The US, last year’s runners-up, edged past Sweden 2-1 in their opening group match at the World Team Cup on Monday, with Mardy Fish and John Isner claiming the deciding doubles victory.
The US pair beat doubles specialists Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt 4-6, 7-6, 10-4 after twice French Open runner-up Robin Soderling had fought back from a set and 5-3 down to beat Sam Querrey 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 and level the match.
Isner had earlier put the US in the driving seat when he beat lowly-ranked teenager Christian Lindell 6-4, 6-1 at the team event.
Photo: EPA
Soderling found himself on the ropes against the powerful Querrey before hitting back.
Querrey, ranked 26th in the ATP rankings, matched Soderling’s hard-hitting baseline game blow for blow early on and snatched his only break at 5-5 before grabbing the first set with his 10th ace.
Another break early in the second set for the big-serving American sent him 5-3 up and looking in complete control before Soderling began to find his range.
The world No. 5 rattled off the next five games to level the match. Soderling missed his first match point at 5-3 in the decider, but carved out another one 20 minutes later to win after two hours and 25 minutes.
Hosts Germany completed what they started on Sunday, with world No. 21 Florian Mayer sending them 2-0 up against Serbia with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Viktor Troicki.
Mayer chased the frustrated Troicki across the court, hitting his trademark crosscourt running forehand to stretch the Serbian.
Another break put the 27-year-old German 5-2 up before another bad Troicki return gave the host nation their first win in the blue group.
OPEN DE NICE
AP, NICE, FRANCE
Victor Hanescu of Romania eased into the second round of the Open de Nice with a 6-0, 6-1 win over French qualifier Benoit Paire on Monday.
Hanescu, a semi-finalist in Casablanca last month, broke his opponent five times and saved the six break points he faced to close out the match in just 54 minutes. The Romanian will next meet fourth-seeded Andy Roddick of the US.
“I’m really happy that I won so easily, I don’t know what happened because he is a good player,” Hanescu said. “I came here to feel the court, to feel the balls. My goal is to play well here ahead of the French Open.”
Pere Riba advanced by beating Guillaume Ruffin of France 6-2, 6-2. The Spaniard, who dropped only five points on first serve, next plays fifth-seeded Alexandr Dogolpolov of Ukraine.
Pablo Andujar of Spain was leading 5-0 when Grigor Dimitrov retired ill and will next take on either sixth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis or Julien Benneteau. Andujar won his first ATP title in Casablanca.
Andujar was joined in the second round by Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, who beat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-2, 7-6 (5) for his first victory on the ATP Tour since March.
Andreas Seppi of Italy rallied to beat French wild card Edouard Roger-Vasselin 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. His next opponent will be the top-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer.
STRASBOURG
AP, STRASBOURG, FRANCE
Fourth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia defeated Rebecca Marino of Canada 7-6 (4), 6-3 to reach the second round of the Strasbourg International on Monday.
Petrova has struggled on clay so far this season and lost first round-matches both in Madrid and Rome.
Petrova next plays either Alize Cornet or Sania Mirza.
Maria Kirilenko of Russia and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, the No. 5 and No. 6 seeded players respectively, also advanced.
Kirilenko easily beat last year’s finalist Kristina Barrois of Germany 6-2, 6-3 and will take on Laura Pous-Tio of Spain.
Hantuchova took advantage of Johanna Larsson’s weak serve and broke her four times in a 6-3, 6-4 win.
Seventh-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues, Mathilde Johansson of France and Serbian Bojana Jovanovski also advanced.
Garrigues made light work of American Melanie Oudin 6-3, 6-1 to start her quest for a fourth title in Strasbourg, while Pous-Tio beat German Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-2.
Johansson converted five of 11 break points to beat Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, 6-1, 6-1 in just 61 minutes and Jovanovski downed Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 7-6 (3), 6-3.
BRUSSELS OPEN
AP, BRUSSELS
Australia’s Casey Dellacqua beat fifth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 in the opening round of the Brussels Open on Monday.
On the first day of the clay court warm-up tournament for Roland Garros, Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic edged Ksenia Pervak of Russia 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson beat American Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (4), while another American, Varvara Lepchenko, beat home favorite An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium, 6-3, 7-6 (3).
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