Andre Agassi defeated Alberto Martin of Spain 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the Rogers Cup on Monday.
The fourth-seeded Agassi finessed his way from the baseline with steady groundstrokes, capitalizing on mistakes by his 26-year-old opponent.
Agassi's next opponent will be fellow thirtysomething Jonas Bjorkman. The 33-year-old Swede easily beat Vincent Spadea in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
PHOTO: AP
The 35-year-old Agassi said Bjorkman won't be easy, but he joked "I'm the best over-30 player, so it doesn't matter."
Fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia defeated Frederic Niemeyer of Canada 6-2, 6-1, while Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia rallied to upset 10th-seeded Tim Henman 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
In other matches, a trio of Argentines advanced. Sixth-seeded Gaston Gaudio defeated Davide Sanguinetti of Italy 1-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5, eighth-seeded Mariano Puerta outlasted Luis Horna of Peru 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3), and ninth-seeded David Nalbandian beat countryman Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4, 6-1.
PHOTO: AFP
Eleventh-seeded Tommy Robredo needed three sets to beat Kevin Kim 7-5, 3-6, 6-1, 15th-seeded Richard Gasquet beat Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-6 (3), and 16th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile lost to Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-7 (5), 4-6.
Henman used a combination of tough serves and net play to take the first set from Hrbaty, but a lapse in the second set continued into the third. Henman even shot a ball into the stands after being broken to trail 3-1.
"It's frustrating. I haven't played that much tennis and that many matches. I'd love to be winning and getting on a roll, but I'm not putting any extra pressure on myself," Henman said.
JP Morgan Chase Open
Jie Zheng of China upset 11th-seeded Shinobu Asagoe of Japan 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-0 Monday in the first round of the JP Morgan Chase Open.
Francesca Schiavone of Italy, the 13th seed, beat Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar 7-5, 6-3, 14th-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina defeated Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia 6-3, 6-3, and 16th-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia eliminated Li Na of China 7-5, 6-4.
Also, Russia's Maria Kirilenko ousted American Marissa Irvin 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, while Amy Frazier beat Abigail Spears 7-6 (6), 6-0 in an all-American match.
Kirilenko will play top-seeded Maria Sharapova on Tuesday. The 18-year-old Sharapova will become the first Russian player to reach No. 1 in the WTA rankings if she wins three matches here, the third stop in the women's U.S. Open Series.
World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport withdrew for the second week in a row due to back problems. Serena Williams and Vera Zvonareva also backed out this week because of ankle problems.
Tenth-ranked Guillermo Canas of Argentina has been suspended from tennis for two years for testing positive for a banned diuretic, the ATP announced on Monday.
The 27-year-old Canas, winner of six ATP tour events in his career, tested positive in February at the Mexican Open in Acapulco.
Canas, who reached the quarterfinals of the French Open earlier this year, protested his innocence in an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarin in June, saying he never knowingly ingested any banned substance.
An independent Tennis Anti-Doping Program tribunal heard Canas' appeal in the case in July.
The panel confirmed the test results, ordered him to repay US$276,070 in prize money and deducted singles and doubles rankings points.
He will be eligible to return to tennis on June 11, 2007, the ATP said.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
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