WILD card entries Tommy Ho and Mark Philippoussis provided the high-octane action on the opening day of the Salem Open while the top three seeds rested, with the Chinese American edging the rising Australian in three sets at Victoria Park.
The 21-year-old Ho kept his cool under a barrage of aces and searing ground-strokes from 18-year-old Philippoussis to earn a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) first-round victory. Ho now takes on either qualifier Ofer Sela, of Israel, or sixth-seeded Russian Alexander Volkov.
Ranked 103 in the world, Ho reckons he has matured considerably since he first came to Hong Kong as a teenager and feels that helped him against the sometimes impetuous Philippoussis. 'My kind of game is to play really solid,' said Ho. 'Before I was up and down during a match, but now I play solid in every shot.' Fourth-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, the highest seed to play yesterday, moved into the second round with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Mexican qualifier Luis Herrera. Eighth seed Martin Damm was kept on court for more than two hours before defeating Germany's Alexander Mronz.
Damm, of the Czech Republic need 124 minutes to oust the 117th-ranked Mronz 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (12-10) to move into the second round, where he will meet the winner of the first-round clash between Germany's Lars Rehmann and Sweden's Jan Apell.
The 52nd-ranked Damm was joined in the second round by American Jeff Tarango and seventh-seeded Dutchman Jan Siemerink.
Tarango defeated big-serving German Markus Zoecke 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 and now plays the winner of the first-round match between second-seeded Wayne Ferreira and Britain's Jeremy Bates.
