Sore knee forces Williams to retire from WTA event
Sore knee forces Williams to retire from WTA event
AMELIA ISLAND, Florida (AFP): U.S. Open champion Serena Williams suffered a flare-up of tendinitis in her left knee and dropped out of a US$535,000 WTA event one game from losing to Argentina's Paola Suarez.
Williams, seeded second, was making her first appearance in the event. It was her season debut on clay, and is the first U.S. tune-up event for the French Open on the WTA tour.
Suarez was leading, 6-3, 4-6, 5-2, when Williams found she was unable to continue. The injury was described as a recurrence of patellar tendinitis in her left knee. She was scheduled to be re- evaluated on Wednesday in Boca Raton.
Spain's Conchita Martinez, the fourth seed and 1995 champion, beat Russia's Elena Dementieva 7-5, 6-2.
Seventh seed Anna Kournikova of Russia and eighth seed Barbara Schett of Austria also reached the third round. Kournikova, a 1999 semifinalist here, got past Anne Kremer of Luxembourg, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), as she searches for her first career singles title. Schett dumped Gala Leon Garcia of Spain, 6-2, 6-2.
The reigning U.S. Open champion, Williams has compiled a 15-5 record this season, all on hard courts, and claimed her only tournament title at Hannover Germany in February.
Ranked sixth in the world, Williams is coming off a fourth- round loss to Jennifer Capriati at Miami two weeks ago.
Martinez has won 15-of-21 matches in 2000, finishing runner-up at the Australian Hardcourt Championships in January. A former Wimbledon champion, Martinez is fresh off a fourth-round showing at Miami.
Atlanta Challenge
In Atlanta, Georgia, world number one Andre Agassi, warming up for defense of his French Open title, broke Belgium's Xavier Malisse five times on the way to a 6-3, 6-4, victory here Tuesday at the ATP Atlanta Challenge.
The American top seed made his clay court debut at the $375,000 event against the teen qualifier in a first-round match. Agassi won 74 percent of his first-serve points and 43 percent of return points.
Agassi did not overpower Malisse but simply got the points when he needed them. He broke the young Belgian three times in the first set, including the ninth game to win the set.
In the second set, Agassi was serving for the match but Malisse broke at love before Agassi broke back in the next game to end the match.
Agassi will next face Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic in the second round. Vanek was a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Justin Gimelstob of the United States in a meeting of unseeded players.
Second seed Stefan Koubek of Austria began defense of his title by defeating Federico Browne of Argentina, 7-5, 6-0. Koubek won his first career ATP title here last year as a qualifier and won his second title last month at Delray Beach, Florida on hard courts.
Third seed Magnus Larsson of Sweden and sixth seed Sargis Sargsian of Armenia also advanced to the second round. Larsson, who won the St. Jude in Memphis in February, dumped Christian Ruud of Norway, 6-1, 6-4, and Sargsian stormed past American Eric Taino, 6-0, 6-2.
In Estoril, Portugal, Tom Henman wasted no time in getting off to a winning start this clay court season, defeating Spanish qualifier Oscar Burrieza 6-3, 6-4 Tuesday to move into the second round of the $765,000 Estoril Open.
The fourth seed was all but untroubled by a 24-year-old Spaniard who gained most of his tennis experience in the United States and is little known among his mainly Barcelona-based contemporaries on the Tour.
Henman improved his match record to 19 wins and just nine defeats this season as he hangs onto tenth in the 2000 points race for world number one.
The Briton next plays Argentine Gaston Gaudio, another clay- courter.
Henman gave a solid performance in the opening set, breaking for a 4-2 lead but getting into trouble for a brief period as he went to serve it out.
Leading 5-3 and serving, the Briton let mistakes get the better of him and fell into a 0-40 hole.
But forehand winners on the first two points and a return error from the Spaniard on the third drew the game level.
Henman reached a set point from another mistake by the Spaniard, but misjudged a defensive lob and missed on his spinning return, going wide.
The Briton calmly laid down an ace for a second set point and profited from a return long by Burrieza to collect early lead. Henman used a serve-and-volley attack to advantage, breaking in the sixth game of the second set to gain the edge.
The seed served for victory four games later, achieving three match points; one was sufficient as Burrieza put a backhand into the net to lose.