By Chris Kane
Germany 4, Rest of the World 0. The SAP Open in San Jose featured a clean German sweep Tuesday with Benjamin Becker, Bjorn Phau, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Tommy Haas each scoring first-round victories.
Becker, the 2004 NCAA Singles Champion while at Baylor University, beat American qualifier Tim Smyczek 6-4, 6-2, while Phau produced the biggest upset of the tournament thus far by eliminating No. 8 seed Jeremy Chardy of France 6-3, 6-1. Kohlschreiber recovered from a first set tiebreak loss to beat Rajeev Ram of the United States, 6-7(7), 6-1, 6-3. Tommy Haas, although recently being granted US Citizenship, completed the German sweep with straight sets victory over American Devin Britton 6-4, 7-6 (3).
With its strong showing today, Germany now features four of the final 16 players in the tournament. With Sam Querrey’s 6-3, 6-2 win over Russia’s Teimuraz Gabashvili in Tuesday’s late match, the United States will also send four players to the round of 16 despite starting with a total of 12 players to Germany’s five. While it is unarguably a strong start, it may be a bit premature to start the celebration. In the tournament’s 121 year history there has never been a German singles champion.