Paire Edges Rosol In Chennai

Benoit Paire, the 2015 ATP Comeback Player Of The Year, kicked off his 2016 campaign with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Lukas Rosol at the Aircel Chennai Open on Thursday. The third seed secured the victory in one hour, 24 minutes and improved to 2-1 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against the hard-hitting Czech.

“I was moving well, which is very important because Rosol hits the ball very flat and I have to cover the court against him,” said Paire, who made the semi-finals in 2013. “My backhand is one of my best shots and I did a good job of varying it today.”

Though Paire and Rosol combined for 12 aces, the match was decided by the return of serve. The Czech broke three times on eight occasions, but the Frenchman went five for 13 to find the winning margin in both sets. He moved on despite only landing 50 per cent of first serves and winning 44 per cent of second serve points.

Next up for Paire, No. 19 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is No. 157 Thomas Fabbiano, who survived 14 aces to upset sixth seed Gilles Muller 6-4, 7-5 in 77 minutes. The 26-year-old Italian now has consecutive ATP World Tour match wins after an eight-year drought and will take part in his first tour-level quarter-final.

Also in second round action, Indian wild card Ramkumar Ramanathan was slated to meet second seed Kevin Anderson, but saw the latter pull out with a left knee injury before their match. Anderson was replaced by lucky loser Alexander Kudryavtsev, ranked No. 164.

Ramanathan made the most of his opportunity, moving into the quarter-finals with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win in just under two hours. His next opponent will be Britain’s Aljaz Bedene, who needed over two hours to complete a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 comeback against Luca Vanni.