Tennis Capsules: Venus Williams reaches second round
ACAPULCO, Mexico — Top-seeded Venus Williams won her first clay-court match of the season, defeating Mathilde Johansson of France 6-2, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Mexican Open on Tuesday.
Williams, the defending champion, is coming off a hard-court tournament victory at Dubai on Sunday. She seemed to have few problems beating the jet-lag and making the switch to the slippery clay.
"It was a really good first match," Williams said. "I was just trying to get my rhythm on the clay and make the transition."
Williams has never won the French Open, the only grand-slam event on clay. But she reached the 2002 final and sounded positive about still having a chance.
"I think inherently right now I am a lot more patient," she said. "So when I see that open court I know that it’s not necessarily a winner on clay — so it doesn’t look so tempting. I feel smarter, actually.
"I’ve won almost every (clay-court) tournament I’ve played and I got to the finals of the French," she added. "I just haven’t had that title yet. Some people say ‘she’s not that good on clay,’ but I don’t feel that way. At the end of the day it’s about how I feel on the court. I’m good on it."
In other women’s first round matches, third-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina defeated Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 and No. 5 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain beat Hungary’s Greta Arn of Hungary 6-0, 6-0.
On the men’s side, the top four seeded players all advanced.
No. 1-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain rallied from a set down to defeat Italy’s Fabio Fognini 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. No. 2 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile held on to beat Sam Querrey of United States 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2).
No. 3 David Ferrer also advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Italy’s Potito Starace, and No. 4 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain defeated Diego Junqueira of Argentina, 6-2, 6-3.
Sixth-seeded Nicolas Almagro and eight-seeded Albert Montanes — both from Spain — came through their first-round matches.
Almagro beat Dudi Sela of Israel 6-1, 7-6 (0) and Montanes advanced with a win over countryman Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.
Verdasco, the No. 10-ranked player, saved all six break points he faced in the second set before dominating the final set.
Verdasco defeated Andy Roddick in the SAP Open final 10 days ago in San Jose, California, but lost in the first round last week in Memphis.
Karlovic, Becker advance at Delray Beach
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Second-seeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia and third-seeded Benjamin Becker of Germany won first-round matches at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships on Tuesday.
Seventh-seeded James Blake, a 2008 Delray Beach finalist, fought until after midnight to take a 6-1, 3-6, 5-3 lead over fellow American Taylor Dent. But he couldn’t take advantage of three match points before rain suspended the match at deuce. Play is scheduled to resume on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-10 Karlovic is known for his big serving, so he was not impressed with only posting 19 aces in his 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over Philipp Petzschner of Germany.
"I don’t know what happened today," said the 33rd-ranked Karlovic. "Disappointing. Only 19 aces. No good."
Becker ousted 2008 Delray Beach champion Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-3, 1-6, 6-0.
Becker took control in the third set to earn the win, saving one break point at 30-40 in the fifth game.
Defending champion Mardy Fish appeared in danger of being bounced from the tournament, but moved into the second round when Christophe Rochus of Belgium retired with a bad back at 5-7, 6-3, 3-3.
The 73rd-ranked Fish underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in September, and used his few months of recuperation time to start eating healthy and drop 25 pounds.
"He as an annoying game, for sure," Fish said of Rochus. "He makes a lot of balls, has great hands and good returns.
"Someone who makes good returns can be a nightmare for someone like me."
In other matches, two-time Delray Beach champion Xavier Malisse of Belgium fell to fourth-seeded Jeremy Chardy of France 6-3, 7-6 (5) and Ernests Gulbis of Latvia closed out his 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory over 17-year-old American qualifier Ryan Harrison with a second-serve ace.
Davydenko wins Dubai opener despite sore wrist
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Nikolay Davydenko defeated Florent Serra 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1 Tuesday despite playing with a sore left wrist.
The fourth-seeded Davydenko was a set and two break points down at 4-4 in the second. But he saved both and won eight successive points to force a deciding set.
Davydenko had 11 aces and saved all eight break points he faced from Serra. He said his wrist was still hurting after a fall during the Rotterdam semifinals two weeks.
"I thought I broke wrist," Davydenko said. "I had swelling for three days. I could not touch anything with my left wrist. I did not know if I would play here, which is the reason I requested a Tuesday start.
"But I started feeling a little bit better. I did not have any preparation for this tournament. I hope it’s not a big problem and I can play here and the Davis Cup."
Fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced when Michael Llodra retired from the all-French match after dropping the first set 7-6 (9).
Both players were battling illness, and Tsonga said he nearly withdrew before Llodra pulled out.
"It was difficult because I was a bit sick as well," Tsonga said. "With the travel from Marseille, it’s really tough today. But I won. He stopped before me, so I will continue and I hope I will feel better tomorrow."
