Montanes upsets Davydenko at Open Sud

MONTPELLIER, France (AP) - Sixth-seeded Albert Montanes of Spain rallied from a set and break down to beat top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) in the quarterfinals of the Open Sud de France on Friday.

Montanes won on his third match point when Davydenko's weak backhand return hit the net. The Spaniard will play either fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic or Jarkko Nieminen in his first career indoor semifinal.

Davydenko's seventh ace gave him the opening set and he looked in total control when he broke for a 2-0 lead in the second with a superb crosscourt winner.

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But a sloppy sixth game ended with Davydenko's two-handed backhand into the net, allowing Montanes to pull even at 3-3. Davydenko then missed another chance in the 11th game when Montanes saved a break point with a net volley.

Montanes wasted his first match point, serving at 5-4 in the third set, as Davydenko pressured him into unforced errors on his backhand.

But Montanes broke straight back for another chance to close out on serve at 6-5, then missed his second match point when Davydenko's crisp forehand bounced inside the line.

© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Dementieva beats Stosur at WTAs

DOHA, Qatar (AP) -Elena Dementieva of Russia rallied to beat Samantha Stosur 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4) Thursday for her first group-stage win at the WTA Championships.

Stosur earned a place in the semifinals despite the loss, having won her first two singles matches at the tournament. Dementieva has a 1-1 record after losing to Caroline Wozniacki in her first round-robin match.

Dementieva took a 3-1 lead in the second set before leveling the match with a blistering backhand down the line. Dementieva saved both break points she faced in the third, which went with serve until the tiebreaker.

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Wozniacki played Francesca Schiavone of Italy later Thursday.

© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Defending champion Stakhovsky loses in St. Pete

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -Defending champion Sergiy Stakhovsky was eliminated from the St. Petersburg Open on Wednesday, losing to Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the first round.

The tournament later also lost fifth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia, who went down 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to German veteran Rainer Schuettler.

Stakhovsky saved a match point and broke Becker in the 12th game of the second set to stay in the match. But Becker never gave the second-seeded Ukrainian a chance in the third set, losing only six points on his serve.

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"It's always difficult to come and defend your title," said Stakhovsky. "I could have won the match, but the chances I had, I didn't use them properly and the match was over. I cannot say that I played badly but he left me no chances after a break in the third set."

After trading sets with 33rd-ranked Troicki, who won his maiden title at the Kremlin Cup on Sunday, Schuettler turned the match his way in the third set. The former top-five player, currently ranked 103rd, saved five break points in the sixth game which lasted 8 minutes and 53 seconds. The 34-year-old German then won three more games to wrap up the win after 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Troicki said he felt tired after playing in singles and doubles finals in Moscow.

"I had some chances in the match but I didn't play good," said Troicki. "My game was defensive. I tried to be focused on my game but it didn't work at some moments, while Schuettler played good, especially in the end of the match."

Also on Wednesday, fourth-seeded Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 6-2, while Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov, who ousted Stakhovsky in the second round of the Kremlin Cup last week, defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-6 (5), 6-4.

© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Pavlyuchenkova upset at Kremlin Cup

Kohlschreiber beats Falla in Vienna opener

VIENNA (AP) -Seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber eased past Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-0, 6-3 on Monday in the first round of the Bank Austria Trophy.

The German hit five aces but lost his serve once in the second set on the only break point he faced.

Also, Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic downed Pere Riba of Spain 6-0, 6-2 and will next play second-seeded Marin Cilic, who has a bye in the opening round.

Italy's Andreas Seppi defeated Martin Fischer of Austria 6-3, 6-3 to set up a second-round match against either Anreas Haider-Maurer or the former top-ranked Thomas Muster, who makes his comeback on the ATP tour at age 43.

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Frederico Gil into second round at Open Sud

MONTPELLIER, France (AP) -Seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet of France rallied from a set and a break down Monday to beat Julian Reister of Germany 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of Open Sud de France.

Gasquet struggled to return serves in the first set but recovered to wrap up the match with a backhand winner after 2 hours, 6 minutes. Gasquet will next face either Jarkko Nieminen or Florent Serra.

Gasquet served 11 aces and broke his opponent four times while Reister converted only one of his five break chances.

In the first-set tiebreaker, Gasquet had set point at 8-7 up on Reister's serve, but the German won the next three points.

Gasquet then lost his serve right at the start of the second set - having not faced a single break point in the first set. But he broke straight back and then held easily to make it 2-1.

Gasquet had two break points for a 4-2 lead but Reister saved both before faltering in his next service game, where he was broken to love.

Frederico Gil of Portugal beat Edouard-Roger Vasselin of France 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 to advance.

Both players struggled for consistency and lost serve four times each on the indoor hard court. Gil also saved a further nine break points.

The 100th-ranked Gil, who lost his only career final this year to Albert Montanes of Spain on clay on home soil at Estoril, next plays France's second seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who had a bye to the second round.

Later Monday, the sixth-seeded Montanes was to play Arnaud Clement of France.

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Santana says Nadal will be sporting great

MADRID (AP) -Spanish tennis great Manuel Santana believes Rafael Nadal is not just the best athlete to come out of Spain but is on his way to being the greatest sportsman of his generation.

Santana was quoted by Spanish media saying that Nadal is "without a doubt the best Spanish athlete but being so young he'll finish by being the best world athlete."

The 24-year-old Nadal became the seventh player to complete a career Grand Slam in September with his U.S. Open victory. That came after French Open and Wimbledon triumphs earlier in the summer.

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Santana was previously Spain's most successful player with four Grand Slam titles. Nadal has won nine.

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Wawrinka cruises into 2nd round in Stockholm

STOCKHOLM (AP) -Fifth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland cruised through to the second round of the Stockholm Open on Monday by beating Italy's Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-2.

Wawrinka broke Seppi three times to take the first set. He started the second with two consecutive aces and broke Seppi twice more for a comfortable victory at the Royal Tennis Hall in the Swedish capital.

"It was almost a perfect match for me," Wawrinka said.

Wawrinka will next face the winner of Swedish qualifier Filip Prpic and Robin Haase of the Netherlands.

Swedish wild card Michael Ryderstedt - ranked 392nd - also advanced after beating Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 7-6 (3), 6-3. Gimeno-Traver's eight aces weren't enough to overcome an opponent ranked 331 spots below him.

Finland's Jarkko Nieminen overcame a poor start to beat Michael Berrer of Germany 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Top-seeded Roger Federer and Swedish favorite Robin Soderling enter the indoor hard-court tournament in the second round later this week, as do third-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.

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