Swiss wins in Tokyo and Moscow

Michel Kratochvil has continued his run of good form in Asia with another victory Keystone Archive

Two Swiss have made it to the third round of the Japan tennis Open. Both Michel Kratochvil and Ivo Heuberger survived tough three-set matches to progress.

Kratochvil, the fifth seed in Tokyo, faced Ota Fukarek, a Czech player ranked over 130 places below him in this year’s Champions Race. The difference in ranking was not reflected by the score.

The Bernese player won the first set in a tiebreak, before losing the second 6-1. Kratochvil managed to break his opponent in the third set to close out the match with a 6-4 score line.

Ivo Heuberger came out on top of a game that was matched more evenly on paper. The St Gallen player, facing Israel’s Noam Behr, lost the first set 6-4, before taking the last two with the same score.

Heuberger will face the defending champion, Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands, in the next round.

In Moscow, Marc Rosset met with further success after qualifying for the main draw of the Kremlin Cup. The Genevan defeated Yugoslavia’s Nenand Zimonjic in the first round in three hard-fought sets, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6.

In the women’s event, top seed Martin Hingis made her way through to the third round, defeating Czech Sandra Kleinova in two sets, 7-5, 6-2.

swissinfo with agencies