Spaniards Ferrero, Moya Win at ATP Beijing

Posted on September 13, 2005

Former world No. 1s Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya led the seeds on the opening day of play at the China Open in Beijing, each posting narrow wins in advancing into the second round.

The No. 6-seeded Ferrero came from a set down to outlast the hard-charging Korean Hyung-Taik Lee, while the No. 8-seeded Moya successfully navigated a first-set tiebreak to defeat crowd favorite Paradorn Srichaphan in straight sets.

"It was a close match and then three minutes later it was over," said Moya, who quickly ran out the second set after breaking the Thai at 3-3. "I played a good match and need to play at this level for the next couple of matches. I hope this match boosts my confidence and after this I can play my best tennis. Sooner or later I know I'm going to play well again so I hope it's here."

Ferrero appeared sloppy in the first set, and in the third blew a break and needed five match points to close things out.

"I think I played quite well and didn't want it to end because I started to feel good," Ferrero said. "On the match points, Lee saved two by hitting aces and I made mistakes on two more before the end came."

Un-seeds into the second round were Dutchman Peter Wessels (d. Arthurs), Russian Dmitry Tursunov (d. Burgsmuller), and Austria's Stefan Koubek (d. Heuberger), all in straight sets.

On tap for Tuesday in Beijing are (WC) Bjorkman vs. (4) T.Johansson in an all-Swedish, (3) Nalbandian vs. Pless, (Q) Zeng vs. (2) Coria, (7) Youzhny vs. (Q) Healey, (WC) Sun vs. (LL) Matsui, (WC) Wang Jr. vs. (Q) Gregorc, Schuettler vs. Nieminen, Karanusic vs. Gimelstob, D.Norman vs. (Q) A.Hadad, and Udomchoke vs. Okun.