Nalbandian crashes; Blake advances

August 7, 2006 09:39 PM

James Blake 225 w
TORONTO (AP) -- David Nalbandian lost his first ATP Tour appearance since Wimbledon in less than an hour, falling to Italian qualifier Davide Sanguinetti 6-1, 6-2 at the Rogers Cup on Monday.

Sanguinetti said he was confident going into the match because he'd pushed the third-ranked Nalbandian to four sets in losing to him at the U.S. Open last year.

"I was relaxed," Sanguinetti said after the 59-minute match. "If I was to lose, it would be nothing to be ashamed of losing to No. 3 in the world."

No. 4 Ivan Ljubicic defeated Nicolas Almagro of Spain 7-5, 6-1; Fifth-seeded James Blake dispatched Canadian wild card Philip Best 6-4, 6-1 in 56 minutes, and France's Julien Benneteau ended a four-match losing streak since Wimbledon by downing 10th-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.

Fernando Gonzalez of Chile beat Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, and has been in good form on North America's hardcourts recently after making the quarterfinals in Indianapolis and semifinals in Los Angeles.

Former Australian Open champ Thomas Johansson withstood 18 aces from Feliciano Lopez of Spain to win 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

In a match between former French Open winners playing their first hardcourt match in almost five months, Carlos Moya accounted for Gaston Gaudio 6-1, 6-4, winning the first five games then breaking the Argentine early in the second set.

Tim Henman beat fellow veteran Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 6-3, and could next face Andy Murray or 11th-seeded David Ferrer.

Sebastien Grosjean defeated French countryman Florent Serra 6-3, 6-2 and will likely face Roger Federer if the world No. 1 gets past another Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu; and Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty saved all nine break points he faced in beating American qualifier Robert Kendrick 6-4, 6-4.

Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand beat Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 6-2 winning 22 out of 26 points off his first serve.

^Notes: Ivan Lendl, the record six-time tournament winner, Roy Emerson, the 1964 champ, and Bob Bedard, the last Canadian to win the title with his third success in 1958, were inducted into the Rogers Cup tournament Hall of Fame.

 

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