- Associated Press - Friday, March 9, 2012

INDIAN WELLS, CALIF. (AP) - Robby Ginepri became the first American to win his way into the second round of the BNP Paribas Open by beating Paoli Lorenzi of Italy 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday.

The oft-injured Ginepri was joined later by Sam Querrey, a 7-6 (1), 6-4 winner over fellow American Tim Smyczek. But the other U.S. players _ Jack Sock, Jesse Levine and Rhyne Williams _ were sent home after three-set losses.

Lukasz Kubot of Poland came away with a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Ivo Karlovic, who complained about having to share a practice court on Tuesday.

On the women’s side, Irina Falconi of the United States and Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania played into the second set before Dulgheru called it quits due to a left knee injury and gave Falconi a 4-6, 5-2 win.

Jelena Dokic retired after the first game of her match with Gisela Dulko of Argentina because of a right wrist injury. Greta Arn of Hungary lasted five games and was down 4-1 in the opening set of her match with Johanna Larsson of Sweden when she retired with neck problems.

Other men advancing to the second round were Andreas Seppi of Italy, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, Sergly Stakhovsky of the Ukraine, Matthew Ebden of Australia and two Spaniards, Pablo Andujar and Albert Ramos.

Dudi Sela of Israel, Frederico Gil of Portugal, Nicolas Mahut of France and Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan earned their second-round berths later in the day.

On the women’s side, Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova opened the Friday night session with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who had been sidelined for the past month with lower back and left hip problems.

Lauren Davis , the 18-year-old wild card from Alabama and No. 221 in the WTA Tour rankings, toppled Petra Martic of Croatia, 6-2, 7-6 (7), and will face No. 30 seed Nadia Petrova on Saturday.

Varvara Lepchenko, who was born in Uzbekistan and lives in Allentown, Pa., also advanced with a 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory over Alexandra panova of Russia.

Other women’s winners included Simona Halep of Romania, Tamira Paszek of Austria, Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa, Silvia Soler-Espinoza of Spain, Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan, Lesia Tsurenko of the Ukraine and Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania.

Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.

Please read our comment policy before commenting.

Click to Read More and View Comments

Click to Hide