Coria turns it round
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ByEurosport
Published 19/04/2006 at 08:11 GMT
Sixth seed Guillermo Coria pulled off an amazing comeback against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu on Wednesday to book a place in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Having dropped the first set 6-1 and traling 5-1 in the second the Argentine recover
TENNIS 2006 MONTE-CARLO MASTERS second round Coria
Image credit: Reuters
Coria started the match terribly and did looked a shadow of the player who won the same tournament in 2004.
His first serve was rarely on target and the opening exchanges were littered with double faults from the Argentine. But worse still, Coria let his faltering serve affect the rest of his game.
Mathieu pounced on his good fortune and took the first set with the loss of just one game before continuing his run by racing to a 5-1 lead in the second.
Coria pulled a game back, but few would have bet on Mathieu squandering two service games when his opponent was playing as badly as Coria.
But squander them he did, as Coria found strength from somewhere deep inside his compact body to twice break, at 5-2 and 5-4, and set himself up to take the second set on a tiebreak.
With the tide turned, and Mathieu clearly suffering from a severe case of stage-fright, Coria took full advantage. He stormed into a 5-2 lead in the final set as he began to show the Monegasque crowd what he is capable of.
But Mathieu was not finished there - he pulled back to 4-5 and held his opponent at deuce for a lengthy period in the final game before finally capitulating.
Rousing stuff from Coria, but his performance will have raised serious question marks over his ability to win anything on clay this year.
NALBANDIAN OVERCOMES SHAKY START
David Nalbandian overcame a shaky start to book a place in the third round at Monte Carlo with a 7-5 7-5 victory over Andreas Seppi.
The Argentine took his time to shake the cobwebs out of his head in the first match of the day, but once he did, he proved simply too good for the Italian.
On a subdued Court Central, Nalbandian started poorly as Seppi broke his first service game, but the Argentine recovered to break back straight away with some typically powerful hitting.
But as he rarely found his range from the baseline, Nalbandian allowed Seppi to take full advantage, and the Italian raced to a 5-2 lead.
Nalbandian had to dig deep to get back into the game and at 5-3 he managed to break Seppi, who had chances to end the set, but was twice guilty of letting his opponent back in with poorly directed smashes.
An inch perfect lob from Nalbandian at 5-5 broke Seppi again to set up a remarkable first set comeback from the number three seed, who served out and took a one love lead.
The more Nalbandian woke up, the less confidence Seppi seemed to have, and the Argentine eased to a 4-0 lead in the second set.
But in this match of mini-comebacks, Seppi managed to break back at 4-2, and then again to level at 5-5 as doubts began to creep in Nalbandian's mind.
But his experience showed in the end, as he kept his nerve to break back before running out a 7-5 7-5 winner.
"In the beginning it was tough for me," said Nalbandian. "He came back and pushed me very hard."
He will now face a player he knows well - Tommy Robredo, who overcame Olivier Rochus 7-5 6-4.
"He's a good player, we know each other from the juniors. It's going to be a tough match."
NO PROBLEMS FOR FORMER CHAMP
Former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero made short work of Juan Ignacio Chela on the Court des Princes, cruising through to the third round with a 6-1 6-2 victory over the Argentine.
Showing the kind of form which saw him lift the Masters trophy in 2003 and make it to the final in Monte Carlo in 2002, the number 11 seed looked in complete control, as he booked a date with the compatriot David Ferrer, after the number eight seed's 6-4 3-6 6-4 win over Dominik Hrbaty.
ELSEWHERE
Nicolas Kiefer moved past Michael Llodra 7-6 6-4 and into the third round, whilst qualifier Alessio Di Mauro pulled off a shock to knock tenth seed Radek Stepanek out of the tournament 6-2 2-6 7-6.
Sebastien Grosjean dropped out in his game against local resident and qualifier Benjamin Balleret as a back problem flared up in the third set. The Frenchman was losing 4-6 7-5 3-2 when he was forced to retire. Balleret will now meet the winner of Roger Federer's match with Alberto Martin.
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