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Tennis player Safin takes out Berdych as seeds fall in Hamburg

category: Tennis

14.05.2008 19:00

Marat Safin continued his comeback with a straight-sets win over ninth-seed Tomas Berdych in the second round of the Hamburg Masters Series here on Wednesday.

On a day of upsets, seventh seed James Black was knocked out 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 by Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic and 13th-seed Tommy Robredo also crashed out to Croatia's Ivo Karlovic after losing 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3).

And Frenchman Jo-Wilifried Tsonga, the 14th seed, made a sharp exit when he went down in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 to Sweden's Robin Soderling.

But Safin is building some momentum here having qualified through the main draw.

He has plummeted down the rankings to 89th after suffering a series of injuries, but hit four aces on his way to knocking out Berdych, 11th in the world, 7-5, 6-4 in 90 minutes.

The 28-year-old Russian, who was runner-up here in 2000 and 2002, is now on course to meet Carlos Moya in the 3rd round if the Spaniard beats Belgium's Oliver Rochus in his second round match.

But there were no problems for Argentinian Juan Monaco who made it through to the third round after the 12th seed breezed past Italy's Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-1.

He will play another Italian in the third round when he faces Andreas Seppi who removed French number one and eighth seed Richard Gasquet on Tuesday.

Local hero Nicolas Kiefer reached the Hamburg third round for the first time since 2001 Wednesday after he beat World No. 10 and last week's Rome finalist Stanislas Wawrinka 7-5, 7-5 on Center Court.

Germany's Kiefer will now play fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko in the third round on Thursday.

Original text is here

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