Puerta Wins, Serra Upsets Volandri at ATP Bucharest
Posted on September 15, 2005French Open runner-up Mariano Puerta was back in his element Wednesday on the claycourts at the ATP stop in Bucharest, making easy 6-2, 6-4 work of a difficult Spanish opponent in Guillermo Garcia-Lopez to advance into the quarterfinals.
"I'm very happy reaching the quarterfinals again after a few weeks. Now I have one day off to practice and then I can attack fully in the quarterfinals," Puerta said. "I think I played more consistent and concentrated than him. We had a lot of rallies and I felt great on the court today."
France's Florent Serra scored the upset of the day, downing No. 2 seed Filippo Volandri after getting rolled 6-1 in the opening set.
"I'm very happy, it's one of my biggest victories on clay," said the 24-year-old Serra. "It was very difficult in the beginning of the match because I was too far behind the baseline. I tried to change things in the second set moving up in the court and to put more pressure on the ball. I will try to continue like this."
Serra will next face countryman and No. 7 seed Paul-Henri Mathieu, who blew past qualifier Al Portas 6-2, 6-0.
"He's a friend, so we know each other since many years," Serra said. "It's a very interesting match for both of us. It will be fun and I think it will be a good match."
Other winners were Austrian qualifier Oliver Marach (d. (Q) Fyrstenberg) and Russian Igor Andreev (d. Montanes).
Scheduled for Thursday on the dirt are (8) Verdasco vs. Mayer, (Q) Ramirez Hidalgo vs. (6) Acasuso, (Q) Marach vs. (3) Pavel, and (4) Hanescu vs. Sanguinetti.
"I'm very happy reaching the quarterfinals again after a few weeks. Now I have one day off to practice and then I can attack fully in the quarterfinals," Puerta said. "I think I played more consistent and concentrated than him. We had a lot of rallies and I felt great on the court today."
France's Florent Serra scored the upset of the day, downing No. 2 seed Filippo Volandri after getting rolled 6-1 in the opening set.
"I'm very happy, it's one of my biggest victories on clay," said the 24-year-old Serra. "It was very difficult in the beginning of the match because I was too far behind the baseline. I tried to change things in the second set moving up in the court and to put more pressure on the ball. I will try to continue like this."
Serra will next face countryman and No. 7 seed Paul-Henri Mathieu, who blew past qualifier Al Portas 6-2, 6-0.
"He's a friend, so we know each other since many years," Serra said. "It's a very interesting match for both of us. It will be fun and I think it will be a good match."
Other winners were Austrian qualifier Oliver Marach (d. (Q) Fyrstenberg) and Russian Igor Andreev (d. Montanes).
Scheduled for Thursday on the dirt are (8) Verdasco vs. Mayer, (Q) Ramirez Hidalgo vs. (6) Acasuso, (Q) Marach vs. (3) Pavel, and (4) Hanescu vs. Sanguinetti.