Becker Spoils American Party In Washington

© Getty ImagesBenjamin Becker has won four hard-court Challenger titles in 2009.

German Benjamin Becker prevented a second-round clash between Americans Andy Roddick and Robby Ginepri at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic as he prevailed 7-6(3), 6-7(1), 7-6(4) on Thursday afternoon over recent Indianapolis champion Ginepri at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament in Washington, D.C.

After falling behind 1-4 in the third-set tie-break, Becker hit back to win the final six points. He fired his 27th ace to set up two match points at 6-4, and capitalised on his first opportunity to clinch the victory in two hours and nine minutes. It was Ginepri’s second straight first-round exit, having lost to Marat Safin in Los Angeles two days after winning the first tournament of the US Open series in Indianapolis.

The 47th-ranked Becker is making just his fifth hard-court appearance on the ATP World Tour this season (3-4 record), but put together strong results on the Challenger circuit with three titles in four consecutive hard-court finals beginning in April at Baton Rouge. He followed by winning his first tour-level title as a qualifier at the grass-court tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Becker had foiled another highly anticipated encounter between American players three years ago at the US Open, famously defeating Andre Agassi in the legend’s final professional match before losing to Roddick in the next round. He has an 0-2 record against three-time Washington champion Roddick.

Just two days after a runner-up finish at the clay-court tournament in Umag, Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero made the quick adjustment to hard courts and defeated Ecuadorian lucky loser Nicolas Lapentti 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-0. “It’s very difficult to recover,” Ferrero said about the quick turnaround. “I traveled Monday and arrived in Washington at seven o’clock last night and of course there is the change of surface from clay to hard court and a different time zone. But we’re tennis players and we are used to it. I was tired but I just tried to focus on the next point and forget about being tired.”

Former World No. 1 Ferrero reached a low of No. 115 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings as recently as May, but has since re-entered the Top 30 after reaching the quarter-finals or better in his last three tournament appearances. The 29 year old, who stated his goal to finish the year in the Top 15, said: “I am motivated again. I’m back to the same level as I was before so that’s a reason to keep going.”

In other first-round matches, German Rainer Schuettler prevailed in a third-set tie-break over last week’s Los Angeles semi-finalist Leonardo Mayer 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(5) and French qualifier Sebastien De Chaunac ousted Uzbekistani Denis Istomin 6-3, 7-6(7).