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| October 25, 2002 | Friday | Sha’aban 18,1423 |
Early exit for Hewitt, Agassi and Safin
STOCKHOLM, Oct 24: World number one Lleyton Hewitt suffered a shock 6-3 6-3 defeat by little-known Dutchman Raemon Sluiter in the second round of the Stockholm Open Wednesday.
Sluiter broke Hewitt’s first service game to take a 3-0 lead and then held on to serve to take the set 6-3.
He broke the Australian immediately in the second set to take a 2-0 lead but Hewitt broke back straight away and pumped himself up with a roar to take a 3-2 lead.
Sluiter kept his cool and held serve to 3-3, broke Hewitt to 4-3 then served home a 5-3 lead. In the final game Hewitt came from 40-0 down in his serve to deuce but made a double-fault on Sluiter’s fourth match point to lose the second set 6-3.
It was a day of seed upsets as Dutch second-seed Sjeng Schaken bowed out against American Taylor Dent 7-6 6-4 while Frenchman Fabrice Santoro slammed Argentine fifth-seed Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1 6-3.
Swedish homecrowd hopes were shattered as fourth-seeded Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson and wildcards Magnus Norman and Robin Soderling all lost.
Johansson lost 3-6 6-3 6-2 to Spanish claycourt specialist Tommy Robredo after a promising first set.
Johansson has been out of action recently recovering from a knee injury.
Norman was outclassed by an inspired Hicham Arazi of Morocco 6-2 6-2 and Thailand’s seventh-seed Paradorn Srichaphan easily disposed of Soderling 6-2 6-1.
Second round results:
Raemon Sluiter bt Lleyton Hewitt 6-3 6-3 First round Taylor Dent bt Sjeng Schalken 7-6 (7-3) 6-4; Paradorn Srichaphan bt Robin Soderling 6-2 6-1; Hicham Arazi bt Magnus Norman 6-2 6-2; Fabrice Santoro bt Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1 6-3; Joachim Johansson bt Albert Portas 6-3 6-3; Tommy Robredo bt Thomas Johansson 3-6 6-3 6-2
MOSCOW: Andre Agassi suffered a setback in his campaign to unseat Lleyton Hewitt as world number one when he slumped to a 6-4, 6-4 defeat at the hands of Slovak Karol Kucera in the Saint Petersburg Open Thursday.
Agassi, who is currently second in the ATP race, started the match with confidence, breaking Kucera’s serve early to take a 3-0 advantage.
However, the 28-year-old Slovak picked up the pace and won five consecutive games to take the opening set in 40 minutes.
In the second set, Kucera, ranked 80 in the ATP race, broke in the ninth game to set up the victory and record his fourth win over the 32-year-old American in their seven meetings.
Marat Safin of Russia, second seed and two-time champion here, failed to defend his title crashing out of the tournament after a straight-set defeat at the hands of the wild-card Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus in 6-4, 6-4.
After Voltchkov took the opening set in 32 minutes, the 2000 US Open champion failed to tighten up his play, allowing the Belarussian to earn the lead again early in the second with another break.
The rivals than continued trading breaks but Voltchkov, who is currently ranked 119 in the ATP race, managed to keep his advantage through to win the set and the match after one hour 17 minutes on court.
In the quarterfinal, Voltchkov will now face Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer, who upset Belarus’ Max Mirnyi, the eighth seed, 6-3, 7-5.
Fifth-seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov also crashed out losing to Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 7-6 (7/1), 7-5.
Third seed Grosjean, the only seeded player who managed to survive on Thursday, barely broke sweat, ousting Argentina’s Mariano Zabaleta in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 on the way to the quarterfinals.
Results
Second round: Karol Kucera bt Andre Agassi (USA) 6-4, 6-4; Sebastien Grosjean bt Mariano Zabaleta 6-3, 6-1; Dominik Hrbaty bt Yevgeny Kafelnikov 7-6 (7/1), 7-5; Nicolas Kiefer bt Max Mirnyi 6-3, 7-5; Vladimir Voltchkov bt Marat Safin 6-4, 6-4.
BASEL (Switzerland): Top-seeded Briton Tim Henman put the nappies aside following the weekend birth of his baby daughter Rose Elizabeth to send Cedric Pioline of France packing Wednesday in the opening round of the million-dollar Swiss Indoors tournament here.
Henman, the defending champion, took just 58 minutes to win 6-1, 6-4 after a performance full of attacking venom as he sets about trying to clinch a spot at the season-ending Masters Cup at Shanghai in a month’s time.
Spanish second seed Juan-Carlos Ferrero ousted Swiss veteran Marc Rosset but only just, advancing 7-6, (13/11), 7-6 (7/4) after saving four set points in the opening set.
Third seed and local favourite Roger Federer moved past Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-3, while fifth-seeded American Andy Roddick shot down Belgium’s Xavier Malisse 6-4, 6-3.
Results (x denotes seed):
(First round): Roger Federer (Swi x3) bt Martin Verkerk (Ned) 6-3, 6-3; Tim Henman (Gbr x1) bt Cedric Pioline (Fra) 6-1, 6-4; Andy Roddick (USA x5) bt Xavier Malisse (Bel) 6-4, 6-3; Juan-Carlos Ferrero (Spa x2) bt Marc Rosset (Swi) 7-6 (13/11), 7-6 (7/4); Adrian Voinea (Rom) bt Albert Costa (Spa x4); Nicolas Thomann (Fra) bt Attila Savolt (Hun) 6-4, 6-1; Nicolas Escude (Fra) bt Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) 7-6 (7/5), retired.—Reuters/AFP
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