Stakhovsky Ousts Fourth Seed Youzhny; Troicki Into Second Round

Stakhovsky Ousts Fourth Seed Youzhny; Troicki Into Second Round

 

lifetime in Doha Monday.

Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky avenged his 2009 Kremlin Cup defeat to World No. 19 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia on Monday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open with a 7-6(11), 6-2 win in one hour and 45 minutes.  Youzhny had beaten Stakhovsky in straight sets en route to the Moscow title in October.
World No. 60 Stakhovsky, who captured his second ATP World Tour title at the St. Petersburg Open (d. Zeballos) in October, saved two breaks points he faced and hit nine aces.  Fourth seed Youzhny won 31 per cent of points on return of serve and hit five double faults.

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Russian Ernests Gulbis also posted an opening day upset at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Doha, ousting No. 6 seed Albert Montanes of Spain 6-2, 7-5 as he fired 13 aces and won three of his 10 break point chances. 
Earlier in the day, fifth-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki hit 10 aces past Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain for a 6-1, 7-5 win in just 56 minutes.  Troicki, runner-up to Gilles Simon at the PTT Thailand Open in early October, beat No. 72-ranked Gimeno-Traver in five sets at Wimbledon last year.
World No. 29 Troicki next faces Belgian Olivier Rochus, who cruised past Qatari wild card Abdulla Hajji 6-1, 6-0 in 38 minutes.
Seventh-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic recorded his first win in three appearances at Doha, after he defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 34 minutes.  Having hit an ATP World Tour-best 890 aces in 2009, the 30-year-old Karlovic opened his account this year with seven aces.  He won 67 per cent of service points overall.
“I’m really happy,” said Karlovic. “It was not easy because it’s the first match of the year, but I was playing well and I’m satisfied with the way I was playing.”
The 37th-ranked Croat awaits the winner between Austrian Daniel Koellerer and German qualifier Benjamin Becker in the second round, and said about his potential opponents: “They’re both playing well. It is not going to be an easy match, but I think that Becker is in a little advantage.  I played against him a few times two or three years ago and it was always a difficult match, so it is going to be interesting.”
In other first-round matches, Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli defeated Paolo Lorenzi 7-5, 6-3 and Italian Potito Starace posted a 6-2, 6-0 win over Frederico Gil.
Benjamin Becker, Steve Darcis, Mikhail Kukushkin and Ryler Deheart all won final round qualifying matches on Monday to take their places in the main draw.