Fish advances at Los Angeles tennis

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — American Mardy Fish posted his first victory in nearly two months by beating Alejandro Falla 6-2, 6-2 at the Los Angeles Classic.

The sixth seed broke a run of four opening defeats to advance at an event populated by non-participants in the Beijing Olympics.

Fish last tasted success on June 11, when he beat Australian Chris Guccione at Queen’s club on grass before losing in the third round to compatriot Andy Roddick.

Since then the American has exited in openers at Wimbledon, Newport and the summer Masters tournaments at Toronto and Cincinnati.

Fish won the 30-minute first set with two breaks of serve and began the second with more of the same in his first meeting with the Colombian ranked 116 which ended after just over an hour.

Number 40 Fish will await an opponent from a Tuesday match between Floridian Vince Spadea and Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean.

Two more French players advanced on a sparsely scheduled opening day.

Marc Gicquel stopped Zack Fleishman 6-3, 6-0, and Florent Serra reached the second round over Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-1.

Earlier, Olympic left-over Denis Gremelmayr shoved disappointment aside on Monday to begin his summer hardcourt campaign with a victory after being replaced on Germany’s Beijing squad by Rainer Schuettler.

Gremelmayr, ranked 86th and winner of a set over Roger Federer at Estoril last spring, began his week with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Italian Fabio Fognini,

Despite the German tennis federation backing his cause, Gremelmayr was denied a place on the squad after the country’s Olympic Committee nominated the Schuettler following a surprise Wimbledon semi-final.

The 32-year-old’s name was then rejected by the International Tennis Federation as not eligible for the 56-stong field which was based on world rankings on a June 9 deadline.

But Schuettler, currently 33rd on the ATP, was reinstated to the field on Monday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday, drawing protest from the ITF.

“It’s not Rainer’s fault, he played very well at Wimbledon,” said Gremelmayr, “He did play the semis, even if it was after the Olympic deadline.

“I guess the Olympic committee thought he had better chances than me. I’ve not spoken to Rainer but there is no point to complain.

“I’ve been training for two weeks, the hard court season is very important for me. I cannot call the ATP or ITF every two days asking about the situation.”

Schuettler retained Beijing-based law firm to plead his case for inclusion successfully against ITF objections.

“I will be happy to play Davis Cup for Germany,” said Gremelmayr, winner of Challenger and Futures titles. “It’s not the fault of the German tennis federation, but the Olympic committee.

“And they are just sitting in their offices and making the decisions.”

Copyright © 2008 AFP. All rights reserved.

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