Saturday, December 12, 2009

Almagro ousted in Bucharest



Second seed Nicolas Almagro crashed out of the BCR Open Romania at the second-round stage as he was beaten by Fabio Fognini in Bucharest.

The Spaniard was roundly outplayed in an hour and 43 minutes and slipped to a 6-4 7-6 (6/3) defeat against the Italian, ranked 87 in the world.

Fognini will next meet another Spaniard, fifth seed Albert Montanes, who was a comfortable 6-1 6-3 winner against countryman Marcel Granollers.

Another all-Spanish match, between q! ualifier Santiago Ventura and Alberto Martin, ended prematurely as the latter was forced to retire due to a leg injury while leading 5-4 in the first set.

Awaiting Ventura is another Spaniard, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, who battled to a 6-3 6-7 (3/7) 6-4 win over Romanian teenager Marius Copil.

Also today there were first-round wins for eighth seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Germany's Simon Greul.