ROME, 7 May 2004 — Britain’s Tim Henman was denied a place in the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters yesterday after losing to Argentinian Mariano Zabaleta at the Foro Italico.
Henman, the No. 4 seed, joined the top three seeds on the tournament scrapheap despite taking the first set of his rain-delayed third round match with relative ease.
Zabaleta, who knocked out last year’s champion Felix Mantilla in the previous round, battled back after his early setback to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 40 minutes. Henman’s error count of 30 to Zabaleta’s six told its own story.
Zabaleta, 26, will play either Chilean eighth seed Nicolas Massu or Russian Marat Safin, winner of the 2000 US Open, in the last eight.
Henman, who reached the quarterfinals at Monte Carlo last month, was disappointed to let slip a match that was there for the taking.
Henman was not the only fancied player to end up red-faced with four seeds tumbling out earlier in the day after losing their rain-delayed second round matches.
Lleyton Hewitt, Sebastien Grosjean, Paradorn Srichaphan and Sjeng Schalken all perished, but former French Open champion Carlos Moya survived the cull with a comfortable straight sets victory over Ivan Ljubicic.
The Spanish No. 6 seed will play Ivo Karlovic in the third round after the Croation defeated Tommy Robredo, who triumphed in Barcelona last week. Australian 15th seed Hewitt, who was ousted by Romanian Andrei Pavel, was was not too disheartened by his early exit, insisting he was slowly coming to terms with Europe’s slower surfaces. French seventh seed Grosjean was humbled by David Ferrer, Thai 10th seed Paradorn fell to Russian Marat Safin and Italian No. 1 Filippo Volandri beat Dutch 11th seed Schalken, much to the delight of a patriotic home crowd.
Clijsters Out of Berlin and
Doubtful for French Open
In Berlin, world number two Kim Clijsters has pulled out of the German Open because of a recurrent wrist injury that makes her a doubtful starter for the French Open.
The Belgian, who withdrew yesterday before her scheduled third round match against Croatia’s Karolina Sprem, said she would not play in Rome next week and would need further tests before knowing whether to enter the French Open starting on May 24.
The other top players in action yesterday, Amelie Mauresmo of France and former world No. 1 Venus Williams, easily advanced to the quarterfinals on a rainy day in the German capital. The 20-year-old Clijsters, playing her first tournament in seven weeks, had struggled to move past Spanish qualifier Marta Marrero in her first match at the Berlin tournament on Wednesday.
No. 2 seed Mauresmo, who has fond memories of Berlin, having reached the final there as a qualifier in 1998 before winning the title in 2001, reached the last eight by crushing Czech Denisa Chladlova 6-1, 6-2 in a match delayed by rain.
The powerful Frenchwoman goes on to meet Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 in a close all-Russian tie.
Venus Williams, seeded third, was just as impressive as Mauresmo when she swept aside Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi of Israel 6-3, 6-1.
The American, chasing a third title in succession after victories in Charleston and Warsaw, now faces Argentine baseliner Paola Suarez, who knocked out fifth seed Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-1, 7-6.
Tournament No. 6 Jennifer Capriati of United States, meanwhile, came back from the brink of defeat to beat Russian teenager Maria Sharapova, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, winning eight of the last nine games of the until then dramatic tie.
