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| November 2, 2003 | Sunday | Ramazan 6, 1424 |
Unseeded Henman stuns world No1 Roddick
PARIS, Nov 1: Unseeded Tim Henman inflicted the first defeat on Andy Roddick since the American became world number one when he won their Paris Masters semifinal 7-6 7-6.
The Briton won on his sixth match point and will play either 14th seed Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic or unseeded Andrei Pavel of Romania in the final.
Henman broke the feared Roddick serve in the opening game of the match and played sublime tennis for five games before the American stemmed the tide of free-flowing winners.
Roddick broke back in the 10th game to take the set into a tiebreak which he let slip with two unforced errors, Henman winning it 7-4. The second set was tense rather than beautiful to watch as an increasingly fractious Roddick, warned at the end of the first set for banging his racket to the ground, sought to raise his game to the level that won him the U.S. Open.
Henman, whose year has been disrupted following shoulder surgery, had one match point in the 10th game which Roddick saved with a volley.
Again Roddick’s game turned ragged in the tiebreak and he handed Henman a 5-1 lead. But the Briton, ranked fourth in the world last year, hesitated on the brink of victory, wasting four match points before winning the match on another Roddick error.
Roddick became world number one on Thursday after reaching the quarterfinals here.
Earlier on Friday Roddick celebrated his rise to the summit of men’s tennis by beating Jonas Bjorkman 7-5 7-6.
Unseeded Henman beat Wimbledon champion Roger Federer 7-6 6-1 and the Swiss third seed’s chances of ending the year as number one have now all but disappeared.
Against a tiring opponent, Henman played top quality serve-volley tennis.
The Briton has beaten three times French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, seventh seed Sebastien Grosjean and now Federer here. Asked whether he had ever played better, Henman said: “Never, I’ve never played with such consistency.
The other semifinal is an all-eastern European affair between Czech 14th seed Jiri Novak, who defeated top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero on Thursday, and unseeded Romanian Andrei Pavel.
Results:
Semifinal: Tim Henman (Britain) beat 2-Andy Roddick (U.S.) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (9-7)
Friday’s results:
Quarterfinals: Tim Henman (Britain) beat 3-Roger Federer (Switzerland) 7-6 (7-5) 6-1; 2-Andy Roddick (U.S.) beat Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) 7-5 7-6 (7-0)
MAURESMO IN SEMIS
PHILADELPHIA: Second seed Amelie Mauresmo of France easily defeated American Lisa Raymond on Friday, advancing to the semifinals of the 585,000 dollar WTA event.
Mauresmo won 6-3, 6-3 to improve to 4-0 all-time against Raymond.
The 24-year-old Mauresmo reached the final at Moscow earlier this month but is without a title since winning at Warsaw in May. She advanced to her seventh semifinal of the season.
Third-seeded Anastasia Myskina of Russia qualified for the season-ending WTA Tour Championships with a 6-3, 6-1 rout of Germany’s Marlene Weingartner in the quarterfinals.
Myskina will be going to next week’s WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles for the second straight year.
She reached her fifth semifinal of the year and has won four titles this year, including a pair of indoor crowns in the fall.
Chanda Rubin hurt her chances for one of the coveted eight berths in Los Angeles as the fourth-seeded American fell to No. 7 Nadia Petrova of Russia, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.
Fifth seed Ai Sugiyama of Japan also clinched a spot for the WTA Tour Championships with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 triumph over No. 9 Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States.
Results (x denotes seed):
Quarterfinals: Amelie Mauresmo (FRA x2) bt Lisa Raymond (USA) 6-3, 6-3; Anastasia Myskina (RUS x3) bt Marlene Weingartner (GER) 6-3, 6-1; Nadia Petrova (RUS x7) bt Chanda Rubin (USA x4) 7-6 (7/5), 7-5; Ai Sugiyama (JPN x5) bt Meghann Shaughnessy (USA x9) 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.—Reuters/AFP
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