Results - Tuesday August 11, 2009

Baghdatis Withdraws; Lucky Loser Engages the Crowd

by Jeffrey Dunham
Aug 11, 11:30 pm EDT

Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus disappointed a capacity crowd on Tuesday evening at the LG&T Tennis Challenger when he withdrew immediately prior to his match with Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz. Baghdatis, 24, who had won the Vancouver Open just this past Sunday in a straight sets victory over Xavier Malisse, pointed to a knee problem as the reason for his withdrawal.

Harel Levy remains focused

Fortunately, Lithuania’s Laurynas Grigelis, who lost in the final round of qualifying, was on hand to take Baghdatis’ place in the draw. Grigelis’ best previous result was a semifinal showing at a Futures event in Spain this past June. The crowd quickly recovered from Bagdhatis absence, as the engaging Grigelis, who does not turn 18 until this Friday, put up a stiff challenge against his more experienced opponent. In a match postponed by darkness at one set all, Grigelis appeared to be making the most of his opportunity. Janowicz was initially up a break in the first set, but was broken while serving for it. The crowd vocally supported Grigelis as he built a lead in the tiebreak, eventually winning it 7-5. Another exciting moment occurred early in the second set, when Grigelis stared down his opponent as he hit a winning backhand shot to save break point at 2-3. Janowicz often appeared to be trying to lure Grigelis into the net, as the youngster did not appear to be as comfortable moving forward as side to side. Janowicz edged Grigelis in the second set tiebreaker, and the match was even. It is a shame that these two fierce competitors could not complete their match with such a supportive crowd in attendance.

No. 8 seed and two-time NCAA singles champion Somdev Devvarman of India was upset by Sergei Bubka of Ukraine. A few too many short balls by Devvarman often allowed Bubka to take the upper hand in baseline rallies. Devvarman’s consistency started to make inroads on Bubka in the second set, as Bubka let slip a 5-2 lead. However, it proved to be too little to late, as Devvarman finally succumbed in the second set, with the final score being 7-6 (3), 7-5.

Tim Smyczek was too much for Carsten Ball

Australia’s Carsten Ball has not been able to maintain the momentum of reaching the finals of the main tour event in Los Angeles two weeks ago. He lost in the first round last week in Vancouver to the USA’s Lester Cook (still in the main draw at the LG&T), and lost again today to the USA’s Tim Smyczek. The heat seemed to overcome Ball today, as he made numerous unforced errors on the backhand side and often threw his racquet in disgust.

In other matches, Australia’s Nick Lindahl fell to Armenia’s Tigran Martirosyan, who was a replacement for the injured No. 3 seed Chris Guccione. Prakash Amritraj of India defeated the USA’s Ryler DeHeart, and 31 year-old Israeli veteran Harel Levy dispatched Great Britain’s Alex Bogdanovic, who lost to Bagdhatis in the Vancouver semifinals last week. Finally, the surprising run of 17 year-old American Ryan Harrison was ended by the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Dennis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 7-5, 6-0.

Tomorrow evening’s Center Court match features the return of the double-handed racquet wielding Battistone brothers, immediately preceded by the Fast Serve Contest.