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| February 28, 2006 | Tuesday | Muharram 29, 1427 |
Haas subdues Soderling for second title
MEMPHIS (Tennessee), Feb 27: Tommy Haas cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Robin Soderling on Sunday to claim his second ATP title in less than a month. Seeded sixth here, the 27-year-old German added the Memphis crown to the title he won on Feb 6 at the Delray Beach in Florida where he beat Xavier Malisse in the final.
His win over the unseeded Soderling gave him his second career Memphis title.
“This place will always hold a special place in my heart,” Haas said. “This court suits me well and it is a nice place to play.”
Haas, who also won here in 1999, has only two losses in 2006, and both have come to world number one Roger Federer.
Soderling had taken out last year’s finalists in the first two rounds, crushing 2005 runner-up Max Mirnyi in the first round and defending champ Kenneth Carlsen in the second.
He stopped red-hot Scot Andy Murray in the quarterfinals and edged Belgian Kristof Vliegen, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), in the semifinals, ran out of as against Haas.
The German broke twice in the second set to put himself on the brink of victory, but needed three match points to close the deal.
Soderling had his opportunities, but Haas rebuffed all four of his break chances in the second.
DUBAI: Tim Henman, the former world number four from Britain, won a crucial battle to retain a foothold on the main tour when he prevailed in an up-and-down tussle against Feliciano Lopez, a former finalist, to reach the second round of the Dubai Open.
Henman, whose ranking has sunk to a ten-year low of 49, was so desperate for matches and points that he only entered the tournament at the last moment as a wild card, and his 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) win over the unpredictable Spaniard came as a relief.
Henman was given plenty of help from an erratic Lopez in the first set, during which the world number 38 made too many errors to remain in contention and once slammed the ball into the ground in irritation.
But after Henman had failed to convert three break points in the second game of the second set, and Lopez produced one magical side spin stop volley winner, the match began to change character.
Lopez became dangerous with heavy serves and much heavier ground strokes, and Henman often settled for containment, with blocked service returns and sliced backhands, while watching for opportunities for occasional ambushing net attacks.
Lopez also broke in the next game and but for an umpire’s over-rule when a line judge wrongly called a Henman drive out at 2-4,15-40 Lopez would have gone two breaks up.
But when required to serve for the set at 5-4 Lopez could not manage it, finishing the game with a double fault, and in his next service game at 5-6 he only rescued the match with two gambling volleys.
Three more match points came Henman’s way in the tiebreaker before the Briton’s short low backhand elicited another driving error from the Spaniard.
Earlier Rainer Schuttler, the 30-old former world number five from Germany, scored his best win for eight months when he upset David Ferrer, the fifth-seeded Spaniard by 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Schuttler, who had had only one win in six tournaments this year and only two since October, had made a huge fall to 98 in the world rankings, but now played like a top 20 player again.
But it was a topsy-turvy affair between two not dissimilar, mobile, hard-working baseliners with Schuttler appearing to have lost two important leads only to be presented with another late chance whoich he grabbed.
Schuttler served well and moved the ball around well to take the first set, but dropped serve early in the second after becoming involved in an argument with the umpire over an over-ruled line decision.
The German was warned for shouting at the official and the setback proved important, for Ferrer then consolidated tenaciously, holding serve five times to level at a set all.
Schuttler then changed to a fresh, red shirt, and adopted a more enterprising attacking approach and was rewarded with a double break and 4-1 lead.
But he appeared to grow tense at the prospect of a good win, and allowed Ferrer to battle back to a 5-4 lead and to within two points of the match at 30-all on Schuttler’s serve.
But then the underdog’s luck changed. He hung on to his delivery and saw Ferrer unaccountably deliver two double faults to help Schuttler to a break and a 6-5 lead.
When presented with the chance of closing out the match Schuttler reached 40-love, wobbled slightly to 40-30, and then produced a decent first serve and a forehand faded drive follow-up to secure the unexpected success.
First round results: Tim Henman (GBR) bt Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 6-2, 7-6 (8/6); Olivier Rochus (BEL) bt Fabrice Santoro (FRA) 6-4, 6-1; Robin Vik (CZE) bt Janko Tipsarevic (SCG) 6-2, 6-4; Rainer Schuttler (GER) bt David Ferrer (ESP) 2-6, 6-3, 7-5; Igor Andreev (RUS) bt Andreas Seppi (ITA) 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 6-4; Andre Agassi (US) bt Greg Rusedski (GBR) 7-6, 6-0.
DOHA: Results from the 600,000-dollar WTA tournament on Monday:
First round: Martina Hingis (SUI) bt Mashona Washington (USA) 6-1, 6-0; Julia Schruff (GER) bt Jelena Jankovic (SEM) 6-2, 7-5; Li Na (CHN) bt Vera Zvonereva (RUS) 6-4, 6-4.—Agencies
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