Former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia was beaten by David Nalbandian of Argentina 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 9-7 in a marathon five-set thriller that lasted late into the night yesterday at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
The match was a replay of their 2002 Wimbledon final that was won by the Australian, who had held a 3-2 lead in the series, but had not beaten Nalbandian since their controversial 2005 Australian Open quarter-final in which the pair bumped into each other purposely on a changeover. The video clips of that altercation have featured prominently on television promotions of the night Rod Laver Arena match.
Elsewhere, to get an assessment of how much better Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are than most of the competition in men’s tennis, look no further than Marcos Daniel.
Photo: Reuters
Daniel was on the other side of the net from Nadal, who is attempting to win his fourth major title in a row — the “Rafa Slam.” Daniel saw, ever so briefly, why the top-seeded Nadal is among the best ever in the game.
Only briefly, because the Brazilian’s left knee gave out, forcing him to retire from the first-round match while trailing 6-0, 5-0.
Nadal’s limited court time should hold him in good stead for the rest of the tournament, but he wasn’t counting his blessings as the result of another player’s misfortune.
Nadal will play US qualifier Ryan Sweeting, who beat Daniel Gimeno 6-4, 6-4, 6-1.
Another one of those top five that Daniel mentioned was Andy Murray, last year’s finalist who also advanced when Karol Beck retired with a shoulder injury in the third set of their first-round match.
The fifth-seeded Murray, who was leading 6-3, 6-1, 4-2, was the only man to beat Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament last year, the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park.
“You’d rather finish the match off without your opponent being hurt, but it does happen quite a lot. So you just have to move on and get yourself ready for the next round,” Murray said.
Fourth-seeded Robin Soderling had to go the distance, but was rarely challenged, completing a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Potito Starace of Italy. Australian wild-card entry Bernard Tomic advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) win over Jeremy Chardy of France. Tomic could meet Nadal in the third round.
Another winner was 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, who beat Dudi Sela of Israel, 7-6 (15/13), 6-4, 6-4.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lost in the final here to Novak Djokovic in 2008, came back from two sets down to beat Philipp Petzschner of Germany 4-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. Andreas Seppi of Italy beat Arnaud Clement of France 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in another late match.
On the women’s side, US Open champion Kim Clijsters did nothing to dent her growing status as favorite by routing fellow former No. 1 Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-0.
The US Open champion never allowed the 2009 Australian Open finalist to get into the match, placing pinpoint forehands to all areas of the court. When Safina did have an opportunity to return, her many unforced errors gave away the point to Clijsters.
“I expect my opponent to come out and play their best tennis,” Clijsters said. “She obviously didn’t do that today.”
Elsewhere, No. 15 Marin Cilic of Croatia beat US qualifier Donald Young 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 to advance along with No. 7 David Ferrer, No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny, No. 11 Jurgen Melzer, No. 20 John Isner, No. 31 Feliciano Lopez and No. 32 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
No. 2 ranked Vera Zvonareva began her bid to reach a third consecutive Grand Slam women’s final with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sybille Bammer. Zvonareva lost to Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final and to Kim Clijsters in the US Open final last year.
She dominated the first set against the 30-year-old Bammer, conceded only four points in the first four games of the second set and didn’t allow the Austrian to hold until the sixth game.
Ana Ivanovic, the 2007 French Open champion and 2008 Australian Open finalist, slumped to her worst result in seven years at Melbourne when she lost 3-6, 6-4, 10-8 to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova. The 19th-seeded Ivanovic saved five match points before finally going out.
Also advancing were French Open finalist Sam Stosur, the fifth-seeded Australian who beat US wild-card entry Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-1; No. 12 Agnieszka Radwanska, who took six of the last seven games after a medical timeout in the third set to hold off Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm 6-4, 4-6, 7-5; No. 7 Jelena Jankovic; No. 10 Shahar Peer; No. 13 Nadia Petrova; No. 22 Flavia Pennetta; No. 25 Petra Kvitova and China’s Peng Shuai.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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