Ryan Sweeting edges qualifier at Clay Court
Ryan Sweeting edges qualifier at Clay Court
HOUSTON — Defending champion Ryan Sweeting of the United States held off qualifier Ricardo Mello of Brazil 6-3, 7-6 (6) in a first-round match of the U.S. men’s clay court championships on Tuesday night.
Sweeting took a 6-3 lead in the tiebreaker but then double-faulted, hit a forehand into the net and sailed a backhand behind the baseline to tie it. Mello then hit two forehand errors to end the match.
Sweeting is unseeded this year and his ranking has fallen from 93 at last year’s event to 143.
Sweeting missed a chance to take charge of the second set when he took Mello to three break points in the 11th game before Mello fought back to hold for a 6-5 lead. Sweeting held serve in the 12th game to force the tiebreaker.
In earlier opening-round matches, Igor Kunitsyn of Russia beat Xavier Malisse of Belgium 6-4, 6-2, Paolo Lorenzi of Italy beat Wayne Odesnik of the U.S. 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-3 and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina beat Adrian Ungur of Romania 6-3, 6-3.
Ouahab tops Haase
in Hassan II 1st round
CASABLANCA, Morocco — Algerian qualifier Lamine Ouahab upset sixth-seeded Robin Haase 6-3, 6-2 in the first round at the Grand Prix Hassan II on Tuesday.
Ouahab is ranked 752nd, and had not won a tour-level match in four years. He broke the Dutchman’s serve twice in each set, winning in one hour to set up a second-round match against Sergio Gutierrez-Ferrol of Spain.
Gutierrez-Ferrol broke five times as he downed Rui Machado of Portugal 6-2, 6-1.
Earlier, Albert Ramos beat Pere Riba 6-2, 6-3 in an all-Spanish match.
The seventh-seeded Ramos broke five times and will play Victor Hanescu of Romania, who led 6-2, 3-0 against Malek Jaziri when the Tunisian retired.
Jeremy Chardy saved eight of nine break points to defeat Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-4, 7-5. The Frenchman will meet top-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany.
Paul-Henri Mathieu of France broke five times en route to beating Mehdi Ziadi of Morocco 6-3, 6-1, and Matthias Bachinger of Germany downed Italian veteran Filippo Volandri 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Potito Starace and Flavio Cipolla also won their first-round matches.
Wozniacki advances to 2nd round in Copenhagen
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Two-time defending champion Caroline Wozniacki overcame Urszula Radwanska of Poland 7-6 (4), 6-2 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the e-Boks Open.
The 21-year-old Dane was down a break in the first set before rallying to force the tiebreaker. She then broke three times in the second to clinch the victory in 2 hours, 5 minutes.
The sixth-ranked Wozniacki will next play Pauline Parmentier of France, who ousted Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 7-5, 6-1 on the hard courts at the Farum Arena.
Fourth-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania also advanced, beating Valeria Savinykh of Russia 6-2, 6-2, while No. 5 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia ousted Anastasia Rodionova of Australia 6-3, 6-4.
Second-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany also advanced, beating Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Alize Cornet of France had the easiest win of the day, routing Danish wild card Malou Ejdesgaard 6-0, 6-0.
Seventh-seeded Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan had to retire from her match against Australia’s Johanna Konta when she was trailing 6-3, 1-0.
Sixth-seeded Mona Barthel of Germany ousted Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-3, 6-4, while No. 8 Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden lost 7-5, 5-7, 6-1 to Austria’s Patricia Mayr-Achleitner.
In other first-round matches, Petra Martic of Croatia beat Germany’s Annika Beck 6-4, 6-4 and Anne Keothavong of Britain ousted Hungary’s Melinda Czink 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Djokovic, Nadal to play exhibition for fans
MADRID — Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will play an exhibition match at Real Madrid’s football stadium, hoping for a crowd of 80,000 to watch tennis’ top two players.
Madrid says on its website that the top-ranked Djokovic and local favorite Nadal will meet on July 14 at the Santiago Bernabeu, with proceeds going to the club’s and Nadal’s charity foundations.
Tuesday’s statement did not say what surface the match will be played on.
Nadal and Djokovic have won a combined 10 majors and have had one of sports’ top rivalries of late. Djokovic had defeated Nadal in the last seven finals they’ve played, including in the last three Grand Slam tournaments — Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Australian Open.
Olazabal speeds leaving Masters,
gets $621 ticket
SPRINGFIELD, Ga. — Speeding between the Masters and his next tournament cost Jose Maria Olazabal $621 when a Georgia sheriff’s deputy pulled him over for driving 97 mph on a rural highway.
Olazabal, the Ryder Cup captain for Europe, agreed to follow a deputy to the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office and pay the speeding ticket in cash. The Spaniard was stopped Monday afternoon traveling from Augusta to Hilton Head, S.C., for the Heritage tournament, sheriff’s spokesman David Ehsanipoor said.
Ehsanipoor said Tuesday that Olazabal “apologized, he was cooperative and after the paperwork was done he went on his way.”
He said the deputy clocked Olazabal’s Mercedes exceeding the posted limit of 65 mph on the rural stretch of Ga. 21, a divided four-lane highway near the Georgia-South Carolina state line.
Semenya, Pistorius
to run at South
African nationals
JOHANNESBURG — Olympic hopefuls Caster Semenya and Oscar Pistorius are scheduled to compete at this week’s South African championships.
Semenya will run in the 800 meters, while double-amputee Pistorius will run in the 400.
Semenya, a silver medalist at last year’s world championships, needs to run 1 minute, 59.90 seconds or better to qualify for her first Olympics. The former world champion ran a sluggish 2:03.60 in her season debut last month — her first two-lap race under new coach and Olympic great Maria Mutola.
Pistorius needs one more qualifying time of 45.30 seconds in an international event to make history as the first amputee runner to compete at the Olympics. He ran 45.20 at a meet in Pretoria on March 17, the second time he’s gone inside the able-bodied qualifying time for London.
Athletics South Africa has said athletes hoping to go to the Olympics must compete at the two-day nationals that start Friday in the south coast city of Port Elizabeth.
Pistorius will likely compete at one more meet in South Africa in early May, his agent Peet van Zyl said, before kicking off his international season at the BT Paralympic Cup in Manchester, England, at the end of next month.
Pistorius also hopes to run at IAAF events in Ostrava and Hengelo, and Diamond League meetings in Eugene, Ore., and New York as he chases a place in the South African team and a shot at Olympic history.
Panthers WR Smith agrees to 3-year extension
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Panthers’ wide receiver Steve Smith expects to finish his career where it began — just like he predicted 11 years ago.
Smith, who turns 33 in May, signed a contract extension Tuesday that will likely keep him in Carolina at least through 2015 and likely for the remainder of his career.
A person familiar with the deal told the Associated Press that Smith will earn approximately $18 million in guaranteed money over the next three seasons. There is also a club option for the 2016 season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms of the deal have not been announced.
During a press conference Tuesday, Smith said the opportunity to retire as a Panther would be “extremely special.” He also said it cements the promise he made to general manager Marty Hurney in 2001 prior to signing his first contract.
“I told Marty I would be the best Panther player ever to put on a uniform,” Smith said.
By wire sources