Former champions Guillermo Coria and Gaston Gaudio lost in the first round of the Movistar Open on Monday.
Coria, who won the first of his nine ATP titles here in 2001, was beaten by Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in his first ATP-level match since the 2006 US Open.
The former world No. 3 quit the tour when he was struggling with his serve and confidence. Problems with his right shoulder sidelined him until the end of last year when he played in two challengers. He has a protected ranking of 105, good for nine months or eight tournaments.
"I have never thought of retirement," Coria said. "While I had lost my desire to play, I can tell you now that I feel in good rhythm and confident."
"I played very few tournaments last year and that of course takes its toll, but little by little I'm recovering my fitness," he said.
Fellow Argentine Gaudio, however, said he was closer to retirement after losing to Santiago Ventura of Spain 6-3, 6-0.
Gaudio, the winner three years ago at this Pacific Ocean resort, hasn't won on tour since last May at the French Open.
"Things are not working as I wish, I can't understand what's going on," Gaudio said. "These are not good times for me and with these results I'm thinking more about quitting than on going on. I've been like this for about a year now, I did not feel well in the court."
The former world No. 5 was ranked No. 183 and needed a wild card entry. He called retirement "a certain possibility," but added he will not make a decision until after playing in the Buenos Aires hometown tournament next month.
Juan Pablo Brzezicki rescued the opening day for Argentina with a 7-6 (4), 6-1 upset of sixth-seeded Oscar Hernandez of Spain, while countryman Sergio Roitman rallied to beat No. 8 Nicolas Massu of Chile 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS