BEIJING, 14 September 2005 — Thomas Johansson cruised to a first round victory over fellow Swede Jonas Bjorkman at the China Open yesterday, as David Nalbandian and Guillermo Coria also advanced.
Johansson, the No. 4 seed, fired six aces on the way to his 6-4, 6-3 victory.
“I played well in my service games,” he said, calling it the key to his win.
Third-seeded Nalbandian, of Argentina, defeated Denmark’s Kristian Pless also in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (2).
The No. 2 seed Coria, also of Argentina, sped past homecrowd favorite Zeng Shaoxian of China, 6-2, 6-1, in less than an hour.
Lifting China into the second round was Wang Yu Jr., who beat qualifier Luka Gregorc of Slovenia, 7-6 (5), 6-1.
No. 7 seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia defeated qualifier Nathan Healey of Australia, 7-5, 6-4.
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain finally takes to the court Wednesday after a two-day wait. His first-round opponent, Taiwan’s Wang Yeu-tzuoo, was delayed by business in Turkey, organizers said without elaborating.
Also Monday, Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen triumphed over Germany’s Rainer Schuettler, 6-4, 6-2.
Justin Gimelstob of the United States eased past Roko Karanusic of Croatia, 6-4, 6-1.
Amir Hadad of Israel beat Dick Norman of Belgium in a closely-fought 7-5, 7-6 (7) match.
Thailand’s Danai Udomchoke needed three sets to defeat another Israeli, Noam Okun, by a score of 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4. Lucky loser Toshihide Matsui of Japan triumphed over China’s Sun Peng, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Matsui lost in the qualifying round and was a last-minute addition to the main draw after the No. 5 seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia withdrew with an injury.
Molik Tastes Victory
in Bali
In Bali, Australian Alicia Molik claimed her first victory since April with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Argentina’s Mariana Diaz-Oliva to reach the second round of the Bali International tournament yesterday.
Russian Ekaterina Bychkova, who knocked defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova out of the first round of the US Open last month, beat India’s eighth seed Sania Mirza 6-3, 6-2.
“I wasn’t really in it from the beginning,” Mirza said. “She played a good match but I think I was really rusty. I don’t know, I was just not in my rhythm. A lot of shots that went in in other matches just didn’t go in today.”
Third seed Molik missed the French Open and Wimbledon with a virus that affected her balance and her comeback has been slow.
The victory against Diaz Oliva was far from convincing. “It was a win, which is great and fantastic,” Molik said. “But I’ve gotten very used to winning in a fun way and playing great tennis. That’s what I’m striving for, at the same time as having to be happy getting through an ugly win.” Playing under lights, Molik fell behind and Diaz-Oliva served for the opening set at 5-4 but the Australian held off the challenge took the tiebreak 8-6.
“If I’d have lost that first set I would probably have got pretty down on myself. I was very lucky to get out of that,” Molik said.
In the second set, a double fault gave Molik an early break for 2-1. Diaz Oliva double-faulted again to concede the match.
In the only other match involving a seed, number five Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany beat Croatia’s Karolina Sprem 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.
Safin Ruled Out of Davis
Cup Semifinal
In Moscow, Russia will be without injured Australian Open champion Marat Safin for this month’s Davis Cup semifinal against Croatia, the country’s tennis chief said yesterday.
“Safin is still not fully recovered from his knee injury and he is not on the team,” Shamil Tarpishchev told Reuters.
“It’ll be at least another month and a half before he can resume playing.” Safin has been troubled with a ligament tear in his left knee since losing in the third round of Wimbledon.
The injury forced him out of Russia’s 3-2 Davis Cup quarter-final win over France in July, as well as the US Open.
“Even with Safin on the team, we would have problems overcoming a formidable Croatian side on their home turf, but without him it makes our task twice as tough,” Tarpishchev said.
“But we won’t go out without a fight.” In Safin’s absence, Tarpishchev has called up Davis Cup newcomer Dmitry Tursunov along with world number seven Nikolay Davydenko, 2002 Davis Cup hero Mikhail Youzhny and Igor Andreev.
Davydenko was Russia’s hero in July when he led the Davis Cup team to a come-from-behind victory over France to reach the last four for the first time since 2002.
Despite nursing a painful wrist injury, the Ukraine-born and Germany-based Davydenko won both his singles matches to save the day for his adopted country.
The semifinal will be played at an indoor arena in Split from Sept. 23 to 25.
Meantime, The Lawn Tennis Association, the governing body of British tennis, has put London’s historic Queen’s Club up for sale, it said yesterday.
The sale is a 120-year lease.
The LTA is relocating its headquarters by early 2007 to its new state-of-the-art tennis academy, the National Tennis Center, currently under construction in Roehampton.
The club will be sold on the basis that it will retain a rackets club and that the Stella Artois Championships or any future tournament remains unaffected.
