Amelie Mauresmo flew in at short notice, straight from winning a diamond-encrusted racket in Antwerp, to help save the reputation of a damaged tournament with her celebrity profile and some surprisingly forthright words.
The Wimbledon champion from France answered a rescue call at such short notice after the withdrawals of Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams that it will be tough for her to win back-to-back tournaments.
But it was also tough for Mauresmo to comment frankly on the situation which has been inflicted upon the US$1.5 million Dubai Open -- which is loaded with potential controversy -- and she made a fair stab at that.
PHOTO: AP
"I think most players, 80 percent of players are honest about when they can and can't play," Mauresmo said, when asked what was the solution to problem of so many leading players pulling out.
"It's just because of 20 or 10 percent of players you are going to penalize all the others. That's not so fair. So, tricky," Mauresmo added.
Ljubicic dominates
Croatia's indoor ace Ivan Ljubicic reasserted his dominance after a first-round loss a week ago, hammering ahead at the Rotterdam Open with a 7-5, 6-3 defeat of Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker on Tuesday.
The eighth-ranked Croatian, winner of three indoor titles under the roof in the past 16 months, held his own against the hard-hitting junior Wimbledon winner. De Bakker, 18, was unable to impose upon the experienced Ljubicic, who won his seventh career ATP title in Doha in January over Andy Murray.
The 27-year-old lost in the Marseille first round last week after playing the Zagreb final indoors three weeks ago.
Ljubicic earned the first set in 42 minutes with a break of the number 433, then broke for 5-3 in the second before closing out the victory.
Fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych fell victim to recovered Russian Mikhail Youzhny, with the Czech crashing out 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1.
Berdych, playing in only his third ATP tournament of the season, took to the court for the first time since his nation was beaten 4-1 in the Davis Cup by the US in Ostrava.
But the hardcourt at the Ahoy arena provided little solace, with Youzhny riding the confidence of reaching the quarter-finals or better in three of four ATP tournaments this season.
Belgian Kristof Vliegen handed Jarkko Nieminen a 6-1, 6-4 disappointment as the Finn, a semi-finalist last week in Marseille, slumped badly.
Meanwhile, the event suffered another blow as 2004 winner Lleyton Hewitt pulled out as a strained hamstring from last week failed to heal in time for his opening match.
Haas defeats Spadea
Second seed Tommy Haas launched his title defense by defeating American Vince Spadea 6-4, 6-1 in Memphis on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old German improved to 9-2 on the year and booked a second-round date with Amer Delic, who won an all-American matchup with Pual Goldstein 7-5, 7-6 (7/0).
Israeli teen top seed Shahar Peer ousted Finland's Emma Laine 6-4, 6-3 on the women's side while seventh seed Venus Williams eliminated qualifier Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 6-4.
Williams had been idle for four months due to a wrist injury and has played as many matches to reach the third round as she had since last July.
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