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Time catches up with old pros Kuerten and Moya

Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil serves the ball to Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia during their first-round match at the Monte Carlo Tennis Open tournament in Monaco on Monday. Ljubicic defeated Kuerten 6-1, 6-2. PHOTO: AP

Time caught up with old stagers Gustavo Kuerten and Carlos Moya at the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday as Andy Murray and Sam Querrey struck a double blow for the next generation.

Kuerten, a triple French Open champion and twice a winner in Monte Carlo, slumped to a 6-1, 6-2 first-round defeat to Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, while fellow 31-year-old Moya, the 1998 Monte Carlo and Roland Garros champion, fell to 20-year-old Querrey.

Former world No. 1 Kuerten, who has played just 14 matches in the last three years because of a crippling hip injury, is on a farewell tour which will culminate in an emotional finale at the French Open.

On Monday’s evidence, it will be a brief affair for a player now ranked at 1,145 in the world.

The 1999 and 2001 Monte Carlo champion dropped serve twice to lose the first set and, with two more breaks in the second set, Ljubicic romped to victory in just 51 minutes and will face Australian Open champion and third seed Novak Djokovic in the next round.

“It’s still enjoyable,” Kuerten said. “It’s nice to play the tournaments again where I have such great memories of what’s happened in the past. I’m happy to be able to play a few more tournaments. There’s a nice part of my life to come but it’s hard to play in the condition I am in.”

After playing in Costa Do Saupe and Florianapolis in his native Brazil, Kuerten also turned out and lost in the first round of Miami.

Now he has just two events left — Barcelona next week and then Roland Garros.

Giant Californian Querrey stunned Moya 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to hand the 10th seeded Spaniard his fourth successive opening-round defeat here.

Querrey, the world No. 50, won his first career title in Las Vegas earlier this year and his giant 198cm frame proved no hindrance on the clay courts, where Moya was playing for the 12th time.

Murray, the 14th seed and also just 20, buried the painful memory of his last visit to Monaco with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.

Twelve months ago, Murray was forced to scratch from the singles after injuring his back playing doubles with brother Jamie.

But on Monday there were no such problems as the Briton, being coached during the claycourt season by former French Open runner-up Alex Corretja, booked a match-up with Italy’s Filippo Volandri.

“It was a good start, I played well and didn’t make many mistakes,” said Murray, who won titles in Qatar and Marseille already this year. “I spoke to Alex before the match and we said that we wanted to be patient and not make too many unforced errors. Patience is the number one thing. If you do that well then hopefully the rest of the stuff will follow.”
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