Germany’s Benjamin Becker upset third-seeded Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-3 on Tuesday in the first round of the Brisbane International, while fourth-seeded Mardy Fish advanced with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 win over Adrian Mannarin of France in just over an hour.
“It’s always good to get a win under your belt ... it’s not every day you beat a top 10 player,” Becker said. “I had a good game plan and it worked well today.”
Becker, ranked 53rd, raced through the first set in 30 minutes, with Verdasco failing to hold serve until the sixth game. The 27-year-old Spaniard recovered a break in the second set and levelled the match by winning the tiebreaker but dropped his opening service game in the third set and Becker didn’t let him back into the match.
Radek Stepanek beat Germany’s Tobias Kamke 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, while South African Kevin Anderson beat Australia’s Peter Luczak 6-4, 6-4 and veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement went down in straight sets to Richard Berankis of Lithuania.
Czech Lucie Safarova reached the women’s quarterfinals for the third straight year when she beat second-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel 3-6, 6-1, 7-5.
Russian No. 5 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also won her second round match, beating Serbian Bojana Jovanovski 6-2, 7-5.
