Simon upset by Bedene at Winston-Salem

WINSTON-SALEM (North Carolina): Top seed Gilles Simon of France was upset by Britain’s Aljaz Bedene, while two other high seeds survived upset bids on Tuesday during second-round play at the Winston-Salem Open.

Bedene, ranked 58th in the world, battled through tiebreakers in all three sets and match point in the third against the 11th-ranked Simon to win 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6).

Meanwhile, 15th-ranked Kevin Anderson of South Africa, the second seed, beat Kazahkstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, ranked 19th, downed Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 at the Wake Forest Tennis Center in the final tune-up for next week’s US Open.

Earlier in the day, Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili beat Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-3) while Italy’s Simone Bolleli needed just over two hours to defeat seventh-seeded Sam Querrey of the US, 7-6 (9-7), 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (11-9).

Simon and Querrey were among eight seeded players to fall on Tuesday.

Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri upset fourth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu downed fifth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-3.

South Korea’s Hyeon Chung beat ninth seed Benoit Paire of France 6-1, 6-4 while Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta defeated 10th-seeded Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-4, 6-4.

Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman downed 12th-seeded Pablo Andujar of Spain 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 and France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert defeated 14th-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.

Also winning on Tuesday were American Steve Johnson, 2014 finalist Jerzy Janowicz of Poland, 11th-seeded Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic and sixth-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil.

Johnson, seeded 13th and the nly American player remaining, beat Australia’s Sam Groth 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1.

Janowicz needed just less than 71 minutes to defeat defending champion Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2. Last year, Rosol rallied past Janowicz 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.

Vesely beat Slovakia’s Martin Klizan 6-3, 6-4 and Bellucci downed American qualifier Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-2).

WOZNIACKI ADVANCES AT NEW HAVEN

NEW HAVEN (Connecticut): Caroline Wozniacki is feeling healthy, and it showed in another victory at the Connecticut Open.

The four-time champion opened play on Tuesday night by cruising past American Alison Riske 6-0, 6-4 to advance to the third round at the Connecticut Tennis Center.

“I felt pretty well out there,” said Wozniacki, who is ranked fourth in the world. “I felt a little rusty, but I felt like I was hitting the ball well, working hard and my body is feeling good finally.”

Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, who was the lucky loser entry after top seed Simona Halep withdrew due to injury, won her first match despite a brief rain delay.

She eliminated Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-0.

Also winning singles matches were Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, who defeated Kristina Mladenovic 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 7-5, and France’s Caroline Garcia, who won in straight sets 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 over Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova.

Sixth-ranked Czech Lucie Safarova closed out the night with a 6-3, 6-4 win, which was delayed for three-plus minutes due to a fire alarm, over Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu.—AP

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2015

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