Ferrer Upset, as Nadal Escapes in Doha
The theme of upsets on Tuesday carried over to the men’s side as well, as fourth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer was bounced from the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in the first-round. Ukrainian Ilya Marchenko upended Ferrer 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-2.
“It was a fantastic day for me, I am really happy with the performance,” said Marchenko. “It’s a fantastic way to start the season.”
After dropping the opening set, Marchenko capitalized on his only break chance in the second set and both of his break chances in the third set, while Ferrer failed to win any of his five break opportunities in the final two sets.
Ferrer, who is playing with a new racket this season, was not pleased with his performance.
“Of course I am disappointed because I lost in the first round,” said Ferrer. “I am happy with the racket. The problem is not the racket, it’s my serve.”
Marchenko will next take on Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili, who knocked out Italian Simone Bolelli 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Ferrer’s compatriot found himself in a tough match himself on Tuesday as he squared off with another Spaniard, Pablo Carreno-Busta.
Carreno-Busta snuck out the first set in a tie-breaker, but from there the match was all Nadal. He won five of his nine break point chances and won 72 percent of his first serve points to hold off Carreno-Busta and advance.
Up next for the second-seed Nadal is Robin Haase of the Netherlands. Haase turned aside qualifier Aslan Karatsev 5-7, 6-1, 7-5.
Tomas Berdych breezed in his 2016 opener, moving past Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-5, 6-4. The third-seeded Czech takes on Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the second-round. Dzumhur beat Marco Cecchinato 6-4, 6-2 in his opening-round contest.
Lithuania’s Ricardis Berankis knocked off sixth-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to move on, while eighth-seeded Argentinean Leonardo Mayer pushed through with a 6-2, 6-1 over Benjamin Becker.
