Soderling, Dent ousted in Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Florent Serra upset Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-2 Tuesday in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships/Cellular South Cup on Tuesday.
No. 2 seed Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina had a strong first serve, and was even stronger on second-serve points as the 20-year-old defeated countryman Guillermo Canas 6-3, 7-6 (5).
Need the scores from any match played in today's tournaments? On the women's side, top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark breezed to a 6-1 6-2 win over veteran Jelena Dokic of Australia, a qualifier for this event.
Serra came back from a 5-2 deficit in the second set to force a tiebreaker. But Soderling, a two-time finalist including last year, needed trainers to attend to his lower back for nearly 10 minutes between sets.
"After a set like that, you don't want to start the next set quickly," Serra said. "I had a chance to relax myself, get collected and I played well."
Serra broke Soderling's serve to take a 4-2 lead, then, broke again to clinch the match as Soderling racked up a double fault and two errors off his usually strong forehand.
"I was trying to hit quickly to his forehand, then set him up for the back," Serra said. "This is a very, very good win for me at a place where I played well last year. I am looking forward to the week."
Del Potro hit 73 percent of his first serves to 47 for Canas. But he also won 16-of-19 second-serve points, including two second-serve aces that allowed him to rally from 0-30 to hold serve and even the second set at 4-4.
"We know each other very well," Del Potro said. "He's such a good player with such a good service return, you want to end it before he has any chance, if you can."
Going to the tiebreaker, Del Potro used a lob to start a comeback from a 3-1 deficit, and took control with back-to-back aces, which gave him 11 for the match.
Del Potro came on the scene last year between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, winning four straight tournaments in Germany, Austria and the United States on clay and hard courts, winning 23 straight matches, including the finals of a tournament in Los Angeles against American Andy Roddick, the top seed in this event.
"The first tournament they said I was lucky. Second tournament, they said 'Well, OK,' "he said. "By third tournament [Los Angeles], people started to believe."
Wozniacki lost a three-set match in last month's Australian Open to Dokic.
"It's a totally different atmosphere down there, but I learned I'd better be ready from the first point," said Wozniacki, a quarterfinalist here a year ago.
Earlier, Ernests Gulbis upended 2003 champion Taylor Dent 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 and wild card Marcos Baghdatis defeated Kei Nishikori, 7-5, 6-3, Christophe Rochus of Belgium defeated Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3 and Stefan Koubek of Austria beat Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2 6-2.
Fifth-seeded Marina Erakovic, Michaella Krajicek and Victoria Azarenka of Bulgaria reached the quarterfinals of the women's draw. Erakovic had to rally past 17-year-old Melanie Oudin 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in their second-round match. Krajicek beat Kristina Barrois 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (0) and Azarenka defeated Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France 6-2 6-2.
In first-round women's matches, Stephanie Foretz got by Melinda Czink 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Severine Bremond cruised past Kirsten Flipkens 6-4, 6-0; and Chanelle Scheepers defeated Lucie Hradecka 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (5).
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
