SYDNEY, 13 January 2005 — Joachim Johansson faces an anxious wait to discover if he will be fit for next week’s Australian Open after a hamstring injury forced him out of the Sydney International yesterday.

The big-serving Swede was trailing Max Mirnyi of Belarus 4-1 when he had to retire from their second round match, leaving Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt as the clear favorite to win the tournament.

Hewitt, who has won the Australian Open warm-up event three times including last year, eased his way into the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Frenchman Arnaud Clement. Third seed Johansson told a news conference he had initially pulled the muscle in his first round win over Briton Greg Rusedski on Tuesday and did not want to risk further damage against Mirnyi.

“I tried to go out there for a few games but I felt I couldn’t give 100 percent, and at this level there’s no way you can win,” he said.

“If it had felt good I would have kept playing but obviously it doesn’t so that’s why I stopped.”

Johansson was considered one of the main title contenders for the first grand slam of the season after finishing last year ranked 11th in the world and winning last week’s Australian hardcourt championship in Adelaide.

He said he planned to fly to Melbourne on Wednesday night to see a specialist in the hope of making a full recovery in time for the Australian Open which starts on Monday.

“It’s too early to say,” he said. “At the moment it doesn’t feel great but hopefully I’ll be back practising at the end of this week.”

Johansson was the latest high-profile casualty at the Australian Open warm-up event at Sydney’s Olympic tennis center.

Former world number one Carlos Moya of Spain was knocked out by Czech Radek Stepanek on Tuesday, two days after winning the Chennai Open, while women’s French Open champion Anastasia Myskina of Russia went out at the hands of Chinese qualifier Shuai Peng.

Another Russian, fourth seed Vera Zvonareva, went out on Wednesday after a 7-6, 6-3 loss to Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia.

Hewitt raced through the first set against Clement but trailed 4-1 in the second set before winning the last five games to extend his winning sequence in Sydney to 17 matches.

“Momentum changes so much on days like today when it’s so hot out there,” Hewitt said.

“Once you start getting down on yourself a little bit it can snowball but when you’re positive it’s a lot easier to play good tennis and win a few games in a row.”

Hewitt will play Thomas Johansson in the quarterfinals after the Swede beat lanky Australian Wayne Arthurs in two tiebreakers with big-serving American Taylor Dent to play Mirnyi. Romania’s fourth seed Andrei Pavel will play Czech qualifier Ivo Minar and Stepanek faces Spanish fifth seed Feliciano Lopez after they all won.

Elena Dementieva, last year’s French and U.S. Open finalist, beat Greek Eleni Daniilidou 6-3 3-6 6-2 while fellow Russian Nadia Petrova thrashed Daniela Hantuchova 6-0 6-2.

Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder and Australia’s Samantha Stosur, the finalists in last week’s Australian hardcourt final, also advanced along with Australia’s Alica Molik. World number one Lindsay Davenport did not play yesterday.

Top-Seeded Farina Elia Gains€

In Canberra, Australia, top-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy advanced to the quarterfinals of the Canberra Classic tennis tournament yesterday with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld in hot, windy conditions.

“I was very satisfied today because my stroke is coming back and I had a quick adjustment from yesterday with the surface and the wind,” Farina Elia said.

“These conditions are very, very difficult — you see a lot of mistakes and unforced errors during the matches.”

Hungarian Melinda Czink, who entered the main draw as the lucky loser from the qualifiers, beat second-seeded Anna Smashnova of Israel 6-2, 6-1, the 2002 champion . Smashnova struggled to find rhythm in the blustery conditions, holding serve only twice for the match. Czink has a quarterfinal match Thursday against Germany’s Marlene Weingartner, who won her second-round match Tuesday.

In other matches yesterday, Serbian teenager Ana Ivanovic beat Australian Evie Dominikovic 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, Yuliana Fedak of the Ukraine defeated Tamarine Tamasugarn of Thailand 6-2, 7-6 (6), fourth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli beat Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-4 and Lindsay-Lee Waters of the United States defeated Hungary’s Aniko Kapros 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Meantime, Carlos Moya, who last year helped Spain defeat the U.S. in the final of the Davis Cup, yesterday said from Madrid that he would not be playing in this years’ tournament.

The 28-year-old, who won both his singles against Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish in last year’s final, said in a statement that his retirement from the Davis Cup team was only temporarily.