Andre Agassi won his opening match on Monday at the US$2.5 million Tennis Masters Cincinnati when Mardy Fish quit during the third set because of a sore back.
Agassi, 34, isn't sure whether this will be his final year on the tour and is hoping to be back in form in time for the US Open. Agassi has recovered from a sore hip that bothered him this summer and forced him to skip Wimbledon.
PHOTO: AFP
His goal as the No. 11 seed in Cincinnati is to build confidence heading into the US Open.
"I need all these matches now to do that," Agassi said. "I've got to string a few together now. So it would be really nice to see my game elevate as the tournament progresses."
Agassi lost the first set 4-6, then pulled out a second-set tiebreaker 7-3 when Fish double-faulted. He led 4-1 in the third set when Fish retired because of a sore back, which also forced him to withdraw from last week's tournament in Toronto.
"It started bothering me late in the second set," Fish said. "I've been rehabbing it a good nine to 10 days, and it's gotten significantly better every day. My goal was to just not hurt it more. I contemplated not playing at all."
The tournament's top two seeds were off on Monday.
Roger Federer, who beat Andy Roddick at the Tennis Masters Canada on Sunday, put his 23-match winning streak on the line yesterday against Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia. Roddick, the No. 2 seed, played Max Mirnyi of Belarus last night.
French Open champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina, fourth-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain, 10th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and 14th-seeded Marat Safin of Russia all won first-round matches.
Sixteenth-seeded Andrei Pavel of Romania was the first seeded player eliminated, losing to Australian Wayne Arthurs 7-6 (5), 6-3. The first-round loss was Pavel's fourth in five appearances in the tournament.
Montreal Cup
Mary Pierce of France, a Montreal native, defeated Marlene Weingartner of Germany 6-1 6-1 in the opening round of the Montreal Cup WTA tournament on Monday.
Pierce, ranked 17th, remains a crowd favorite despite the fact she left the city as a child and does not have any memories of her time in Montreal.
"It's nice to come back to the city where I was born," Pierce said. "The people really gave me a very warm welcome here."
The higher seeded players had Monday off, but 13th seeded Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria defeated Russian Lina Krasnoroutskaya 7-6 3-6 6-4.
Number 12 seed Karolina Sprem of Croatia also advanced with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Maureen Blake of Canada.
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