Early exits for Swiss tennis players

Rosset was the only Swiss player smiling on Tuesday. Keystone / EPA Photo / AFP / Jonathan Utz

The opening week of the new tennis season has finished early for many of Switzerland's top players. Only Marc Rosset survived the rout which saw four Swiss stars suffer first round defeats.

Rosset, who finished the 2000 season as Switzerland’s top men’s player, enjoyed a comfortable start to the new year. Playing at the ATP tournament in Doah, Qatar, the 30-year-old Genevan beat local wildcard Sultan Khalfan in straight sets (6-3, 6-2).

Rosset, seeded fifth at the $975,000 hardcourt event, will now play the winner of a match between two qualifiers, Bohdan Ulihrach and Nicolas Coutelet.

While Rosset’s day was trouble-free, his Swiss colleagues all endured first round misery.

George Bastl and Michel Kratochvil were both knocked out of the ATP event in Chennai, India on Tuesday. Bastl went down in three sets (7-5, 6-7, 6-1) to defending champion Jerome Golmard, while Kratochvil lost in straight sets (6-7, 3-6) to Sweden’s Andreas Vinciguerra.

In the women’s game, Miroslava Vavrinec crashed out of the first round of the WTA tournamnent in Auckland, just 24 hours after her Fedcup teammate, Emmanuelle Gagliardi had suffered the same fate.

While Gagliardi was mauled 2-6, 0-6 by defending champion Anne Kremer, Vavrinec at least put up some resistance against Israel’s Anna Smashnova, before succumbing to a 6-4, 2-6, 5-7 defeat.

swissinfo with agencies