Tennis: Underdogs reign in Open battles

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The underdogs had their day in the wan sun as all four qualifiers at the international open yesterday won through to today's second round.

The value of early-season match play was never more evident as players with the advantage of playing some testing qualifying matches ousted higher-ranked opponents.

Sadly the two New Zealanders to see action on the second day of the Heineken Open could not find anything like the same winning form.

Mark Nielsen and Simon Rea were both tipped out in straight sets spending, in total, barely two hours on centre court.

But any disappointment for the fans at the end of New Zealand's participation in singles was quickly forgotten as rising Spanish star Rafael Nadal shrugged off his late arrival to upset fourth seed and former winner Sjeng Schalken 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

Relegated to a back court to allow special invite Todd Martin to play, and lose to, fellow American (and fifth seed) Vince Spadea on centre court, Nadal will be in the limelight tonight.

Nielsen kept former open champion Dominik Hrbaty - who last weekend began his year in style with victory in the ATP tournament in Adelaide - out of the locker room for just 70 minutes in going down 6-3, 6-2.

Rea, who began and ended his match with two double faults (and tossed in another half dozen), went out 6-2, 6-1 in a bare 52 minutes to Croatian qualifier Mario Ancic.

Rea, who was "prepared to face the music" after his shocker, said simply: "I have to serve better to have any chance. I'm not going to beat anyone decent serving like that."

His 40 per cent first-serve effort backed that. In failing to convert any of his five break-point chances, Nielsen was always struggling.

Like Ancic, qualifiers Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) and Dutchman Fred Hemmes also won in straight sets.

The German beat six-year tour veteran Luis Horna (Peru) 6-4, 6-3 in the day's first match on the back court.

In the last match on the same court, Hemmes beat 59th-ranked Swede Robin Soderling 6-2, 6-3.

The biggest win for a qualifier also came in the nether regions where Luxembourg's Gilles Muller continued his run by upsetting former world No 6 Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) in a three-set, 2h 22m battle.

His serve broken in the first and 11th games, Lapentti lost the 1h 10m first set but bounced back to take the second in a tiebreaker after he broke Muller for 4-2 but then handed that advantage straight back.

Lapentti was always ahead in the tiebreaker but did not fire in the deciding third, holding serve just once.

Elsewhere there was some sanity, even if Gustavo Kuerten did need a drawn-out battle to win through and Argentine sixth seed Gaston Gaudio had to shrug off an early start to beat Radek Stepanek in straight sets.