wawrinka fought back to 4-5 but couldn't break back to stay in the set. From there the end came quick, with the Italian racing through the second 6-1 to claim one of the biggest wins of his career.
There were no such problems for No. 1 seed Nicolay Davydenko, who defeated fiery Austrian Daniel Koellerer 6-2, 6-3. Never one to go down quietly, Koellerer pulled off some outrageous dropshots in set two, but he couldn't match Davydenko from the back of the court.
There was good news for Indian fans when their No. 1 Somdev Devvarman claimed a 6-3, 6-3 win over Kevin Kim. Devvarman was content to play a patient waiting game for much of the match, forcing Kim into impatient shots.
However, Rohan Bopanna couldn't make it two Indians in round two, falling 6-4, 7-6 to Denis Istomin. Bopanna's serve kept him in touch for most of the match, but his volleying was found wanting on key points as Istomin pulled off some impressive passes.
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