Holders Sweden stayed on track for a World Team Cup title defense in Duesseldorf on Tuesday, building up an unassailable 2-0 lead against the US.
Sweden, who also beat France 2-1 in the red group, grabbed the lead when Andreas Vinciguerra made a mockery of being ranked 599 places behind Robby Ginepri and downed the American 7-5, 6-4 after trailing 5-2 in the first set.
Robin Soderling dropped only four games as he eased past Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-2 to eliminate the Americans from the running for the title, as they had also lost to Germany.
Germany’s Rainer Schuettler beat world No. 7 Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-4 to give the hosts a 1-0 lead over France.
Schuettler, 33, who had lost his six previous singles matches since, was in fine form against Simon to celebrate his 300th ATP singles victory.
The German was more accurate than in recent matches, taking risks and being rewarded with several crucial baseline winners as Simon played below par.
“Of course this feels great,” a relieved Schuettler said. “But I am more glad that I could help put my country in the lead.”
Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber was to face world No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga yesterday in the other singles rubber.
In the blue group Serbia also took an unassailable 2-0 lead against Russia after Janko Tipsarevic swept past Russian teenager Stanislav Vovk 6-2, 6-4 and Victor Troicki crushed Evgeny Korolev 6-2, 6-2.
Argentina, beaten by Serbia on Monday, grabbed a 1-0 lead over Italy. World No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro swept past Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4.
The tall Argentine gave Seppi no chance, opening up a 4-0 lead in the first set to clinch it 6-3 before breezing through the match in 72 minutes.
■AUSTRIAN OPEN
AP, KITZBUEHEL, AUSTRIA
Second-seeded Juergen Melzer of Austria won 11 straight games on Tuesday to beat Frederico Gil of Portugal 6-3, 6-0 in the first round of the Austrian Open.
Melzer, ranked at a career-high No. 26, will next play 2006 champion Agustin Calleri of Argentina in the clay-court tournament.
Oscar Hernandez of Spain upset fourth-seeded Fabrice Santoro of France 6-2, 6-3, and Stefan Koubek of Austria defeated Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-6 (8), 6-4. Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina rallied to beat Marc Gicquel of France 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.
Also, Julien Benneteau of France defeated eighth-seeded Dudi Sela of Israel 7-5, 6-1, and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain downed Mario Ancic of Croatia 6-4, 6-3.
Top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko withdrew earlier on Tuesday with a muscle injury in his left leg. Paul Capdeville of Chile replaced the 10th-ranked Russian and lost 6-3, 6-2 to Diego Junqueira of Argentina.
■STRASBOURG
AP, STRASBOURG, FRANCE
Defending champion Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain rallied to beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday in the first round at the Strasbourg International.
The top-seeded Garrigues, who also won at Strasbourg in 2005 and 2007, will next face Kristina Barrois of Germany at the clay event.
But four seeded players, including No.5 Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand and No. 6 Elena Vesnina of Russia, lost on a day of upsets.
Tanasugarn lost 6-3, 6-0 to Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine, and Vesnina was beaten 6-4, 6-2 by Julie Coin of France.
Also, Monica Niculescu of Romania beat seventh-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia won 6-0, 6-7 (5), 6-3 against No. 8 Nathalie Dechy of France.
Pauline Parmentier of France beat Varvara Lepchenko of the United States 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2), Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus topped Maret Ani of Estonia 6-3, 7-5, and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic beat Jasmin Woehr of Germany 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. Stephanie Foretz of France downed Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.
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