Indianapolis (Indiana), July 22 (DPA) Out-of-form top seed Dmitry Tursunov had to work his way past German Michael Berrer, winning 6-3, 2-6, 6-0 to reach the second round at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.
Number two Dudi Sela had it easier Tuesday, prevailing 7-5, 6-1 over veteran Vince Spadea.
Tursunov, winner of the Eastbourne grass title the week before Wimbledon but a first-round loser at the All England Club, needed to go the distance as the 2007 Indy winner and 2008 finalist found himself involved in a tough start to the week.
He claimed to have barely touched a racket since exiting on the grass, but Tursunov was not concerned about the time off.
He admitted that playing for the first time since the untimely end of his 2009 grass campaign took some adjusting.
“I only trained for two days and had not played a match for a few weeks,” he said. “I have to get back to my game, and it’s not always easy.”
The no-stress Russian said that he is going into the hard-court season in his usual laid-back style: “I’m hitting the ball hard. I just have to hope that it goes in.”
Tursunov closed out victory over Berrer with a love game.
“I played a good first set, and I got a bit tired, and my mind began to wander. He served better in the second set. But it was an up-and-down match, and his serve really went away in the end.”
Once he settled into the final set, the California-based Tursunov raced to a 5-0 lead and sealed the contest with a love game against an opponent whose serve deserted him on the day with a massive 16 double-faults.
Israeli Sela, who played a role in his country’s Davis Cup upset of Russia little more than a week ago, overwhelmed the 35-year-old Spadea. He next faces US qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jr, a winner against Italy’s Flavio Cipolla 6-2, 6-3.
“I may have been fifth or sixth before but never second,” said the 24-year-old Sela. “When you are ranked 29th, it’s not normal to be seeding this high. But I’ll take it. I think my game has really been improving a lot recently. I’m just playing more solid.”
Russian Igor Kunitsyn, who played on the losing Russian team against Israel, beat Argentine Brian Dabul 6-4, 6-1, while German fifth seed Benjamin Becker beat Japan’s Go Soeda 6-2, 6-3.
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