Frenchman Chardy extends winning streak in Hamburg

Berlin: Frenchman Jeremy Chardy extended his winning streak to six matches when he edged past German Andreas Beck 7-6, 7-6 on Wednesday to move into the third round of the German Open in Hamburg.The 22-year-old, who won his maiden tour title in Stuttgart last week to see his world ranking rise to 32, was the more consistent in the first set tiebreak, despite trading early breaks with his opponent.

Chardy, seeded 15, was again broken early in the second but immediately responded with a break of his own to carve out three match points at 6-5. Left-hander Beck fought back with two good serves to take the set to another tiebreak and had his own set point at 6-5, before Chardy fired two consecutive aces to get out of trouble and set up match point number four. Chardy clinched victory, thundering a trademark fierce forehand to stretch Beck, whose backhand sailed wide. "I have been playing well and I feel very confident especially after winning in Stuttgart last week," said Chardy, who next plays second seed Russian Nikolay Davydenko. "Now I need to keep playing like that." World number 12 Davydenko, the highest-ranked player left in the draw, had less trouble disposing of Germany`s Philipp Petzschner, breaking him once in the first and twice in the second set to win 6-3, 6-2. Davydenko`s Russian compatriot Igor Andreev, the seventh seed, suffered an early exit after a 6-4, 6-3 defeat by France`s Julien Benneteau. French Open runner-up Robin Soderling was made to work hard against in-form Italian Fabio Fognini, a semi-finalist in Stuttgart. The Swede kept his cool when it mattered most and with a whipping forehand grabbed a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory. Bureau Report