Gagliardi impresses again

Swiss number three Emmanuelle Gagliardi has followed up on last week's successes in Indian Wells tennis tournament with a comfortable first round win at the prestigious Key Biscayne event.

Having last week reached her first semi-final at a major WTA tournament, Gagliardi got back to winning ways on Wednesday – downing Germany’s Jana Kandarr in straight sets (6-0, 6-3).

Prior to Indian Wells, the two 25-year-olds were just nine places apart in the world rankings but Gagliardi’s impressive run in California helped her rocket into the top 50, more than 30 places ahead of Kandarr.

In Florida, Gagliardi seemed keen to show that Indian Wells was no fluke, racing through the first set in just 21 minutes. Going on to break her Munich-born opponent five times without reply, the Genevan wrapped up victory in under an hour to ease into the second round.

Her next opponent is likely to offer a good deal more resistance, though, with Gagliardi set to face Russian 12th seed and world number 15 Elena Dementieva, who was handed a bye into the second round.

No joy for Swiss men

There was less cheerful news for Switzerland’s men on the opening day of the $3.6 million Key Biscayne tournament, which is regarded as the most prestigious tennis competition after the four Grand Slam events.

Swiss men’s number two Michel Kratochvil made an early exit despite getting off to a good start in his first round match against America’s Mardy Fish. Having taken the first set 6-3, Kratochvil (ATP 43) soon found himself in difficulty against a 20-year-old player ranked more than 100 places below him in the world pecking order.

After losing the second set 5-7, the 22-year-old from Bern surrendered the deciding set 1-6.

Swiss number four Ivo Heuberger (ATP 112) also threw away a promising start in his first round match against Argentina’s Gaston Gaudio (ATP 56), eventually losing 6-3, 4-6, 2-6.

Swiss veteran Marc Rosset (ATP 116) completed a disappointing day for the Swiss men, crashing out in three sets (2-6, 6-4, 3-6) to Italy’s Andrea Gaudenzi (ATP 55).

swissinfo with agencies