Troicki and Verdasco advance in Washington

Viktor Troicki beat Ryan Harrison 7-5, 6-2 and Fernando Verdasco defeated Marinko Matosevic 6-4, 6-4 to advanc to the third round of the ATP Washington Classic.

Six second-round matches were pushed to Thursday by rain, including Monfils vs Sweeting and Somdev Devvarman vs Marcos Baghdatis.

Verdasco will next face Nikolay Davydenko, who beat Matthew Ebden 6-3, 7-5.

Davydenko lammented his inconsistency against lesser players during this last month.

"Now I'm losing to wildcards, qualies and 100-something players. I feel like I can't find my game like before," he said. "Maybe confidence. With some luck I'll win some tournaments and my confidence will come back."

"I need to prove a lot. Mentally I'm still down," Daydenko said. "I feel I can play. I don't want to retire."

Radek Stepanek made it past Wayne Odesnik and it looks like he is getting back to a good form.

Michael Russell eliminated Xavier Malisse 7-6 (7/4), 2-3 when the Belgian retired with a sore right arm and Donald Young ousted Jurgen Melzer 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 3-1 when the Austrian retired.

During a rain delay, Melzer said he would not resume play due to a pulled muscle in his left leg.

"You would like to win the last point but I felt like I put him in that position," Young said. "If he felt he could have won he would have come back."

Young will face Russell in the next round.


Source AP