NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Paes advances in Shanghai Open

Leander Paes defeated Dutchman John Van Lottum in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), to move into the second round of the Shanghai Open Tennis Championship.

The Indian ace will now take on the winner of the first round match between 8th seed Roman Delgado of Paraguay and Daniel Nestor of Canada.

Leander encountered little difficulty in winning the first set 6-3, but Lottham put up an improved performance in the second set, taking it to the tie breaker. Paes, however, tightened his game at this point, to clinch the tie.

Leander finds himself in the upper half of the draw. In another first round game in his half, top seed Goran Ivanisevic said he "almost fell asleep", while playing with jet-lag after his long flight to China. Asleep or no, he still managed to beat Brett Steven of New Zealand 6-4, 7-6 (6). Ivanisevic will now face Justin Gimelstob in the second round, Gimelstob having defeated D Van Scheppingen of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-2.

In other action, 7th seed Kenneth Carltsen of Denmark defeated Martin Sinner of Germany 7-5, 6-4. 3rd seed Jan-Michael Gambill of US defeated wildcard entrant Yu Zhang China 6-4, 6-3 and Michael Tebbutt of Australia defeated Sjeng Schalken of Netherland 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.

In the lower half of the draw, second seed Micheal Chang beat Sebastian Lareau 6-3 7-6(4). Chang will face Laurence Tielemann of Italy in the second round, the latter having beaten Anderi Pavel of Romania 6-3, 7-6 (5).

In one of the day's upsets, Sargis Sargasian defeated 4th seed Mikeal Tillstrom 6-3, 6-3. Next up, Sargasian is due to play Mark Woodforde, who accounted for Wayne Black of Zimbabwe 7-6 (1), 6-4.

8th seed Todd Woodbridge defeated wild card entrant and former world number one Jim Courier 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6), and will now take on Lionel Roux of France, conqueror of local hope Yu Zheng, 6-2, 6-1.

In the doubles event, the second seeded Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi defeated the scratch pair of Ben Ellwood (Australia) and Sargis Sargasian (Armenia) 6-4, 7-5.

They will now play the winner of the match between Jan Michael Gambill/Paul Haarhuis and Sjeng Schalken/John Van Lottum.

The top seeded pair of Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge won their first round match against the unseeded pair of K Carlsen and L Tielemann 7-6(5), 6-3. They will now take on another unseeded pairing -- M Keil/T J Middleton -- in the quarters. This pair had earlier defeated K Braasch/M Kholmann 7-6 (4), 6-4.

The Woodies, seeded to win the tournament, are in the upper half of the draw, while Paes/Bhuapthi, seeded to meet them in the final, are in the opposing half.

For the Woodies, the real challenge will come from the third seed pair of Wyane Black/Peter Tramacchi and, of course, the unseeded but improving pairing of Keil/Middleton.

An interesting pair was the wildcarded Michael Chang partnering his brother -- but they lost in the first round, to Goran Ivanisevic and S Hirzson 6-0, 6-4.