Rafael Nadal was set for an early New Year opportunity to avenge the worst defeat of his career yesterday when he was to tackle bitter rival Robin Soderling, the man who dumped him out of the French Open.
World No. 2 Nadal was defeated for the first time at Roland Garros last year, where he was four-time champion, by the towering Swede, a setback that sent his season into a downward, injury-hit spiral.
Nadal, who also lost to Soderling at the ATP World Tour finals in London, was to get his chance for revenge when the two were to meet in the final of the Capitala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition tournament, in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
Nadal, who beat compatriot David Ferrer 7-6, 6-3 in an all-Spanish semi-final, is without an ATP final since May, with his second half of the season badly affected by knee tendinitis and a stomach strain.
Soderling made the final by beating world No. 1 Roger Federer 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 in his semi-final on Friday.
It was Soderling’s first career win over Federer, having lost the previous 12 times they had met, including in last year’s Roland Garros final.
“I’ve known Robin for a while and it was great to see his incredible run at the French Open. I think he’s really picked it up and it’s great to see,” Federer said. “It was obviously hard starting the year against him in a rematch of Roland Garros. I had fun though.”
■BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL
AP, BRISBANE
Former world No. 1 Justine Henin faces a tough first-round match in her official comeback tournament after drawing second-seeded Nadia Petrova at the Brisbane International.
Henin, a wild card, was the last player in the 32-women field to come out of the draw, coincidentally conducted by Petrova. The Russian gave a rueful smile as she turned Henin’s name card over at the public draw in downtown Brisbane yesterday.
US Open champion Kim Clijsters will play Italian Tathiana Garbin today at Pat Rafter Arena. Henin plays Petrova tomorrow.
Men’s top seed Andy Roddick drew Australian Davis Cup player Peter Luczak, while fellow American James Blake will play fifth-seeded compatriot Sam Querrey.
Henin spent 117 weeks at No. 1 and has seven Grand Slam titles.
She announced her comeback in September, soon after her Belgian compatriot Clijsters won the US Open.
Clijsters and Henin are on opposite sides of the draw and could meet in the Brisbane final.
Henin said earlier this week she has matured during her 20-month break.
“I believe I can be a better player, I believe I can use my experience more than in the past,” Henin said. “When you are into [playing tennis at] 200 percent you have no time to realize it.”
Petrova felt Henin was already close to displaying the form she was in before her retirement.
“She was playing good tennis and she only needs a couple of matches to get her confidence,” Petrova said.
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