Also moving into the second round was sixth-seeded Marin Cilic, who defeated Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4. Other winners included Tommy Robredo, Janko Tipsarevic, Bjorn Phau and Michael Berrer and Somdev Devvarman.
Li knocked out in Malaysia; Dementieva, Zheng win
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Li Na was too distraught to speak publicly after losing 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to Tatjana Malek of Germany in the first round of the inaugural Malaysian Open on Tuesday.
The second-seeded Li, who became China’s first top-10 woman after reaching the Australian Open semifinals, broke Malek in all three chances she had, but lost her own serve six times.
Li and Zheng Jie were hailed in the Chinese media for their Grand Slam success in Melbourne last month, but have struggled since. Li hurt her back and retired during the Dubai quarterfinals last week, but said on Monday she was recovered and eyeing the Kuala Lumpur title.
The third-seeded Zheng, back in the top 20, was coming off a loss in her Dubai opener but beat Elena Bovina of Russia 6-4, 6-3.
Top-seeded Elena Dementieva defeated fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-2, 6-1 to start her bid for a third title of the year following wins in Sydney and Paris. Dementieva will next play Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski at Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Kiara Equestrian and Country Resort.
Earlier, former world junior No. 1 Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand defeated Ksenia Pervak of Russia 6-1, 6-4. The 18-year-old Thai won the Wimbledon girls title last year and got a wild card into this event.
"I have to train harder as there is extra pressure on me to do well," she said. "The transition from junior to senior is not easy and many past junior champions have struggled to reach a higher level."
Noppawan will play Magdalena Rybarikova in the second round. The seventh-seeded Czech defeated Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 7-5, 6-3.
Others through the first round included sixth-seeded Sybille Bammer, Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan, Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia, Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa and Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.
Without Nadal, Ferrero to lead Spain against Swiss
MADRID — With Rafael Nadal sidelined, defending champion Spain picked Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers on Tuesday to face Switzerland in their Davis Cup opener.
Captain Albert Costa said Nadal and Fernando Verdasco will miss the event because of injury, as expected. They helped Spain sweep the Czech Republic 5-0 in the Davis Cup final last year.
Nadal retired in the quarterfinal of the Australian Open because of a knee injury, which will sideline him for four months. Verdasco is out with a nerve injury in his leg.
Ferrero has won two titles in two weeks leading up to the March 5-7 event in the 11,000-capacity bullring in Logrono.
Switzerland will play without top-ranked Roger Federer. Last month, the Swiss tennis federation announced that the top-ranked player will not take part.
The countries have met five times, with Spain winning four.
Juan Monaco to lead Argentina in Davis Cup
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina has chosen Juan Monaco to lead its Davis Cup team against Sweden next month following injuries to Juan Martin del Potro and David Nalbandian.
Team captain Modesto Vazquez said Tuesday that Monaco, ranked No. 30, will be joined by Horacio Zeballos, Leonardo Mayer and Eduardo Schwank for the World Group first round contest from March 5-7 in Stockholm.
U.S. Open champion Del Potro is out with an injured right wrist, and Nalbandian is unavailable due to a right leg injury. Nalbandian reached the quarterfinals of last week’s ATP tournament in Buenos Aires before withdrawing due to the injury. It was his first event in nine months following hip surgery.
Court reduces sentence for Jelena Dokic’s father
BELGRADE, Serbia — A Serbian court has reduced the prison sentence for tennis player Jelena Dokic’s father, who was convicted of threatening the Australian ambassador.
The court in Sremska Mitrovica said Tuesday it reduced Damir Dokic’s 15-month sentence to 12 months. Dokic could be out of prison in early May.
Dokic’s lawyer Bosiljka Djukic told The Associated Press she will push for her client’s release on parole before May.
The 51-year-old Dokic was arrested last year after reportedly saying he would blow up Australian ambassador Claire Birgin’s car because of articles in the Australian press in which Jelena Dokic accused him of beating her.
Upon arrest, police also found a large number of weapons in Dokic’s home.
Sampras, Blake added to Atlantic City exhibition
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Pete Sampras and James Blake have been added to the roster for a tennis exhibition in Atlantic City.
Organizers said on Tuesday that 14-time Grand Slam champion Sampras will play Blake on April 10 in the inaugural Caesars Tennis Classic. The event will be hosted by Venus Williams at Boardwalk Hall.
Also, Ivan Lendl will face Mats Wilander in a one-set, no-ad scoring match. Andy Roddick will play recently retired Marat Safin in a best-of-three match, followed by the Sampras-Blake clash.
Caesars says it will donate equipment to the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education group. It runs programs for 6,500 children in various cities, including Atlantic City, Camden and Philadelphia.
