ATP KREMLIN CUP

Chardy, Garcia-Lopez Reach Second Round

ATP World No. 81 Jeremy Chardy (pictured) booked his place in the second round of the ATP Kremlin Cup with a hard fought 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Potito Starace on Monday in Moscow.
The 21-year-old Frenchman converted three of six break points and won 70% of points on serve as he secured the victory in 1 hr., 44 min. He improves to an 8-6 record for the season.
The Pau native, who is making his debut in Moscow, lit up his season with a run to his first Grand Slam fourth round at Roland Garros (l. to Almagro) and has since reached his maiden ATP quarterfinal at Gstaad (l. to Hanescu) and captured a Challenger title at Graz.
He goes on to face either Yen-Hsun Lu or second seed Igor Andreev.
Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also advanced, knocking out Nicolas Devilder of France 6-2, 6-4 to record his first victory since reaching the Bucharest quarterfinals (l. to Moya) early last month.
The Moscow debutant improves to 21-20 for the season, highlighted by making two semifinal exits at San Jose (l. to Roddick) and Gstaad (l. to Andreev) and a second quarterfinal appearance at Chennai (l. to Nadal).
Second seed Igor Andreev advanced to the second round with little trouble. The Russian won the first set against Yen-Hsun Lu 6-2 before Chinese Taipei's top-ranked player retired with a right ankle injury.
Andreev, the 2005 Moscow champion, improved to an 11-3 career record at the ATP Kremlin Cup and also notched his 40th match win of the year. Andreev is 16th in the ATP 2008 Race, 70 points behind No. 8 James Blake. He could move to within 30 points of Blake by winning the title. The top eight players in the Race qualify for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai.







Information and photo from ATP