Davydenko Bounced While Haas Cruises in Munich

(May 1, 2012) Last year at the BMW Open, Nikolay Davydenko celebrated winning the title and a brand new car. Today the defending champion exited earlier than expected while several German players celebrated first round victories.

Davydenko took on qualifier Robert Farah in a first time meeting that seemed to favor the Russian but ended up being a routine 6-3, 6-2 victory in just under 90 minutes. Farah saved all three break points against him in the match while he only needed to break Davydenko just once in each set to secure the win.

Perhaps the most surprising result came from Latvian Ernests Gulbis who had little trouble against Xavier Malisse in their opening round match. Despite their only other meeting going the distance in a third set tiebreak back in Los Angeles last year, this time Gulbis had no difficulties against the veteran Belgian as he won in comfortable fashion 6-4, 6-2.

Several German players earned wins in front of the Munich crowds including veteran Tommy Haas who took out another German Michael Berrer 6-0, 6-2 while qualifier Dustin Brown defeated another qualifier Daniel Brands  6-4, 6-3.

One German who wasn't so lucky was Philipp Petzschner who played in his first match since Delray Beach after he took two months to recover from injury. Petzschner went down to No. 6 seed Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 7-5.