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Roddick no match for Nalbandian

Rafael Nadal of Spain plays a backhand return during his semi-final singles match against Jiri Novak of Czech Republic on day five of the Heineken Open men's tennis tournament in Auckland yesterday. Nadal won the match 6-1, 6-3. PHOTO: AFP

Argentina's David Nalbandian tamed top-ranked Andy Roddick's powerful serves yesterday in a three-set victory at the Commonwealth Bank International that put him in the final against Andre Agassi.

The match lasted 2 hours, 15 minutes as Nalbandian, seeded eighth for next week's Australian Open, took a big third-set lead then had to hold on 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).

With his scrambling baseline style, he predicted a "war" against defending champion Agassi for the title today.

Roddick beat Nalbandian the first two times they played. The Argentine's unspectacular but solid game came through this time, with no sign of the wrist injury that has been hampering the 2002 Wimbledon finalist.

"He's not eight in the world for no reason," Roddick said. "It's a good contrast because he definitely handles my power well and he exploits my weaknesses some. I think it makes for a good matchup."

Players like the round-robin event at Kooyong because it guarantees them three matches with a competitive edge, so Roddick walked away feeling good despite the loss.

He'll face second-ranked Roger Federer today as both try to shake off the offseason rust before the year's first Grand Slam opens Monday.

"I'm not really worried," Roddick said. "You just want to get in there and maybe get the feeling back of competitive tennis again. So it's definitely a good thing to have tough matches like that, just playing in a competitive atmosphere."

After taking the second-set tiebreaker to even the match, Nalbandian broke Roddick's usually dominating serve twice to go up 5-1 in the deciding third set. Roddick rallied to force the tiebreaker, but didn't quite have enough left to finish off the comeback.

"We were tossing it up right in the sun, and he handled it a lot better than I did," Roddick said of his service problems. "I let it annoy me, which I probably shouldn't have."

Nalbandian, wearing a wristband that he said was more for psychological than physical support for the injured wrist, was pleased with his consistency.

"I didn't see the statistics, but I think I had a lot of winners and not many mistakes," he said.

Roddick, going into a major as the No. 1-ranked player for the first time, got one of the tougher first-round draws for the Australian Open. He'll face Fernando Gonzalez, whose 34th ranking just kept him out of the 32 seedings.

"It's good; means I'm going to have to play from the start," he said.

In other matches yesterday, Americans Taylor Dent and Robby Ginepri wound up their pre-Open preparations with victories. Dent downed Sweden's Thomas Johansson 6-7 (1), 6-2, 6-4, while Ginepri beat Sebastien Grosjean of France 7-6 (3), 6-2.

Adidas International

Lindsay Davenport and Martin Verkerk pulled out of semifinals on a rainy Friday at the adidas International, giving women's No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne and former men's No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt easy runs to the finals.

Hewitt, who won back-to-back titles in Sydney in 2000 and 2001, advanced to a championship match against Carlos Moya, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over veteran South African Wayne Ferreira.

Verkerk, the 2003 French Open finalist, played two games after going back on court following a two-hour rain delay before retiring, telling officials he was too ill to continue.

Davenport, seeded fifth for next week's Australian Open, strained chest and arm muscles Thursday in her quarterfinal win over Elena Dementieva and later withdrew from a doubles semifinal.

She pulled out of her singles semi against top-ranked Henin-Hardenne early yesterdasy, saying she didn't want to risk further injury before the Australian Open, which starts Monday.

"I said yesterday my arm was a bit sore. Unfortunately, I injured it a bit more and after waking up this morning, it's just pretty painful and extremely tight," Davenport said. "It's really sad that I can't play.

"At this point of where I am in my career and all the injuries I've had, I just feel it's best right now that I get my arm better."

Davenport remained hopeful she'd be OK after a few days off to play her first-round match against Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie of Romania at Melbourne Park.

Australian Todd Woodbridge moved to within one match of becoming the most successful doubles player of all time when he partnered Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman to a 7-6 (3), 6-2 semifinal win over Agustin Calleri of Argentina and Italian Filippo Volandri.

Woodbridge has 78 career doubles titles, tied for the Open era record with retired Dutchman Tom Okker. Woodbridge does hold the mark for most Grand Slam doubles titles, 15, including Wimbledon and the US Open last year.

CANBERRA Classic

Top-seeded Paola Suarez of Argentina and second-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy will meet today in the Canberra Classic tennis final after winning semifinal matches yesterday.

Suarez beat Karolina Sprem of Croatia 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 while Farina Elia defeated Julia Vakulenko of the Ukraine 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Suarez, 27, and Farina Elia, 31, will both be seeking their fourth WTA tour title.

Heineken Open

Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal reached his first ATP final when he beat second-seeded Jiri Novak yesterday in semifinals play at Auckland's Heineken Open.

Nadal, 17, beat the Czech veteran 6-1, 6-3 to earn a place opposite unseeded Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty in today's final.

Hrbaty reached his second consecutive final and remained unbeaten in 2004 when he won a rain-delayed quarterfinal then ousted defending champion Gustavo Kuerten 6-3, 6-2 in a repeat of last year's final.

The tall and powerful Nadal's aggressive baseline play downed Novak in only 65 minutes. He hit more than 20 clean forehand winners and forced Novak into a series of errors.

Nadal has become one of the hot young stars of world tennis, playing his first ATP Tour match at 15 and becoming the youngest player since Michael Chang to reach the top-100 when he climbed 200 ranking places last year.

He reached his first tour semifinal last year, claimed his first doubles title, qualified for two Masters Series events and became the youngest player since Boris Becker in 1984 to reach the third round at Wimbledon.
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