Defending Champ Mello Out, Jensens Spanked at ATP Delray Beach
Posted on February 4, 2005No. 2 seed Jiri Novak upped his level Thursday with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber, while defending champion Ricardo Mello "Yello" was sent home by unseeded South African Weslie Moodie at the ATP stop in Delray Beach, Florida.
"I definitely played a much better match than I did two days ago, which was my first match of the season," Novak said. "Today, I was playing great at the baseline, had a good percentage on first serves and I didn't let him play."
In the quarterfinals Novak will now face No. 7 seed Kenneth Carlsen, who came from a set down to beat American qualifier Brian Vahaly.
"I think I came out poorly and made a lot of mistakes and he was playing solid," Carlsen said. "In the second set, I started to try to play more aggressively, more controlled aggressively."
Mello, who beat Vince Spadea in last year's final, was a straight-set loser against the South African Moodie.
"Losing is never fun, especially here where I played well last year," Mello said. "And there were expectations to do well again."
Also into the quarters were unseeded Dutchman Peter "Nuclear" Wessels (d. Gambill, who double faulted to choke-up a break of serve in the third), and lucky loser Raemon Delgado of Paraguay (d. (Q) Sun 6-1 in the third).
In an all-American doubles throw-back match, the American wildcard team of Kendrick/Merklein spanked the Jensen brothers 6-3, 6-0.
Friday's quarterfinal line-up will be Moodie vs. Wessels, (7) Carlsen vs. (2) Novak, (1) Spadea vs. (8) Kim in an all-American, and (3) Xavier "X-Man" Malisse vs. (LL) Delgado.
"I definitely played a much better match than I did two days ago, which was my first match of the season," Novak said. "Today, I was playing great at the baseline, had a good percentage on first serves and I didn't let him play."
In the quarterfinals Novak will now face No. 7 seed Kenneth Carlsen, who came from a set down to beat American qualifier Brian Vahaly.
"I think I came out poorly and made a lot of mistakes and he was playing solid," Carlsen said. "In the second set, I started to try to play more aggressively, more controlled aggressively."
Mello, who beat Vince Spadea in last year's final, was a straight-set loser against the South African Moodie.
"Losing is never fun, especially here where I played well last year," Mello said. "And there were expectations to do well again."
Also into the quarters were unseeded Dutchman Peter "Nuclear" Wessels (d. Gambill, who double faulted to choke-up a break of serve in the third), and lucky loser Raemon Delgado of Paraguay (d. (Q) Sun 6-1 in the third).
In an all-American doubles throw-back match, the American wildcard team of Kendrick/Merklein spanked the Jensen brothers 6-3, 6-0.
Friday's quarterfinal line-up will be Moodie vs. Wessels, (7) Carlsen vs. (2) Novak, (1) Spadea vs. (8) Kim in an all-American, and (3) Xavier "X-Man" Malisse vs. (LL) Delgado.