Once labelled ”The Magician” of the tennis courts because of his cunning armoury of soft-balling and two-handed strokes, South African Open-bound Fabrice Santoro was shorn of all magic while going down 6-0 6-1 to current world number-one Rafael Nadal in the first round of the Qatar Open in Doha on Tuesday.
Nadal’s bruising bombardment of shots were too much for ”The Magician” and threatened to blow Santoro on to the nearby desert dunes as he compiled a mere four points in the first set and performed only marginally better in the second set.
The entire game lasted a mere 45 minutes and suggested the 36 year-old Santoro, the designated fourth seed in next month’s South African Open with a 51st ranking, could have problems fulfilling his earmarked place as a semi-finalist.
It has not been a great week for South African Open aspirants generally, with Kevin Anderson — the only South African among the 23 automatic acceptances for Montecasino — failing to qualify for the Brisbane International’s first round.
He went down 6-3 2-6 6-0 to Russian Teimaraz Gabashvili in the final qualifying round.
More comforting news for the South African Tennis Association and Montecasino tournament organisers was the opening round victory in Brisbane of the earmarked South African Open top seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who accounted for Argentina’s Augustin Calleri 6-2 7-5. — Sapa