Second-seeded Vince Spadea outlasted qualifier Bobby Reynolds 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) Tuesday in the first round of the Tennis Channel Open, fighting off two match points in the second set.
Spadea came in at 7-5 this season, battling stomach flu and aching from tendinitis in his right shoulder that forced him out of last week's tournament in Memphis. He hadn't practiced since Saturday, and had to wait through four rain delays that totaled more than 3 hours to get started.
But the 30-year-old journeyman still knows how to win.
"All excuses aside, I decided to play," he said. "My preparation wasn't ideal, but I still was out there to compete."
Top-seeded German Tommy Haas withdrew because of flu, and Wayne Arthurs of Australia upset fourth-seeded American Taylor Dent 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Defending champion and top seed Carlos Moya defeated Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti 6-4, 7-6 (4) Tuesday in the first round of the Mexican Open.
Second-seeded Argentine Gaston Gaudio withdrew with an injury after splitting two sets with Tomas Zib of the Czech Republic. Gaudio took the first set 6-2, but lost the second 7-5 before withdrawing.
Eighth-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain defeated Alex Calatrava 6-4, 6-4. The 18-year-old Nadal used a dominant service game on the clay court to defeat his countryman.
Marat Safin, playing his first match since winning the Australian Open three weeks ago, was in the opening round of the US$1 million tournament, eliminated by Germany's Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 (2), 6-4.
In the day's marquee match, Tim Henman saved one match point and rallied to beat Greg Rusedski 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 for his fifth straight victory over his fellow Briton.
Kiefer, the 2000 Dubai champion and a two-time finalist in the United Arab Emirates, earned grudging applause from a capacity crowd, which overwhelmingly supported Safin.
Conchita Martinez rallied from a set down to beat Roberta Vinci of Italy 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 and reach the second round of the US$600,000 tournament.
Martinez broke Vinci six times in the match, three in the second set, to prevail in 1 hour, 46 minutes.
Also on Tuesday, Ai Sugiyama of Japan reached second round by beating Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-2, 6-3 and set up a clash with Francesca Schiavone of Italy. Elsewhere, 18-year-old Russian Maria Kirilenko of Russia beat Lucie Safararova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-1, and Nicole Pratt of Australia outlasted Selima Safr of Tunisia 7-5, 6-2 to earn a second-round clash with compatriot and No. 4 seed Alicia Molik.
A homeless man accused of stalking tennis star Anna Kournikova pleaded innocent Tuesday to battery and other charges stemming from his arrest on her neighbor's pool patio.
William Lepeska, 40, has been jailed in a psychiatric unit on US$250,000 bond. He could face 30 years in state prison if convicted of two counts of battery on police officers, resisting arrest and burglary, all felonies. He also faces misdemeanor charges of stalking, indecent exposure and criminal mischief.
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier