Gilles Simon beat Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-4 yesterday at the Masters Cup, then had to wait and see if he would advance to the semi-finals.
The match was essentially meaningless, because Roger Federer was facing Andy Murray in the later match.
Federer, the four-time Masters Cup champion, needed to beat Murray to advance.
PHOTO: AP
But if he lost, Simon would be through, regardless of what he had done against Stepanek. Simon beat Federer in their opening Red Group match.
The 26th-ranked Stepanek — added to the eight-man draw when Andy Roddick pulled out on Wednesday with a sprained ankle — already had been eliminated.
“It was easier tonight because my match was not really important,” said the ninth-ranked Simon, who got in when a sore knee forced top-ranked Rafael Nadal to pull out of the season-ending tournament before it began.
Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko have qualified from the Gold Group.
Stepanek was out of sorts from the beginning. The Czech player got in only three first serves in his first three service games, double-faulting three times. He won just 13 points total in seven games in the 25-minute first set — and eight of those were on unforced errors by Simon.
Another double-fault set up Simon’s third service break to open the second set. The Frenchman, who never faced break-point, then held the rest of the way.
The crowd, hoping Stepanek could make a match of it, were cheering loudly on every point he won, but there were too few. On match point, he returned a serve at his body with his racket in front of his face, and when Simon pounded a deep approach shot, Stepanek hit a one-bouncer into the net.
Meanwhile, Jonas Bjorkman played his last match yesterday.
He and teammate Kevin Ullyet lost in a tiebreaker to the Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, eliminating them from the Masters Cup.
“I still think it’s great to end my career in the biggest event of the year,” said the 36-year-old Swede, who won three straight Wimbledon doubles titles with Australia’s Todd Woodbridge and reached a singles ranking high of No. 4 in 1997.
“I was trying to do everything possible to stay alive [for] one other day, or maybe two. But you can’t get everything.”
There were no tears as Bjorkman was honored after the match with a montage of career highlights on the stadium big-screen TVs and given a huge bouquet of flowers.
“I’ve been mentally prepared for this because I’m mentally very ready to retire,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to be able to play for so long. It started as my hobby and I’ve been able to do it for 17 years, which is great. I’m really looking forward for the next step in life.”
Bjorkman, who announced retirement plans at Wimbledon, has been a durable fixture on the men’s tour, competing in 58 of the last 60 Grand Slams, missing only the 2003 and this year’s Australian Opens for the births of son Max and daughter Bianca. A more normal life is looking pretty good.
“I think the traveling is the one that’s been the toughest in the end, obviously when you do have a family that can’t go with you all the time,” Bjorkman said. “That is something that’s been quite tough. You miss so many friends’ weddings, great occasions for parties and everything back home with your friends. Now you can be part of that a little bit.”
Still, he will miss hanging around with the other players.
“I think definitely the locker room will be something that you will miss,” Bjorkman said. “It’s very unique. You’re all in a way enemies and everyone wants to win, but you can still sit next to each other preparing for a game. I think everyone treats each other with great respect.”
Bjorkman plans to continue to be involved in tennis. He became editor of a Swedish tennis magazine a year-and-a-half ago and warned journalists that he’ll be joining them here next year to conduct interviews.
Bjorkman also is involved in juniors tennis in Sweden and plans to start competing in occasional events on the seniors tour.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB