Juan Ignacio Chela defeated Tim Henman 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the first round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, making the 32-year-old Briton run around and feel his age in the midday heat on Monday.
Most of the time, it wasn't a good feeling.
"You feel like you're playing in pain most of the time," Henman said. "Playing on hard courts, it's always going to be pretty tough on the body."
PHOTO: AFP
In other matches, No. 10 Tomas Berdych beat Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-4, No. 11 Ivan Ljubicic beat Amer Delic 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 13th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia beat Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-3, 6-1; Carlos Moya beat David Nalbandian 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2); Jurgen Melzer of Austria survived five double faults and saved four break points for a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) victory over Ivo Karlovic of Croatia; and Spanish No. 16 David Ferrer beat 2.06m US player John Isner 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Henman has slipped to No. 92 -- his lowest ranking since 1996 -- in part because his chronic back problems are limiting his practice time and bothering him in matches on hard courts. The Cincinnati Masters is played on the same surface as the US Open.
Henman is 5-11 this season, including 3-5 on hard courts. His last five losses have come in full-set matches that test his balky back.
"I'm coming back onto hard courts and struggling with my back again," Henman said. "That's been an issue for quite some time. It's just the constant pounding on the courts. You know, it's hard when you're playing a match of that nature. I just feel like it sort of deteriorates a little bit as the match goes on, so it's difficult."
Henman has finished in the top 50 of the rankings for the last 11 years, sharing with Moya the longest such active streak on the men's tour. He lost a five-set match on Centre Court to Feliciano Lopez in the second round at Wimbledon in June, prompting speculation that he might not return for another season.
Henman didn't want to talk about his long-term future on Monday, keeping his focus on the upcoming US Open and Davis Cup.
"I appreciate that I'm nearer the end of my career than the start," he said. "But I've got this -- the tournaments coming up, the US Open and Davis Cup. So, yeah, I'll sort of take it in those sort of segments and see how I feel."
Moya, who turns 31 on Aug. 27, finished the first-set tiebreaker with one of his 11 aces, and was up 4-2 in the second set when Nalbandian broke his serve to get back into it.
"Still I was feeling I was controlling the match pretty well with my serve," Moya said. "There was no frustration or desperation. I knew I was going to have a chance sooner or later."
He got it in the tiebreaker, serving back-to-back aces to take control at 4-1. He closed it out with a service winner.
"I felt I played pretty well," Nalbandian said. "At the important points, he played great."
The Spaniard was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1999, and has dedicated himself to becoming one of the game's elite again. Since he was No. 47 in February, he has steadily climbed to No. 19 this week.
Top-seeded Roger Federer, No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Andy Roddick -- who won the tournament last year -- were among those with first-round byes.
Seeds advance in Toronto
Dinara Safina rallied from 4-1 and two breaks down to beat Camille Pin 7-6 (9), 3-6, 7-5 in a Rogers Cup first-round match on Monday.
Ninth-seeded Safina took nearly two hours, 40 minutes on a blustery, chilly evening to overcome the French qualifier, who looked set to beat the Russian for the first time in four matches, all this year.
All six seeds in action on the opening day won.
No. 10 Patty Schnyder got off to a strong start in her first Rogers Cup appearance in five years, dispatching Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-2.
Schnyder, from Switzerland, broke Medina Garrigues five times at the Rexall Centre at York University but said the match wasn't as routine as the score might indicate.
"I would never take matches as routine, because you always have to be aware of the opponent's weapons," Schnyder said. "I just went through nicely, like the court tells me. But yes, I had to stay focused, and handle the conditions, and it was not easy."
In a tournament once again hit hard by withdrawals, and with several of the so-called healthy players here battling a bug that's been going around, Schnyder felt happy just to be playing.
"I can hear or feel it in the locker-room that sickness going around," Schnyder said. "I'm feeling great. I'll stay away from [air conditioning]. So far, I seem to have handled it."
Other players advancing on Monday included 11th-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel, 12th-seeded Tatiana Golovin of France, 14th-seeded Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, and 16th-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.
Peer was relieved to edge Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands 7-5, 7-6 (7).
"I think I was just not playing," Peer said. "It's not that [Krajicek] was playing good, and probably she was feeling the same. It's just that I made so many mistakes I didn't get to the ball proper, and I was just not in the match. But slowly I started to move better, and to step into the ball."
Golovin beat Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-1, Srebotnik beat Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, and Safarova defeated Varvara Lepchenko of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-1.
Four Italians moved on with Francesca Schiavone defeating Austria's Tamira Paszek 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, Roberta Vinci cruising past Spain's Nuria Llagosteria Vives 6-0, 6-0, Tathiana Garbin beating US player Laura Granville 6-2, 6-0, and Flavia Pennetta ousting Olga Poutchkova of Russia 6-3, 7-5.
China's Peng Shuai defeated Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki 6-0, 6-7 (4), 6-2, while Yan Zi of China defeated Severine Bremond of France 6-4, 6-0.
The top eight singles seeds, led by top-ranked Justine Henin, had a bye into the second round.
The Rogers Cup has once again been hit hard by withdrawals, with five of the game's biggest stars bowing out. American Serena Williams is battling a thumb injury, while sister Venus has tendinitis in her right knee.
Martina Hingis of Switzerland is nursing back and hip problems, while France's Amelie Mauresmo is recovering from appendicitis. Maria Sharapova, the world's No. 2 player, pulled out on Saturday after advancing to the semifinal of a WTA event in Los Angeles.
"It's tough to keep all the players healthy and have everyone," Henin said. "It's just a few weeks before the US Open and everybody doesn't want to be injured now, and so they probably try to be safe about the next Grand Slam."
World No. 3 Jelena Jankovic and No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze, along with Argentina's Gisela Dulko are all battling a bug that was making the rounds at recent tournaments in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Brazil has four teams, more than any other country, in the expanded Club World Cup that kicked off yesterday in the US, but for SE Palmeiras, the competition holds a special meaning: winning it would provide some redemption. Under coach Abel Ferreira since 2020, Palmeiras lifted two Copa Libertadores titles, plus Brazilian league, cup and state championships. Even before Ferreira, it boasted another South American crown and 11 league titles. The only major trophy missing is a world champions’ title. Other Brazilian clubs like Fluminense FC and Botafogo FR, also in the tournament, have never won it either, but the problem for Palmeiras
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
‘STILL’: In front of a packed New Jersey arena attended by Donald Trump and Mike Tyson, UFC 316 delivered high drama as Merab Dvalishvili retained his title Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili scored a second-round submission win over Sean O’Malley to retain his bantamweight title at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 316 on Saturday, with Kayla Harrison also winning by submission in the co-main event, tapping out Juliana Pena to claim the women’s bantamweight crown. In front of a packed crowd at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which included US President Donald Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson, Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing, although not aesthetically pleasing, unanimous decision. Dvalishvili (19-4) sat on top of the cage and shouted
Manchester City on Monday completed the signing of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a reported ￡31 million (US$41.8 million). The 24-year-old Algeria international has signed a five-year contract and will be available for the FIFA Club World Cup, which begins later this week. Ait-Nouri is expected to be just one of a trio of new City faces for that tournament with deals close to completion for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Olympique Lyonnais playmaker Rayan Cherki. After missing out on a major trophy in the recently completed season for the first time since 2016-2017, City are hoping
RSS