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| November 16, 2005 | Wednesday | Shawwal 13, 1426 |
Federer struggles past Croatian Ljubicic
SHANGHAI, Nov 15: World number one Roger Federer battled past Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 2-6 7-6 on Tuesday to close in on the semifinals at the season-ending Masters Cup. The Swiss, who has just recovered from a six-week injury layoff, bounced back from a poor second set to make it two wins out of two at the troubled $4.45 million event in Shanghai.
Federer squandered three match points at 5-3 and 5-4 in the third before sealing victory 7-4 on a tiebreak to stay on course for a third straight Masters Cup title.
Only Ilie Nastase in 1971-73 and Ivan Lendl in 1985-87 have achieved three-in-a-row.
Federer was assured of finishing the second round of matches on top of the Red Group with Argentines Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian, who lost their openers, playing later on Tuesday.
The Masters Cup was hit by the sudden pullouts of former world Andre Agassi and French Open champion Rafael Nadal through injury on Monday.
The withdrawals were a further blow to organisers after the pre-tournament pullouts of Andy Roddick, Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt.
organisers slam Agassi
Chinese organisers on Tuesday vented their anger at Andre Agassi’s sudden pullout from the season-ending Masters Cup.
The former world number one was beaten 6-4 6-2 by Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko on Monday and immediately withdrew from the lucrative Shanghai event citing an ankle injury.
“I don’t appreciate what Andre Agassi is doing,” deputy organising committee director Wang Liqun said through an interpreter.
“In 2000, when Agassi came for the Heineken (Open), he took an early exit in the first round. Two years later in the Masters Cup, after two defeats, he cited a hip injury and took off.
“This year it happened again.”
Agassi hurt ankle ligaments playing racquetball four weeks ago and the eight-times grand slam champion was clearly not match fit against Davydenko.
The American world number five, who was making a record 13th appearance in the year-ending extravaganza, played with his left ankle heavily taped.
Earlier, French Open champion Rafael Nadal pulled out — also with a sore ankle — before his match with Argentine Gaston Gaudio.
Nadal also had fitness concerns coming to Shanghai, while Andy Roddick, Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt all withdrew before the start of the tournament.
Wang’s scorn, however, was reserved for Agassi, although he stopped short of accusing the 1990 champion of faking injury.
“I don’t want to make any personal comment on Andre Agassi’s decision (to pull out),” he said. “However, I am certainly not appreciative of what he did — particularly because he made the sudden announcement without notifying anyone.”—Reuters
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