Victory for Rosset
Swiss tennis player, Marc Rosset, has managed to get past the initial round of an ATP tournament for the first time since April 24. Playing in Stuttgart, the Genevan defeated German qualifier, Jakob Herm-Zahlava 6-2, 6-4.
Rosset’s last victory was over Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in Barcelona. He has lost his opening matches in his last seven tournaments.
The Genevan had little difficulty overpowering a weak opponent. Herm-Zahlava had already lost this year to two other lower-ranked Swiss players, Ivo Heuberger and Yves Allégro.
Rosset won the first four games of the match after holding his serve and polished off the German in just 64 minutes.
The Swiss player’s big serve was once again his weapon of choice. Seventy-two per cent of his first serves earned him valuable points.
Rosset, whose ranking has slipped to around 100th in the world, is now due to play Gaston Gaudio. The Argentinean beat him in the first round at Gstaad last week.
Other Swiss players were less lucky on Tuesday.
At the Umag tournament in Croatia, George Bastl lost to France’s Jérôme Golmard, 6-3, 6-3. This was the Frenchmen’s first match after returning from a back injury.
In Belgium, Basel’s Patty Schnyder retired from her match against Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez at one set apiece. Schnyder blamed fatigue from the previous two weeks, when she reached one final, for pulling out.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.