Top-Seeded Verdasco One and Done at ATP Bucharest

Posted on September 15, 2004

No. 39-ranked Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco is not used to being the top seed at an ATP event, but after Tuesday that wasn't a worry after the Spaniard was ousted in his opening-round match by Romanian home-country hero Victor Hanescu at the ATP stop in Bucharest.

"What can I say? I am very happy because all the crowd was with me and it is a big pleasure to win here in Bucharest," Hanescu said. "It is special because everybody wants to win here and everybody supports me."

The three other seeds in action all advanced in (2) Florian "Oscar" Mayer (d. Van Scheppingen), (6) David Ferrer (d. (Q) Wawrinka), and (7) Filippo Volandri (d. Montanes).

Unseeded winners on the dirt were qualifiers Richard Gasquet of France (d. "You Say" Potito Starace) and Serb Novak Djokovic (d. Clement 6-4 in the third in a shocker), Austrian Stefan Koubek (d. (WC) Ionita), Argentine Jose Acasuso (d. countryman (Q) Franco "The Squirrel" Squillari), Spaniard Alex Calatrava (d. Juan "The Principality" Monaco), and Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber (d. (WC) Sabau).

On court Wednesday are Kohlschreiber vs. (4) Andreev, Acasuso vs. (8) Sanchez, Mathieu vs. Corretja in a big test for the Spaniard's flagging career, and an all-Spanish in Mantilla vs. Calatrava.