Tennis: Kafelnikov forced to tough it out

Yevgeny Kafelnikov had to dig deep to overcome American qualifier Jeff Tarango and book his place in the last 16 of the Milan Indoors Tournament at the Palalido.

Tarango won the first set and was competitive in the second before second-seeded Kafelnikov revived to seal a 4-6 6-4 6-2 victory.

The Russian, seeded behind his top-ranked compatriot Marat Safin, avoided the earlier fate of Slovakia’s Dominik Hrbaty, who was eclipsed by unseeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.

Third seed Hrbaty looked up to scratch in the first set before conceding a closely-contested second and then watched Santoro ease through to record a 3-6 7-5 6-3 victory.

Also through on day two of the tournament proper were Swiss pair Roger Federer and Marc Rosset, a former Olympic gold medallist.

Belgian Xavier Malisse heaped more misery on the home fans, seeing off Andrea Gaudenzi less than 24 hours after Britain’s Greg Rusedski had eclipsed top-ranked Italian Gianluca Pozzi.

And former French Open champion Sergi Bruguera of Spain rolled back the years to dispatch Israel’s Harel Levy, who caused a stir last year by reaching the Toronto Masters final, where he lost to Safin.

Safin opens up his campaign today with a game against Germany’s David Prinosil.