Publications
Partners
Ohio - Ninth-seeded Andy Roddick rebounded from losing the second-set tiebreaker to advance to the second round of the Cincinnati Masters with a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 win on Monday over Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.
Roddick threw his racket to the ground in frustration after committing an unforced error on set point in the second set. The three-time Cincinnati finalist and two-time champion then gathered himself, held serve to open the third set and gained momentum with a sharp two-hand backhand down the line on break point for a 2-0 lead.
Roddick, who is getting over a case of mononucleosis, opened up a 5-0 lead before closing out the match with a forehand winner.
"I don't feel perfect, but good enough," he said. "That third set was actually a blessing in disguise. That's the best I've played in months."
No. 25 Thomaz Bellucci also advanced on Monday with a 7-6 (6), 7-5 win over 68th-ranked Benjamin Becker.
Earlier, Taylor Dent rode a decisive serve advantage to a surprisingly easy 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 24 Feliciano Lopez.
The 83rd-ranked American, who reached the main draw as a qualifier in his first appearance in Cincinnati in five years, unleashed 12 aces and had just one double-fault.
His Spanish opponent had just four aces and seven double faults, but Dent believed his return game was more important. He won 42 percent of his return points to 25 percent by Lopez.
"We're both big servers," said Dent, who earned a second-round matchup with top-seeded Rafael Nadal. "The bottom line is it comes down to who's going to put more good returns in play."
Dent was one of a series of surprise winners on the first full day of the $2.4 million Western & Southern Financial Group Masters. Fourteenth-seeded Nicolas Almagro became the second seeded player to be eliminated when he fell to 26th-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-3.
Eleventh-seeded Marin Cilic lost to Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets on Sunday night.
Wawrinka has won three of his four career matches against Almagro.
Also advancing with upsets were No. 102 Paul-Henri Mathieu, who rallied to edge 54th-ranked Victor Hanescu 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 6-3, and 47th-ranked Viktor Troicki, who knocked off No. 28 Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-1.
Tenth-seeded David Ferrer was pushed to three sets before prevailing over 43rd-ranked Alexandr Dolgopolov 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, while 13th-seeded Jurgen Melzer and 21st-ranked Sam Querry both avoided the rash of upsets with 6-1, 6-4 wins, Melzer over No. 62 Santiago Giraldo and Querry over No. 48 Philipp Petzschner.
