Tennis: Corretja struggles to take advantage of Canas

ALEX CORRETJA struggled to beat Guillermo Canas, of Argentina, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 in the first round of the Gelsor Open in Bucharest yesterday.

The top seed for the event and the world No 10, started by playing patient baseline tennis on the slow clay courts of Romania. The Spaniard won the first set comfortably, but then decided to switch to a more aggressive style of play in the second set - perhaps to please the crowd - which saw him lose the momentum.

The change of tactics gave Canas the opportunity to get back into a match that he had looked beyond him. The Argentinian managed to break Corretja's serve three times in a row to take the second set easily, 6-1.

Canas started to grow in confidence for the final set, forcing the Spanird to return to a more counter-punching approach. In a topsy-turvy match the outcome was decided, perhaps appropriately, by a tie-break, which Corretja won 7-3 after a tough battle.

Alberto Martin, of Spain, rallied to beat the home favourite, Adrian Voinea, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 after the Romanian had wasted seven match points in the final set and Karim Alami, of Morocco, beat Austria's Stefan Koubek 6-2, 6-1.

Goran Ivanisevic was beaten 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 by the No 5 seed, Marc Rosset of Switzerland, in three tight sets in the second round of the Toulouse Open on Monday night.

Rosset took more than two hours before winning only his third match in 13 meetings against the former Wimbledon finalist.

Results, Digest, page 31