Roddick, Potro move ahead

Published October 30, 2008

PARIS, Oct 29: Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro were firmly on track for a Masters Cup berth as they strolled into the third round of the Paris Masters on Tuesday.

American Roddick, sixth in the ATP Race, beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4 while Argentine Del Potro, who is seventh, thrashed Croatian Mario Ancic 6-0, 6-4.

Three spots for next month’s season-ending tournament in Shanghai are still up for grabs in Paris with Roddick, Del Potro and France’s Gilles Simon, eighth in the ATP Race, occupying the remaining places at the start of the tournament.

Roddick needed just one break in each set to beat Lopez, who made too many unforced errors to bother the 2003 US Open champion.

World No 3 Novak Djokovic reached the third round after Russian Dmitry Tursunov retired with a shoulder injury.

The third-seeded Serb, who was 6-2, 4-3 ahead, will next meet Czech Radek Stepanek or France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Djokovic got off to a flying start, breaking in the second and eighth games to quickly bag the first set, with Tursunov calling the trainer in to treat his shoulder.

Following an early exchange of breaks, the Serb broke his opponent’s serve again and one game later Tursunov retired.

Tuesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Second round: 15-Fernando Verdasco (Spain) bt Tommy Robredo (Spain) 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2; 7-Andy Roddick (US) bt Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 6-3, 6-4; 3-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) 6-2, 4-3 – Tursunov retired; 9-Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) bt Mario Ancic (Croatia) 6-0, 6-4; 16-Gael Monfils (France) bt Juan Monaco (Argentina) 6-4, 6-4.

First round: Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) bt Marc Gicquel (France) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; Florent Serra (France) bt Guillermo Canas (Argentina) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) bt Viktor Troicki (Serbia) 6-3, 6-4; Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) bt Mikhail Youzhny (Russia)

6-1, 6-4; Robin Soderling (Sweden) bt Josselin Ouanna (France) 6-3, 6-4.

—Reuters

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