Roger Federer closed with an ace and then a rifling forehand yesterday, starting his finetuning for an Australian Open title defense with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 win over Gaston Gaudio at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament.
Andy Roddick, ranked second in the world, breezed to a 6-1, 6-4 win over Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic -- a late replacement for injured Paradorn Srichaphan.
PHOTO: EPA
Agassi and Roddick will meet todday in the eight-man promotion-relegation format, while Federer next plays Friday against Tim Henman, who had a 6-1, 7-5 win over Argentina's David Nalbandian.
Top-ranked Federer, who won 11 titles in 2004 -- including three majors -- and started this season with another title at Qatar last weekend, lost a service game for the first time this year in the first set against French Open champion Gaudio.
Coming into Kooyong, Federer had won 21 consecutive matches in ATP Tour events.
Lleyton Hewitt rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the second set to beat France's Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4, moving the top-seeded Australian to the quarterfinals of the Medibank Sydney International.
Clement double-faulted at two crucial points in the match -- the first time at 2-2 in the opening set when it gave Hewitt his first service break.
In women's second-round play, third-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia beat Eleni Deniilidou of Greece 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia defeated Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-0, 6-2 and Samantha Stosur of Australia, a finalist in last week's Gold Coast tournament, beat Tatiana Golovin of France 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Robby Ginepri of the US beat fourth-seeded countryman Vince Spadea 7-5, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the Heineken Open.
The unseeded Ginepri turned the match when he broke Spadea's serve in the extended 11th game of the first set.
The win avenged Ginepri's straight-sets loss to Spadea at their only previous meeting, indoors at Lyon last year.
Ginepri will meet fifth-seeded Fernando Gonzalez in the quarterfinals after the Chilean's 6-3, 6-4 win over Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina.
Jennifer Capriati, a two-time winner of the Australian Open, has withdrawn from this year's first Grand Slam tournament because of a recurring right shoulder injury, organizers said yesterday.
Capriati, who won the Australian Open in 2001 and 2002, joins last year's winner Justine Henin-Hardenne and losing finalist Kim Clijsters on the sidelines for the tournament that begins next Monday.
Henin-Hardenne has a knee injury and Clijsters a recurring wrist problem. Both Henin-Hardenne and Capriati pulled out of this week's Medibank Sydney International with the same injuries.
Australian Open organizers said Capriati had advised the WTA that she'd failed to recover from a shoulder injury that she picked up Advanta Championships at Philadelphia in November.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was