SAN JOSE, California (AFP) – Top seed and defending champion Fernando Verdasco of Spain breezed into the second round of $600,000 SAP Open ATP hardcourt tournament.Verdasco rolled over US wild card Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-2 in 61 minutes to book a second-round match Thursday against Croatian Ivo Karlovic, who smashed 19 aces in defeating American Ryan Sweeting 6-4, 6-4.Frenchman Gael Monfils, the second seed, was set to face US wild card Bradley Klahn in a later match with the winner to meet American Robert Kendrick in the second round. Kendrick ousted Russia's Igor Kunitsyn 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.Lithuania's Richard Berankis won the final five games to outlast American Donald Young 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 and become the event's first quarter-finalist.Young, a 21-year-old US southpaw ranked 146th in the world, led 5-2 in the third set and served for the match in the ninth game but surrendered the last of his six double faults and was eventually broken.Berankis, a 20-year-old who is down one spot from his career-best ranking of 73rd set last week, broke again for a 6-5 edge and held to finish off Young after two hours and 23 minutes.Berankis will next face Canada's Milos Raonic, who ousted US veteran James Blake 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).Last year at San Jose, Berankis came through qualifying to become the first Lithuanian to reach an ATP quarter-final before falling to Verdasco.A State of Trance 336 (25 january 2008) .End of Another Day .Downstream Illusion .Vertice .Die Infektion Der Geburt
Defending champ Verdasco advances at ATP San Jose
SAN JOSE, California (AFP) – Top seed and defending champion Fernando Verdasco of Spain breezed into the second round of $600,000 SAP Open ATP hardcourt tournament.Verdasco rolled over US wild card Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-2 in 61 minutes to book a second-round match Thursday against Croatian Ivo Karlovic, who smashed 19 aces in defeating American Ryan Sweeting 6-4, 6-4.Frenchman Gael Monfils, the second seed, was set to face US wild card Bradley Klahn in a later match with the winner to meet American Robert Kendrick in the second round. Kendrick ousted Russia's Igor Kunitsyn 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.Lithuania's Richard Berankis won the final five games to outlast American Donald Young 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 and become the event's first quarter-finalist.Young, a 21-year-old US southpaw ranked 146th in the world, led 5-2 in the third set and served for the match in the ninth game but surrendered the last of his six double faults and was eventually broken.Berankis, a 20-year-old who is down one spot from his career-best ranking of 73rd set last week, broke again for a 6-5 edge and held to finish off Young after two hours and 23 minutes.Berankis will next face Canada's Milos Raonic, who ousted US veteran James Blake 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).Last year at San Jose, Berankis came through qualifying to become the first Lithuanian to reach an ATP quarter-final before falling to Verdasco.A State of Trance 336 (25 january 2008) .End of Another Day .Downstream Illusion .Vertice .Die Infektion Der Geburt