Querrey Advances As Rain, Darkness Slows Play In NewportPOSTED: 3:33 pm HST July 8, 2009 Newport, RI -- (Sports Network) - American and third-seeded Sam Querrey rolled to victory in Wednesday's abbreviated first round at the $500,000 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships.Querrey posted a 6-3, 6-2 decision against Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo on the grounds of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which will welcome Monica Seles as one of its newest members on Saturday. Also advancing, sixth seed Philipp Petzschner of Germany, who downed Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, and France's Nicolas Mahut who dismantled American Amer Delic 6-4, 6-4. Fifth-seeded Frenchman Arnaud Clement suffered an early exit, as unranked American Alex Bogomolov, Jr. recorded a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. Ten matches were on the schedule, but heavy rain and lack of lighting here forced the remaining matches to be suspended. Second-seeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, the two-time defending champion here, will be among the players taking the court on Thursday to complete the round, squaring off against Italian Flavio Cipolla with the score knotted 3-3 in the first set. Also, matches which had not begun feature eight-seed Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky against Frank Dancevic, Olivier Rochus with Alexander Peya and Rajeev Ram set to duel with Alejandro Falla. Other matches on the docket which were started but halted are: Seventh-seeded Kevin Kim leading Sebastien Grosjean 6-4 heading to the second set; Samuel Groth and Ricardo Mello as the former leads 7-5, 0-3. Second-round matches on Thursday will see Querrey take on Prakash Amritraj, Petzschner face Jesse Levine, Bogomolov battling Mahut, and Brendan Evans facing Robby Ginepri. The 2009 Newport champion will collect $79,000. Copyright 2009 Courtesy of The Sports Network. |







