For Tim Smyczek, beating one of his country’s top players and upsetting the tournament’s No. 1 seed meant a lot.
He defeated fellow American Sam Querrey in the opening round of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) on Tuesday on Newport’s grass courts.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve ever beaten a No. 1 seed at a tournament. It’s definitely a big deal for me,” Smyczek said. “It was pretty neat to play Sam, who’s been one of the top Americans for a long time, somebody I’ve just tried to catch up to.”
Querrey, a 2009 Newport finalist ranked 21st in the world, was broken in the seventh game by the 120th-ranked Smyczek.
“I couldn’t really find a flow out there. I was a little off the whole time,” Querrey said.
In the tiebreaker, Querrey saved match point twice — both with aces — but hit a backhand return into the net on the final point.
It was the second match this year between the two. Querrey won in straight sets at Indian Wells in March.
“I knew he plays aggressive and has a big game,” Smyczek said. “I was just trying to keep him from taking it to me.”
Querrey seemed frustrated with his game from the start, at one point uttering “ridiculous” to himself after hitting a forehand shot wide in the eighth game in humid conditions, with breaks of sun peeking through mostly cloudy skies.
In the tie breaker, Smyczek jumped ahead 3-1, before Querrey battled back, grabbing a 5-4 lead. Trailing 6-5, Querrey had the first of his two match-saving aces.
Querrey had 16 aces to Smyczek’s two.
Fourth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt, a runner-up in Newport last year, beat fellow Australian Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-1.
Third-seeded Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands beat Italy’s Matteo Viola 6-4, 6-1; Ivo Karlovic of Croatia defeated fifth-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 7-6 (7/5), 6-4; Canadian Vasek Pospisil beat American Denis Kudla 1-6, 6-3, 6-3; and wild card Prakash Amritraj of India beat Italy’s Flavio Cipolla 6-2, 6-3.
Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic won a match of qualifiers, defeating Ante Pavic of Croatia 7-6 (8/6), 6-3. Eighth-seeded American Rajeev Ram beat Adrien Bossel of Switzerland 6-2, 6-2, and American Jack Sock advanced when sixth-seeded Marinko Matosevic of Australia retired because of food poisoning after losing the first set 6-2.
MERCEDES CUP
AP, STUTTGART, Germany
Gael Monfils of France defeated compatriot Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7/0), 6-4 to advance to the second round of the Mercedes Cup on Tuesday.
Monfils served 16 aces to set up a clash with sixth-seeded Florian Mayer, who defeated another German, Andreas Beck, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
Victor Hanescu rallied to beat Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) in 2 hours, 25 minutes.
The Romanian will next face Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci, who defeated seventh-seeded Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4. It was Rosol’s third consecutive loss.
Nikolay Davydenko of Russia came from behind to beat Spain’s Daniel Munoz-De La Nava 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-4 and set up a match with fourth-seeded Benoit Paire of France, who received a bye into the second round.
Leonardo Mayer of Argentina rallied to beat Spain’s Pablo Andujar 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5) in a match lasting 2 hours, 55 minutes.
Fifth-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy bounced back from his first-round exit at Wimbledon by defeating Britain’s Alexander Ward 6-3, 7-6 (7/5). Germany’s Nils Langer defeated fellow countryman Robin Kern 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Ernests Gulbis rallied past Marcel Granollers of Spain 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. The Latvian will face top-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany for a place in the quarter-finals.
SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, Sweden
Spain’s Fernando Verdasco and Viktor Troicki of Serbia won in straights sets on Tuesday as they advanced to the second round of the Swedish Open.
Verdasco, who pushed Wimbledon winner Andy Murray to five sets in the quarter-finals of that tournament, hit 12 aces as he eliminated Sweden’s Andreas Vinciguerra 6-4, 7-6 (5/3). Vinciguerra was the last home player remaining in the clay-court ATP tournament in Bastad.
Troicki easily beat Joao Souza of Brazil 6-4, 6-2, while Italy’s Filippo Volandri routed Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp 6-1, 6-2.
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