Luis Horna upset defending champion Tommy Robredo 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 on Monday in the first round of the Swedish Open.
Robredo was the top-seeded player at the tournament.
Fourth-seeded Carlos Moya defeated Ivan Navarro Pastor 6-2, 6-4 in an all-Spanish matchup, while Nicolas Massu of Chile rallied to beat Evgeny Korolev of Russia 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
PHOTO: AFP
Second-seeded Vince Spadea beat fellow US player Justin Gimelstob 6-4, 6-3 on Monday in the opening round of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships.
Spadea, a 2005 Newport finalist, broke Gimelstob's serve in the final game of the first set. It's his sixth career appearance on the Hall of Fame's grass courts.
"I made a final here. I was up a break in the third set," he recalled of his loss to 2005 champion Greg Rusedski. "I feel like I'm owed something so I keep coming back."
In other opening-round play: Roko Karanusic ousted sixth-seeded Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-3; No. 8 seed Michael Berrer beat Chris Guccione 6-4, 7-6 (5); Wesley Moodie edged Thiago Alves 6-3, 6-4; and Frank Dancevic cruised past Kevin Kim, 6-3, 6-3.
Kristof Vliegen of Belgium extended Gaston Gaudio's woeful season by ousting the former champion 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-4 in the opening round of the Swiss Open on Monday.
Vliegen lost to Gaudio in the same round in straight sets four years ago in Gstaad, but Gaudio was no longer in the same form which would win him the French Open the following year, and the Swiss Open in 2005. A top-10 player then, the Argentine was ranked 103 now.
Gaudio, whose record fell to 6-13 for the year, had momentum when he won the second set tiebreaker, but an hour-long rain delay allowed Vliegen to refocus.
The loss marked Gaudio's earliest exit in seven appearances in Gstaad. Beside the 2005 title, he was also once a runner-up and twice a semi-finalist.
Former tennis world No. 1 Kim Clijsters is pregnant with her first child, Belgian sports Web site www.sport.be reported yesterday.
The Web site features a blog by Clijsters' father.
"If everything goes well, then Kim will become a mother next year and me a grandfather. Yippee," said Leo Clijsters, a former soccer star.
"Babysitting, changing pampers. All of which is no problem as long as I don't have to breastfeed," he said.
The 24-year-old tennis player, who had been blighted by injuries, quit in May to focus on her private life, including her forthcoming wedding to US basketball player Brian Lynch, but tennis fans had been eagerly awaiting a comeback.
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
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