Out-of-form French No. 1 Richard Gasquet admits Roland Garros may come too soon for him after he was the biggest casualty of the Hamburg Masters Series on Tuesday.
Having been runner-up in 2005, Gasquet’s poor run this year continued as the world No. 9 made a second round exit at the hands of Italy’s Andreas Seppi, going down 6-3, 6-2 in just 71 minutes.
The Frenchman, seeded eighth, became the only seed to fall on Tuesday.
PHOTO: AP
“I am really disappointed, I wasn’t in the game and I didn’t play at all well,” said a glum Gasquet with Roland Garros set to start in less than a fortnight.
“I am not confident at all for Roland Garros, but you can never say never, I will try to do my best there, of course,” he said. “I am not carrying any injuries, but I am just so tired.”
“This year is totally different to 2005, then I was playing well, I was confident and I did well at Monte Carlo before I came here. Now I just need to get some rest and try to recover,” Gasquet said.
Neither the fourth-seed Nikolay Davydenko nor fifth-seed David Ferrer wasted any time booking their places in the third round after comfortable wins.
Ferrer had few problems as the Spaniard claimed a routine victory with a 6-3, 6-3 win in just 76 minutes against Ivo Minar from the Czech Republic.
Davydenko, who by his own admission is never comfortable on clay, took slightly longer but still needed only 85 minutes to secure his 6-4, 6-1 win over Ivan Ljubicic from Croatia.
Davydenko is bidding to repeat March’s Masters Series win in Miami when he beat world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the final and enjoyed his first victory over Ljubicic since 2004 in Monte Carlo.
“It’s always difficult to play your first match of a tournament, it doesn’t matter how confident you feel,” said Davydenko, who is ranked fourth in the world.
“I didn’t play well in Rome last week when I lost to Tommy Robredo [in the third round] and I want to do well here in preparation for Roland Garros,” he said.
Earlier, Spain’s Carlos Moya reached the second round with a hard-fought three set win over France’s Julien Benneteau.
Eleventh-seed Moya, who won his only Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 1998, said he was pleased to get a win under his belt after struggling recently.
Despite losing the first set he went on to claim a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) victory.
“The last couple of tournaments have been tough for me,” Moya said. “Every match had felt like torture for me, so although the first set didn’t go well, I came back into it and had a good win.”
And compatriot Fernando Verdasco booked his place in the third round with a straight sets win over France’s Michael Llodra 6-2, 6-0.
Germany’s No. 1 Philipp Kohlschreiber fell by the wayside when he lost to Spain’s Tommy Robredo 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 despite breaking the 13th seed twice on his way to taking the first set.
But after losing the second set tie-breaker, Kohlschreiber had few answers as Robredo served out the third set.
■ AZARENKA WINS
AP, ROME
Unseeded teenager Victoria Azarenka routed 19th-seeded Sybille Bammer 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the Italian Open on Tuesday before play was suspended due to rain.
The highly touted Azarenka continued her strong form from the last two weeks, when she lost to eventual champion Dinara Safina at the German Open and posted a runner-up finish at the Prague Open.
She is ranked a career-high 19th this week, but had to ask for a wild card because she decided late to enter the tournament.
Azarenka, an 18-year-old who is from Belarus but resides in Arizona, improved to 19-9 this year.
The 22nd-ranked Bammer was granted a seed when Safina withdrew due to a back injury.
Also, Italian wild card Roberta Vinci held off Estonian Kaia Kenepi 6-4, 4-6, 6-0; Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia defeated Gisela Dulko of Argentina 7-6 (1), 6-4; and Tsvetana Pironkova eliminated Klara Zakopalova 6-4, 6-2.
Further play was suspended due to afternoon rain at the Foro Italico, and the bulk of the day’s schedule was to be completed yesterday.
Both Williams sisters were due play their opening matches yesterday.
Seventh-seeded Venus was to face Samantha Stosur and No. 5 Serena was due to take on Alona Bondarenko.
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