By Charles Bricker
It took The Worm about 15 minutes after this upset to change into some fresh clothes, collect his paycheck and, with fiancee Nicole Vaidisova in tow, he hit the road for the 50-mile trip to Key Biscayne, where he’ll begin preparations for something a little more serious — the Sony Ericsson Open, the second ATP 1000 event of the season which begins on Wednesday.
It was surprising how easily Radek Stepanek went down in the final set of this 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 loss to young Argentine Leonardo Mayer at the BMW Challenger in Sunrise, Fl., but he got in two matches, defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round, and probably feels that’s enough prep for his next stop.
This being a Challenger, his No. 17 ranking isn’t going to be affected. Mayer, however, had a lot more to gain.
First, he’s building back some of the momentum he thought he’d galvanized just before the Australian Open. Second, he pushed into the quarterfinals against burly lefthander Michael Berrer. And third, though he’s only 22, he’s got a career best win.
Asked if he grew up with a favorite Argentine player, he replied, “They’re all my competition now so I’m my own favorite player.”
It was also a very good day for 33-year-old Stefan Koubek, who authenticated his Sunrise wild card with a 6-4, 7-6 (6) win over No. 44 ranked Jeremy Chardy of France, who continues to be one of the enigmas in men’s tennis.
Chardy has as much offense as anyone, hitting his serve and forehands with near frightening velocity, but his service returning is holding back his progress. He’s winning only 14 percent of his return games for the season and that’s not going to get him into the top 20.
Also into the quarters is Santiago Giraldo of Colombia, who defeated Daniel Brands of Germany 6-4, 6-1 and who will next play Benni Becker, who won over Andrey Golubev 6-0, 6-2.
Three other second round matches were scheduled for late Thursday.
Mayer admitted to some early nerves against Stepanek, but “I loosened up and started playing my game.” He went up a break early in the third set and never relinquished it. Stepanek seemed completely nonplused by his unforced errors.
Koubek, whose best tennis days were behind him long ago, is playing primarily for fun now and he certainly had a good time against Chardy, beating him on a fourth match point after failing to close it out at love-40.
Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com
