http://www.atptennis.com/lyon/newsstories/wednesdayreview.asp
Yevgeny Kafelnikov moved through to the second round of the Grand
Prix de Tennis de Lyon with a
6-3, 6-4 victory over Brazilian Fernando Meligeni.

Kafelnikov, the 1996 Lyon champion and No. 2 seed this year, set
up a mouthwatering clash against Nicolas Escude in what could be
a forerunner to the Davis Cup final in November between France
and Russia.

"Tomorrow's match against Escude is going to be special," said
Kafelnikov, who leads their head-to-head series 5-1."I was hoping
to play against him in the semifinals of Moscow, but he lost in
the quarterfinals.

Kafelnikov, who has made no secret of his desire to win the Davis
Cup before he retires, added: "Every match I play now isn't just
an ordinary match. With my plans to retire, I want to maximize
everything I do, win as many matches as I can."

Nerve

Also through to the second round is Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman, who
held his nerve just at the right time to record a 6-2, 7-6(7)
victory over Jan-Michael Gambill. Bjorkman, who won the Nottingham
title on grass earlier this year, earned a meeting with Max Mirnyi
after finally overcoming Gambill on his fourth match point.

"I got off to a good start in the tie-break," said Bjorkman. "I
was up 4-1 and I think, if I managed to be up 5-1, it would have
been over. One point here and there, and then all of a sudden,
the other guy could be in the match. At 6-4 I still played a pretty
good point but I probably should have done something different
since I didn't win it. I kept very calm and I think that was the
main key for me. I didn't get too nervous or too tight. At the
7-7 point I finally became more aggressive than him and produced
a great shot down the line. That felt very good to be the one who
was trying to win.

"I made quarters here last year. My next opponent is Miryni and I
beat him in Moscow last week so I hope I can keep that going on."

The Beast


Mirnyi, the 6'5" "Beast" from Belarus made full use of his one foot
height advantage to defeat Olivier Rochus in straight sets. "Going
into the match, I knew the type of player Olivier is," said Mirnyi.
"I needed to make sure I came out with a big game because he is the
type of player that likes to counter punch and he's very quick
around the court. We all know Olivier has played a number of
matches and beaten very good players so I needed to be at the top
of my game today."

Elsewhere on day three, Brazilian Andre Sa brought Kenneth Carlsen's
good run to an end after defeating last week's Tokyo champion 6-3,
6-7(4), 6-1 to set up a clash with third seed Sebastien Grosjean on
Thursday. "I played pretty well," said Sa, who reached the
quarterfinals at Wimbledon in July. "I had many break points in the
second set, then I got a bit tight. By the third set, I was playing
perfectly. I think I won the first 12 points of the final set and
put a lot of pressure on him."

Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu extended his winning streak to eight
matches after the newly crowned Moscow champion defeated fellow
countryman Julien Boutter in straight sets.