Monday, January 05, 2009

Nieminen defeats former Aussie Open champ Baghdatis; Melzer stuns No. 6 Fish

World No. 41 and 2008 runner-up Jarkko Nieminen (pictured) defeated former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, at the Brisbane International in Australia on Monday, to claim his first victory of the 2009 season. Third-seeded Fernando Verdasco and Jurgen Melzer were also winners at the Queensland Tennis Center.

While Nieminen had a steady serving outing on Monday by making 72 percent of first serves, including winning 66 percent of those points, Baghdatis was not as fortunate. The Cyprus native who is playing in Brisbane as a wild card entrant served 11 double faults, won only 18 of 46 second serve points and had his serve broken five times.


“Marcos is a very good player; he had some bad luck with injuries last year,” said Nieminen. “I think he is very hungry this year to stay fit and play well. You never know what to expect in the first match of the year. It is important to win it. I did well to turn the match around after losing the first set, when I had some break points. I then started to play more aggressive, stay focused and fought hard.”

With the victory this afternoon, Nieminen improves to 3-2 against Baghdatis, having won the last two meetings. The Finland native will now await the winner of Tuesday’s match between second-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Agustin Calleri of Argentina.

Verdasco, a key Spain Davis Cup player in last year’s championship match against Argentina, glided past 16-year-old wild card Bernard Tomic, winning, 6-4, 6-2, in 65 minutes. The left-hander from Madrid was able to win 79 percent of first serve points, while breaking serve four times throughout the match. Verdasco will face either Mario Ancic or qualifier Amer Delic in the second round.

Melzer, a Beijing Olympics singles quarterfinalist, improved his career record against Mardy Fish to 3-1 by surviving a hard fought three-set battle, winning, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4), in two hours and 23 minutes. Both players put on a fine display of serving for the fans, as sixth-seeded Fish hammered 20 aces compared to Melzer’s 12. Both players were two of 10 on break point opportunities, but the lefty from Austria was able to win the critical points at the end of the third set tiebreak to advance. Melzer next faces either former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero or Florent Serra.

Eighth-seeded Czech star Radek Stepanek hit six aces, won 83 percent of first serve points and broke serve four times en route to an easy, 6-2, 6-2, victory over Russian Igor Kunitsyn in 69 minutes. Stepanek, currently the boyfriend of WTA Tour star Nicole Vaidisova, will clash in the second round against either defending champion Michael Llodra or Australian qualifier Joseph Sirianni.

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