Bautista Agut Falls at Hamburg Fish Roddick Win Doubles 1st Round in Atlanta and Andujar Enters QF at Gstaad

Frenchman Benoit Paire defeated Spanish veteran and no.2 seed Tommy Robredo for the second time in four days. After shattering Robredo’s third Bastaad title dreams last Sunday, Paire beat Robredo once again in the second round at Hamburg. Once again Robredo began well but Paire rallied to win the next two sets and entered the quarterfinals of the Hamburg Open on Wednesday. No.3 seed Roberto Bautista Agut also lost in the second round to Aliaz Bedene of Great Britain. In Atlanta, Mardy Fish ensured that he would play at least one more match, when he and his doubles partner Andy Roddick combined to beat Yen-Hsun Lu and Jonathan Marray in the first round. In singles draw, Vasek Pospisil overcame sweltering Atlanta heat in outlasting Yen-Hsun Lu and made it to the quarterfinals. In the Swiss Open at Gstaad, defending champion Pablo Andujar of Spain advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic in straight sets. For a place in the semifinals, Andujar will have to beat two-time champion Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci, who won his second round match against Stephane Robert of France.

Rafael Nadal will play his second round match at Hamburg against Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely, who completed his rain-halted match against Austria’s Andreas Haider-Mauer on Wednesday. Vesely had lost the first set but he recovered to dominate the next two sets and finished with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory. On Wednesday, the second and third seeded players made their exits from the tournament. Second seeded Tommy Robredo fell in a rematch of his Bastaad final to Frenchman Benoit Paire, who bounced back after losing the first set 2-6. It was like a Bastaad script unfolding all over again as Paire rallied in the last two sets to clinch the quarterfinal berth with a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Robredo. Third seeded Bautista Agut lost to Britain’s Aliaz Bedene in two sets, both of which went to tiebreaks. Bedene faces Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the quarterfinals. The Italian fought hard against Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas, before beating him 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. In one more upset at Hamburg, 6th-seeded and 2012 titlist Juan Monaco lost 1-6, 5-7 to French qualifier Lucas Pouille, who will take on compatriot Benoit Paire for a place in the semifinals. Uruguay’s fifth seeded player Pablo Cuevas defeated Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 7-6, 6-4 in his first-round match.

In the BB&T Atlanta Open, Canada’s no.2 seed Vasek Pospisil developed cramps in the extreme heat conditions playing against Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu. But Pospisil survived the second set scare in beating Lu 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. At 95 F, the Canadian looked unsteady after losing the second-set on tiebreak. He left the court and everyone thought he was not coming back but Pospisil re-entered and finished with a win. Up next, Pospisil faces, no. 5 seed Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who beat Australia’s Sam Groth 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. But once again, Atlanta was abuzz with the doubles first round match between Mardy Fish/Andy Roddick and Yen-Hsun Lu(Taiwan)/Jonathan Marray(Britain). Roddick was coming back three years after retirement to carry his friend Mardy Fish through his farewell tour. The Fish/Roddick combo scored an easy 6-4, 6-4 victory and Fish survived another day.

In the Swiss Open at Gstaad, defending champion and fourth seed Pablo Andujar of Spain reached the quarterfinals after beating Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 7-5, 6-2. For a place in the last-four, Andujar will play two-time champion Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil. In his second round match on Wednesday, Bellucci beat Stephane Robert of France 6-3, 6-2. It was a rain-affected day at Gstaad but all seeded players advanced in their matches. Spain’s Feliciano Lopez defeated German qualifier Julian Reister 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in his first match since getting married last week. Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo also won 6-2, 6-3 in his match against Marsel Ilhan of Turkey.