Soderling upsets Nalbandian

Hamburg:

Day two at the Hamburg Masters in Germany dawned with the organisers keeping one eye on the poor weather that threatened to curtail the day's play. Fortunately, they were able to cover centre court as ninth seed David Nalbandian faced up to promising Swede Robin Soderling. Soderling, the world number 37 who won the Milan tournament in February, looked assured from the first point and put Nalbandian under pressure with a series of deep groundstrokes. The first set went to a tiebreak and Soderling just edged it, 10-8, to claim the advantage over the 2002 Wimbledon finalist. With thunder rumbling above the canopy-covered centre court, the 20-year-old Swede broke decisively at 5-5 in the second set and set about serving for the match. Fight put up Nalbandian, though, wasn't going down without a fight and saved a match point when he ran down a Soderling volley and sent a forehand winner down the line. But that's where his challenge ended, as Soderling hit back to move Nalbandian around the court, before ending the match with a well-executed backhand volley. It was disappointing defeat for Nalbandian who won the BMW Open in Munich on clay earlier this month. Another accomplished clay court player, Fernando Gonzalez was in action on Tuesday against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu. Impressive performance The Chilean produced an impressive performance to move past Mathieu in straight sets, winning 6-4, 6-4, after finishing off the contest with a powerful forehand overhead down the line. In other first round action, German tennis fans were hoping for a good performance from the experienced Tommy Haas. The German was up against Dominik Hrbaty, but went a set down after the Slovak secured an early break of serve and pushed on to finish off the set. There wasn't much between the two players, but Hrbaty seemed to play the bigger, more important points better than his opponent and that, eventually, proved to be the difference. At 5-5 in the second set, Hrbaty rose to the occasion and thumped a backhand passing shot down the line to break the Haas serve and give the Slovak the opportunity to serve out the match. Hrbaty didn't need a second invitation and clinched the match, 6-4, 7-5, in the next game, when Haas netted a forehand. (AP)