Dubai: Third-seeded Tomas Berdych joined eighth seed Ernests Gulbis in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open, which got under way at the Dubai Tennis Stadium yesterday.
Berdych has had a good start to the season after making the semi-finals at the season-opening Chennai Open followed by three quarter-finals, including a loss to champion Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open. The Czech continued in the same fashion against Jeremy Chardy of France to win the set 6-2.
In the second set, however, it was the turn of the Frenchman to draw first blood in the very second game as Berdych trailed 0-2 when a brief five-minute drizzle sent the players and crowd scampering away for cover.
When play resumed 20 minutes later, the third seed made full use of this interlude, registering a quick break and then held for 2-2. Berdych came up with a second break in the sixth and then served out set and match to win 6-3.
In the other first round match, Latvian Gulbis cruised past Germany's Michael Berrer 6-3, 6-4.
The highlight of the opening day's play, however, was when the UAE's Omar Behroozian teamed up with Oman's Mohammad Al Nabhani to nearly pull off an upset win over Marcel Granollers and Belgium's Dick Norman.
Astonishing game
After going down in the opening set 0-6, the Gulf pairing played some astonishing tennis on Court No 3 to take the second set 6-3 and push the encounter into the deciding super tie-break.
In the third, Behroozian and Al Nabhani ran up an 5-1 lead, but eventually Granollers and Norman used up all their experience to move into the quarter-finals.
In the day's second match on centre court, Richard Gasquet made an early move to gain a 4-1 lead before winning the match 6-2, 6-4 against Grigor Dimitrov. Meanwhile, the top two seeds in the singles will be in action today with Roger Federer facing Indian Somdev Devvarman at 7pm, while two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic will open the day's proceedings against Michael Llodra at 2pm.
An additional attraction will be the Indian duo Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi - fresh from his marriage to Bollywood actress Lara Dutta in Goa last Saturday - opening their doubles campaign against Novak and Marko Djokovic.
RESULTS
Men's singles (first round): Ernests Gulbis bt Michael Berrer 6-3, 6-4; Philipp Petzschner bt Andreas Seppi 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3; Richard Gasquet bt Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-4; Florian Mayer bt Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 6-2; Lukas Rosol bt Karol Beck 7-6 (2), 6-3; Tomas Berdych bt Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 6-3.
Men's doubles (first round): Marcel Granollers/Dick Norman bt Mohammad Al Nabhani/Omar Bahroozian 6-0, 3-6, 1-0; Sergiy Stakhovsky/Mikhail Youzhny bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez/Marc Lopez 6-1, 6-4.
