Former champion Richard Gasquet pulled out of the season-opening Qatar Open on Thursday due to a back injury, which could also threaten his participation in the Australian Open, local media reported.
Frenchman Gasquet, the world No. 9, aggravated his long-standing back problem at the International Premier Tennis League exhibition event, the Gulf Times reported.
Gasquet, 29, won the 2013 Doha title when he defeated Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the final.
Photo: EPA
The Qatar Open gets under way on Jan. 4, with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal set to take the top two seedings.
Meanwhile, Australia’s first-round Davis Cup World Group clash with the US in March is to be played on grass at Kooyong in Melbourne in a tie marking Lleyton Hewitt’s debut as captain.
The former home of the Australian Open is to host its first Davis Cup showdown in 10 years from March 4 to March 6 on a portable grass court, organizers said on Thursday.
“To play Davis Cup in Melbourne, the home of tennis in Australia, at a club like Kooyong with so much tennis history is a privilege,” Hewitt said. “The tie against the United States is going to be tough. It will be my first tie as captain, and I’ll be looking to help the boys build on the momentum and progress of 2015.”
The US and Australia are the two most successful nations in Davis Cup history. The US have won a record 32 times, while Australia are second overall with 28 wins.
Australia’s most recent tie against their archrivals was in 1999 when Hewitt made his Davis Cup debut.
Alongside Pat Rafter, he led his country to a 4-1 World Group quarter-finals victory over the US, whose team included current captain Jim Courier.
Hewitt retires as a player following next month’s Australian Open, after which he will focus his attention on working with talented youngsters Bernard Tomic, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis in his new role as Davis Cup captain.
Kooyong last hosted the Australian Open in 1987.
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