Estoril Open 2005 News and Events

Gaston Gaudio
© João Lagos Sports

Second seed Gaston Gaudio came back from the brink of defeat before overcoming Czech Jan Hernych 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-0 in the first round of the Estoril Open on Monday.

Hernych led 5-3 in the second set and had a match point at 5-4, but Gaudio, the reigning Roland Garros champion, hit back and won 10 consecutive games before completing a remarkable victory in 2 hours, 24 minutes.

"The first match at a tournament is always difficult," said Gaudio. "But being so close to losing, I'm really happy I was able to turn around the match. I had only seen him play once at the Australian Open and I didn't think he could play that well on clay. I didn't play my best tennis, the conditions weren't easy as it was really windy."

The Argentine, who lost in the first round in Estoril 12 months ago to Florian Mayer, looked to be heading for a similar fate as he was broken four times in the opening set and a half and was staring down the barrel of defeat. But this year's Vina del Mar and Buenos Aires champion called on all his experience, and finally began converting his chances.

After saving the match point, Gaudio raced through the final set in just 16 minutes to book his place in the second round against another Czech in Michal Tabara, who defeated countryman Tomas Berdych 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.

In the day's only other first round men's matches, Spain's Santiago Ventura also recovered the loss of the first set before defeating Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, while Guillermo Garcia-Lopez overcame Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic in straight sets.

In the women's draw, sixth seed Dally Randriantefy upsed Portuguese wild card Neuza Silva 6-2, 6-2, and Alyona Bondarenko of the Ukraine halted Jelena Dokic's comeback from injury with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory.