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COUNTRYWIDE
CLASSIC
By Steve Pratt
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Donald Young - USA |
American Donald Young pulled off
one of the biggest upsets of his young career on Tuesday
night, beating two-time Countrywide Classic champion and No.
8 seed Tommy Haas of Germany, 6-2, 6-4, in the first of two
featured night matches. In the late match, former world No.
1 Carlos Moya needed three sets to beat Xavier Malisse, 6-2,
1-6, 7-6 (5), in a match that didn’t end till until 11:45
p.m. Pacific time.
There was once a time when U.S.
tennis fans wondered how long it would take the 19-year-old
Young, who turned pro at the age of 15, t o win his first
match on the ATP tour. After going back to the junior level
and winning Wimbledon last year, the wins slowly started
coming for Young, who captured the first ATP match win of
his pro career at the Pilot Pen in New Haven, Conn., last
August.
He then made it into the third
round at the U.S. Open and played well enough to see his
world ranking climb 386 spots into the top 100. This year,
his best results have been a quarterfinals showing at
Memphis and getting to the third round of the Masters Series
event at Indian Wells.
In a matchup of the two of the
tallest players in the tournament, 6-foot-4 Marat Safin
served his way past 6-foot-9 John Isner, 6-3, 6-4, in a
first-round match. Safin is coming off a semifinal
appearance at Wimbledon last month where he lost to No. 1
Roger Federer. He will next take on left-hander Wayne
Odesnik in the second round. Odesnik beat fellow American
Bobby Reynolds, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
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Vincent Spadea - USA |
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Photos by Adam Davis |
In other first-round matches
Tuesday, American Vince Spadea beat Sebastien Grosjean of
France 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Dusan Vemic of Serbia downed former
Stanford No.1 Sam Warburg 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4; and qualifier
Andrea Stoppini of Italy got past Igor Kunitsyn of Russia
6-1, 6-3.
Spadea, 34, draws No. 6 seed Mardy Fish today in a match to
begin not before 4 p.m. Spadea lost to James Blake here in
last year’s quarterfinals. In Wednesday’s only evening
singles match it will be Safin against Odesnik.
The Countrywide Classic legends event will begin today with
Jimmy Arias playing Mikael Pernfors while Aaron Krickstein
will face Wayne Ferreira in the other quarterfinal. The
winners of those matches will then face former World No. 1s
and Grand Slam champions John McEnroe and Jim Courier in
Thursday's semifinals. The final will be played on Friday.
For questions or comments email Steve at
steve@tennisnews.com
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