Nestor/Zimonjic Fall In Vienna; Frenchmen Oust Lyon Top Seeds

© Stephane Pillaud / Sportissimo Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut celebrate a first-round upset of the top seeded duo in Lyon.

Top seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic suffered their third successive opening round defeat – and eighth overall this year – on Tuesday at the Bank Austria TennisTrophy.

The Canadian-Serbian team, currently No. 2 in the year-to-date 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings and already assured of competing at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November, fell to first-time pairing John Isner and Jordan Kerr in a serve-dominated clash 4-6, 7-6(8), 10-6 in just over 90 minutes.

Isner and Kerr failed to convert any of their four break point opportunities, but seized control of the Match tie-break by taking a 3-0 lead.  The duo won 74 per cent of service points and hit 10 aces overall.

Nestor and Zimonjic, who won 77 per cent of service points and hit 13 aces, dropped to a 47-14 match record on the season.  The pair has won seven of their 14 career titles this year.

Isner and Kerr go on to meet Italians Andreas Seppi and Simone Vagnozzi in the quarter-finals.

Second seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, who captured the 2007 title over Tomas Behrend and Christopher Kas, knocked out Austrian wild card Martin Fischer and Philipp Oswald 6-4, 7-6(3) in 70 minutes. 

The Poles, currently No. 9 in the year-to-date 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings, are 2-2 in ATP World Tour finals with a 29-21 match record this year.  The pair has won titles at the AEGON International in Eastbourne and the Proton Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2009.

At the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut dealt top seeds Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman a setback in their bid for a Barclays ATP World Tour Finals berth as they prevailed 7-6(4), 7-6(3) in the first round match. Moodie and Norman, finalists this year at Roland Garros, had entered the week at No. 7 in the 2009 ATP Doubles Team Rankings – holding a 365-point lead over Fyrstenberg and Matkowski in the ninth spot.

Benneteau and Mahut teamed up to reach the Lyon finals in 2003 (l. to Erlich and Ram), and Benneteau captured the title in 2006 alongside fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement.

Jeff Coetzee and Stephen Huss earned safe passage into the quarter-finals at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Lyon, leading Martin Damm and Robert Lindstedt 7-5, 2-1 when the No. 3 seeds retired from the match due to Lindstedt's right elbow injury. Coetzee and Huss reached the semi-finals last week in Stockholm.

At the St. Petersburg Open, also an ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tennis tournament, Leos Friedl and Jaroslav Levinsky knocked out second seeds Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julien Rojer 7-6(7), 6-7(7), 11-9 in two hours and eight minutes.

Russians Igor Andreev and Mikhail Youzhny defeated wild card duo Pavel Chekhov and Valery Rudnev 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-5 in one hour and 38 minutes.  Youzhny captured his fifth ATP World Tour singles title at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Sunday.  Meanwhile, Pablo Cuevas and Horacio Zeballos overcame Igor Kunitsyn and Marat Safin 7-6(6), 2-6, 10-8.