Coria, Nalbandian Win at ATP Beijing

Posted on September 14, 2005

Seeded players went four-for-four Tuesday on the hardcourts at the well-monied ATP stop in Beijing with winners (2) Guillermo Coria (d. (Q) Zeng), (3) David Nalbandian (d. Pless), (4) Thomas Johansson (d. (WC) Bjorkman), and (7) Mikhail Youzhny (d. (Q) Healey) all into the second round in straight sets.

"I still have terrible jet-lag but I won without playing my best so that's good enough," Nalbandian said of his trip from the US Open. "He hit the ball well but his tactics weren't good. Everybody hits the ball well. You need more than that."

Coria was happy to draw a qualifier after also shaking off his let-lag.

"It was a long journey from New York so I'm pleased to do enough to win," Coria said. "The goal now is to make sure I can qualify for the Masters Cup in Shanghai."

Unseeded American Justin Gimelstob will likely be Rafael Nadal's next opponent after a straight-set win over Croatian Roko Karanusic.

Five other unseeded winners moved into the second round in Chinese wildcard Yu Wang Jr. (d. (Q) Gregorc), Israeli qualifier Amir Hadad (d. D.Norman), Finn Jarkko Nieminen (d. Schuettler), Danai Udomchoke (d. Okun in three), and Japanese lucky loser Toshihide Matsui (d. (WC) Sun in three).

For Germany's Rainer Schuettler, who only last year climbed to a career-high No. 5 on the ATP Rankings, it was his second consecutive opening-round loss following last week at the Istanbul Challenger.

Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty has withdrawn from the event citing a back injury.

Scheduled for Wednesday are five grand slam winners or runner-ups in (1) Nadal vs. Wang, Tursunov vs. (6) Ferrero, (3) Nalbandian vs. (Q) Hadad, (8) Moya vs. Koubek, and Nieminen vs. (4) T.Johansson.