Simian beats Mronz to earn place against Becker in Japan Open Tennis

TOKYO (AFP): Stephane Simian shrugged off a slow start to beat Alexander Mronz here yesterday to make a second-round meeting against Boris Becker at the US$1.21 million Japan Open tennis tournament.

The Frenchman, who failed to convert several set points before losing to world number one Pete Sampras a week ago in Osaka, struggled with his serve in the first set before prevailing 7-5, 6-3 over the 128th-ranked German.

Although Simian began his first-round match with a love game and then took an early break to lead 2-0, he committed five double faults in the first set, one at 30-40 to lose the third game.

But he finally moved into top gear late in the first set and broke the 12th game with a lightning forehand winner to take the set at his fourth attempt, putting heavy pressure attacking the German's second serve.

"The first set was very important. The player who was going to take the first set was going to take a big advantage and I was lucky enough to get the first set under my belt, so it definitely turned around the game," said Simian.

A dispirited German hit a double fault to give Simian an advantage point in the second game of the second set and then made an easy backhand error on the following point to go down 0- 2.

Mronz fired an occasional passing winner but he never recovered the deficit, as the 1.9-metre Frenchman rarely missed his volley at the net.

His teammate Sandrine Testud, however, failed to clear the first hurdle losing to Kyoko Nagatsuka of Japan 4-6, 2-6 on the women's side.

Seventh seed Patrick Rafter of Australia became the first player to make a berth in the third round when he outclassed Thomas Hogstedt of Sweden 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, while 12th seed Daniel Vacek from the Czech Republic joined him with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Robbie Weiss of the United States.

In the first-round action, ninth seed Jonathan Stark had to come back from behind to beat Martin Damm of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, and set up a meeting with fellow American David Pate.

Pate, a qualifier, shocked top local favorite on the men's side, Shuzo Matsuoka, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.

Andrei Olhovskiy of Russia, American David Wheaton and Gianluca Pozzi of Italy also advanced to the second round.

Women's event

The women's first-round winners included third-seeded Naoko Sawamatsu of Japan, her compatriot Naoko Kijimuta, and Rachel McQuillan of Australia.

Hendrik Dreekmann of Germany became the last player to advance to the second round by eliminating 16th seed Byron Black of Zimbabwe 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

There was no surprise on the women's side, although two-time defending champion Kimiko Date, top seed, and fifth seed Patty Fendick had to come back fom behind.

Date downed her compatriot Hiroko Mochizuki 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 and Fendick outplayed fellow American Jean Ceniza 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.