Last Germans Exit, Blake Thumps Murray at Hamburg
Posted on May 18, 2006The final three German's were shuttled out of the Masters Series-Hamburg Wednesday with unseeded Max "The Beast" Mirnyi ousting No. 9 seed Nicolas Kiefer 6-2, 6-2, former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero outlasting Rainer Schuettler 6-2 in the third, and No. 15 Radek Stepanek taking out Bjorn Phau 6-4, 6-3.
"Tennis matches are fairly simple, you make fewer unforced errors, you make more winners, most of the times you are going to win then," Mirnyi said of his net-rushing win over Kiefer. "Today I was able to do that, I didn't make as many unforced errors as I did in the past matches against him. I was pretty forward and aggressive with my game, he made more unforced errors."
No. 5 seed James Blake advanced to a third-round meeting with No. 12 Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic after overpowering Brit-Scot Andy Murray in straight sets, with Ancic outlasting Spaniard Guillermo "G-Lo" Garcia-Lopez 6-0 in the third.
"I am very happy with the way I was playing. I needed to be because he was returning my serve so well," Blake said. "I don't feel I was making a ton of first serves. He made me feel that. It's tough to deal with but luckily when one thing wasn't going great, my serve wasn't going great, my returns were going great. So, it's a good feeling to know that something's working, that I can attack and that I can force my game on someone else."
No. 6 seed and former French Open winner Gaston Gaudio, earlier in the week hyping his own chances after the withdrawals of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, crashed out of the event Wednesday in a three-set loss to unheralded Frenchman Gilles Simon. No. 3 seed Ivan Ljubicic's claycourt issues were also revealed in a straight-set loss at the hands of Argentine Jose Acasuso.
Gaudio ripped his shorts when he caught his hand in his pocket running for a ball wide, after the match refusing to talk to reporters.
"[Gaudio] looked at me like 'What is the problem? We could play like this!'" Simon said afterwards. "I was like 'No, you have to change your shorts.'"
Other seeded winners on the day were (4) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Seppi), (7) Fernando Gonzalez (d. Hrbaty from a set down), (8) Tommy Robredo (d. Serra from a set down), (13) Jarkko Nieminen (d. C.Rochus 1-and-0), and (16) David Ferrer (d. Saretta).
Spaniard Fernando Verdasco beat hot-handed Serb Novak Djokovic in straight sets, joined in the third round by fellow un-seeds Paul-Henri Mathieu of France (d. Vliegen), Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean (d. Volandri), and Swede Robin Soderling (d. Monaco).
Scheduled for Thursday in Hamburg are Ferrero vs. (16) Ferrer in an all-Spanish, (12) Ancic vs. (5) Blake, Grosjean vs. Acasuso, (7) Gonzalez vs. Verdasco, (4) Davydenko vs. (13) Nieminen, (15) Stepanek vs. Soderling, (Q) Simon vs. Mirnyi, and Mathieu vs. (8) Robredo.
"Tennis matches are fairly simple, you make fewer unforced errors, you make more winners, most of the times you are going to win then," Mirnyi said of his net-rushing win over Kiefer. "Today I was able to do that, I didn't make as many unforced errors as I did in the past matches against him. I was pretty forward and aggressive with my game, he made more unforced errors."
No. 5 seed James Blake advanced to a third-round meeting with No. 12 Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic after overpowering Brit-Scot Andy Murray in straight sets, with Ancic outlasting Spaniard Guillermo "G-Lo" Garcia-Lopez 6-0 in the third.
"I am very happy with the way I was playing. I needed to be because he was returning my serve so well," Blake said. "I don't feel I was making a ton of first serves. He made me feel that. It's tough to deal with but luckily when one thing wasn't going great, my serve wasn't going great, my returns were going great. So, it's a good feeling to know that something's working, that I can attack and that I can force my game on someone else."
No. 6 seed and former French Open winner Gaston Gaudio, earlier in the week hyping his own chances after the withdrawals of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, crashed out of the event Wednesday in a three-set loss to unheralded Frenchman Gilles Simon. No. 3 seed Ivan Ljubicic's claycourt issues were also revealed in a straight-set loss at the hands of Argentine Jose Acasuso.
Gaudio ripped his shorts when he caught his hand in his pocket running for a ball wide, after the match refusing to talk to reporters.
"[Gaudio] looked at me like 'What is the problem? We could play like this!'" Simon said afterwards. "I was like 'No, you have to change your shorts.'"
Other seeded winners on the day were (4) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Seppi), (7) Fernando Gonzalez (d. Hrbaty from a set down), (8) Tommy Robredo (d. Serra from a set down), (13) Jarkko Nieminen (d. C.Rochus 1-and-0), and (16) David Ferrer (d. Saretta).
Spaniard Fernando Verdasco beat hot-handed Serb Novak Djokovic in straight sets, joined in the third round by fellow un-seeds Paul-Henri Mathieu of France (d. Vliegen), Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean (d. Volandri), and Swede Robin Soderling (d. Monaco).
Scheduled for Thursday in Hamburg are Ferrero vs. (16) Ferrer in an all-Spanish, (12) Ancic vs. (5) Blake, Grosjean vs. Acasuso, (7) Gonzalez vs. Verdasco, (4) Davydenko vs. (13) Nieminen, (15) Stepanek vs. Soderling, (Q) Simon vs. Mirnyi, and Mathieu vs. (8) Robredo.