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Safin blitzes China's Lu Hao to reach third round
Former World No. 1 Marat Safin kept things short and sweet in the China Open tennis tournament on Thursday as he cruised past China's Lu Hao 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third round Thursday in Beijing.
Safin fired nine aces and played three love games to dominate the match, rallying for a berth in season-end Masters Cup. Unseeded Lu was held to only six points in Safin's serves with three double faults more than the Russian top player. "My goal was try to win one after another here and I haven't got a title for a long time, but I can't be over confident after a few seeds were ousted so early," said Safin. Sixth-seeded Paradorn Srichaphan endured a hard fight to outclass Israeli Noam Okun with 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) victory. "I had no pressure to play on court although Okun is tough to handle. I know I have to win one by one with 100% efforts. If you can put your best on court you win, otherwise you lose," said the Thai. The third seed David Nalbandian beat Chinese Taipei player Yun-Hsun Lu 6-7 (8-6), 6-3, 6-4. China Open has been the slayer of seeds with three of the top four players' early exit. Carlos Moya, the first-seeded Spaniard was knocked out the tournament in first round by Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a fresh man in ATP tour. Ferrero just followed his fellowman's footstep to return home early in the second round after being ousted 6-4, 6-4 by American Kevin Kim, who has played just 22 ATP matches. |
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The fifth seed, US Open champion in 2000, maintained his momentum in
the second round to held his serves firmly and broke his opponent twice in each
set to claim his second win in an hour today, setting up a match against
American Kevin Kim who beat second seed Carlos Ferrero. 
