Ginepri Ousted, Murray to Face Blake at Hamburg

Posted on May 17, 2006

The seeds advanced unscathed for the most part Tuesday at the Masters Series-Hamburg, with winners (4) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Massu), (6) Gaston Gaudio (d. A.Martin in three), (7) Fernando Gonzalez (d. Tursunov), and (9) Nicolas Kiefer (d. Melzer in three).

"That is my official number at Hanover, 69," said Kiefer who wore his name and the number 69 on the back of his jersey-shirt. "Every fan can buy it together with the other jerseys. It doesn't go as well as the footballer ones, but one can work on that. I was allowed to pick a number and I thought the 69 was the funniest. The people of Diadora asked me if I was willing to do it...Diadora got the ATP to agree for this tournament, which I think is great."

Gaudio said Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal pulling from the Hamburg event isn't so bad -- for him.

"Of course, Nadal and Federer pulling out is so much better for us," Gaudio said. "For me, I have a pretty good chance to win the tournament or to reach the semis."

Highlights of unseeded play Tuesday were Brit Andy Murray beating Rome semifinalist Gael "Force" Monfils 6-4, 6-1 to set up a meeting with James Blake, France's Gilles Simon downing Brit Greg Rusedski 6-1, 6-1, and Swede Robin Soderling advancing when Tommy Haas retired after losing the first set with breathing problems.

"I played one of my best claycourt matches," Murray said. "Against (Juan Carlos) Ferrero in Barcelona I probably played better in the first two sets but it was a high-quality match there. But today it was tough. It was very windy. When the sun came out, the shadow was covering half of the court which made it very tough to return from one of the sides. He was obviously very confident after making semis last week. But I played the right way."

The lone seeded casualty on the day was No. 14-seeded American Robby Ginepri, straight-setted by French veteran Sebastien Grosjean.

On tap Wednesday in Hamburg are (15) Stepanek vs. Phau, Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. (9) Kiefer, Schuettler vs. Ferrero, Murray vs. (5) Blake, Acasuso vs. (3) Ljubicic, (4) Davydenko vs. Seppi, (6) Gaudio vs. (Q) Simon, (7) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez vs. Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, Grosjean vs. Volandri, Christophe "The Roach" Rochus vs. (13) Nieminen, (Q) Saretta vs. (16) Ferrer, (12) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. (Q) Guillermo "G-Lo" Garcia-Lopez, Mathieu vs. Vliegen, Serra vs. (8) Robredo, (Q) Juan "The Principality" Monaco vs. Soderling, and Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco vs. (Q) Djokovic.