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| Arnaud Clement © Gallo Images |
French veteran Arnaud Clement broke a losing streak lasting almost five months with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of German Andreas Beck at the Stockholm Open in Sweden on Tuesday.
Former Australian Open finalist Clement, without a win since
Roland Garros, turned the tables on his bad luck in dramatic
fashion with the upset of the fifth seed after qualifying into the
field at the Kungligahallen.
The 31-year-old's season had been a huge disappointment since
winning his French Open first round against Russian Dmitry
Tursunov, with the world number 138 falling in seven matches since
that success on May 27.
Clement is playing this week for the first time in a month after
going out in the Metz opening round as a lucky loser to Serb Janko
Tipsaravic.
The Frenchman's win was his eight of the season against 17
defeats and left Beck, the Gstaad winner on clay in August,
standing 22-20.
"It was much better today," said Clement.
"I've been losing in the first round of Challenger events in the
past few weeks but I'm starting to play much better.
"I've won a few matches in the last few days and it's great for
my confidence."
"I wasn't feeling great physically in the last few months and
lost all my confidence. Winning qualifying matches has helped me
find my form, and winning my first main draw match since Roland
Garros against a seed helps a lot."
"I will play a qualifier next, so it's a nice opportunity to
progress further but I can't take anything for granted."
The number 37 Beck, at fifth the only seed on court during Day
two, saved a pair of match points in the penultimate game but
eventually fell to Clement's overwhelming superiority on the day.
Clement broke three times while saving the only two break points
he faced.
He next plays German Michael Berrer, who won a battle of
qualifiers over rising Finn Henri Kontinen, the 19-year-old 2008
junior Wimbledon finalist, 7-5, 7-6 (9/7).
Brazil's Tomas Bellucci booked into the second round over Dane
Frederik Nielsen 7-6 (8/6), 6-3.
Top seed and home favourite Robin Soderling goes into action
Wednesday against Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador, with the Roland
Garros finalist standing on provisional ninth for one of two spots
left in the eight-man World Tour Finals from November 22 in London.
Andy Roddick claimed the sixth qualifying spot with Fernando
Verdasco and Soderling the next pair in the queue.
"Im not counting points, but I hope I can do well enough to make
it to London," said Soderling.
"All I can do is try and win every match. I want to do
everything I can to qualify."
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