TENNIS WORLD

Chardy, Garcia-Lopez Reach Second Round

ATP World No. 81 Jeremy Chardy (pictured) booked his place in the second round of the ATP Kremlin Cup with a hard fought 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Potito Starace on Monday in Moscow.
The 21-year-old Frenchman converted three of six break points and won 70% of points on serve as he secured the victory in 1 hr., 44 min. He improves to an 8-6 record for the season.
The Pau native, who is making his debut in Moscow, lit up his season with a run to his first Grand Slam fourth round at Roland Garros (l. to Almagro) and has since reached his maiden ATP quarterfinal at Gstaad (l. to Hanescu) and captured a Challenger title at Graz.
He goes on to face either Yen-Hsun Lu or second seed Igor Andreev.
Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also advanced, knocking out Nicolas Devilder of France 6-2, 6-4 to record his first victory since reaching the Bucharest quarterfinals (l. to Moya) early last month.
The Moscow debutant improves to 21-20 for the season, highlighted by making two semifinal exits at San Jose (l. to Roddick) and Gstaad (l. to Andreev) and a second quarterfinal appearance at Chennai (l. to Nadal).
Second seed Igor Andreev advanced to the second round with little trouble. The Russian won the first set against Yen-Hsun Lu 6-2 before Chinese Taipei's top-ranked player retired with a right ankle injury.
Andreev, the 2005 Moscow champion, improved to an 11-3 career record at the ATP Kremlin Cup and also notched his 40th match win of the year. Andreev is 16th in the ATP 2008 Race, 70 points behind No. 8 James Blake. He could move to within 30 points of Blake by winning the title. The top eight players in the Race qualify for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai.