Former French Open champion upsets No. 4 seeded Karlovic in Austria

Three ATP level tennis tournaments got underway today in Moscow, Stockholm and Vienna with all players vying to win a few more matches and earn more prize money as the 2008 season nears its conclusion. Despite not many seeded players playing on Monday in all three locations, surely there had to be at least one upset. Indeed there was an upset as Juan Carlos Ferrero (pictured) defeated Croatian No. 4 seed Ivo Karlovic in straight sets. Ferrero is a former World No. 1 and French Open champion, who currently stands ranked at No. 44 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings.

Playing at the Bank Austria-Tennis Trophy in Vienna, Ferrero stunned Karlovic, 6-4, 7-6(4), in just over 90 minutes to advance to the second round. The 6’10” beast smashed 17 aces without hitting a double fault, while Ferrero didn’t hit an ace but did unfortunately crack three double faults. Despite not hitting an ace, Ferrero was still able to hang in there in the serving department, losing only seven first serve points and earning the only service break of the match. Missing a good chunk of the season with an injury, Ferrero now owns a 19-13 record and will next face either two-time Vienna champion Ivan Ljubicic or Austrian native Jurgen Melzer for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Other winners in Vienna included No. 5 seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain who beat Romanian qualifier Victor Crivoi, 6-4, 6-4. Verdasco currently stands at No. 13 in the rankings and owns a 41-23 record. Spaniards Carlos Moya and Feliciano Lopez both won their matches today in two tiebreak sets, while Guillermo Canas defeated Italian Andreas Seppi, 7-6(2), 6-3.

In Stockholm at the If Stockholm Open, former World No. 6 Nicolas Lapentti and Japanese teenage sensation Kei Nishikori, came back from the brink of defeat to win the final two sets of their matches and advance to the second round. Lapentti edged past Ivan Navarro, 3-6, 7-6(7), 7-5, to improve to 15-16 this season, which includes a run to the quarterfinals at the Masters Series Cincinnati. Nishikori, who made a big name for himself in the tennis world after defeating James Blake to win the Delray Beach title earlier this year, stunned No. 8 seed Marcel Granollers of Spain, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, to set a meeting with former World No. 12 Dominik Hrbaty. Currently ranked at No. 396, Hrbaty has played a very limited schedule during the last couple years due to injuries but was able to win his fourth ATP level match of year after defeating Pablo Andujar, 6-2, 6-1. The Monte Carlo resident is playing Stockholm for the first time since losing here in the opening round in 1999.

In Moscow where Nikolay Davydenko has won the title the last two years, No. 2 seed and 2005 Moscow champion Igor Andreev was the only seeded player in action. After the Russian won the first set 6-2 against Yen-Hsun Lu, Andreev was given a free pass to the next round when Lu withdrew due to a right ankle injury. The win marked Andreev’s 40th win of the season. Also advancing to the second round were French players Fabrice Santoro and Jeremy Chardy, as well as Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain.