August 14, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 11, 1429

WASHINGTON, Aug 13: Marat Safin’s US Open preparations suffered a setback when the former world No 1 was forced to retire from his first round match at the ATP event here with a neck injury on Tuesday.

The Russian sixth seed lost the first set against Italian Fabio Fognini 7-5 and then decided to withdraw from the match.

“I just blocked it and I pulled a muscle,” Safin told reporters, adding that he suffered the injury during the second point of the match. “It was getting worse and worse. I should have stopped earlier. I thought it might get a bit better, but it didn’t.”

Safin said he would now rest and then go to New York to prepare for the US Open, which begins on Aug 25.

Despite the injury, Safin surged into a 3-0 lead but after dropping his serve in the fifth game, the double Grand Slam winner requested an injury timeout.

With his flexibility restricted and his service speed well down, Safin was broken again in a protracted 11th game to give Fognini a 6-5 lead.

The world No 82 held to love in the next game to take the set before Safin decided he was unfit to continue.

Defending champion Andy Roddick bucked the trend on a bad day for the seeds with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, hitting 21 aces in the process.

Roddick double-faulted on match point when serving for the match at 5-4 but bounced back to win the tiebreak 7-4.

Tuesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

First round: 2-Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) bt Jesse Levine (US) 6-2, 6-3; Fabio Fognini (Italy) bt 6-Marat Safin (Russia) 7-5 – Safin retired; Alejandro Falla (Colombia) bt 5-Mardy Fish (US) 5-7, 6-4, 6-2; Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) bt Mischa Zverev (Germany) 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-2; Robert Kendrick (US) bt 3-Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 6-3, 7-5; Eduardo Schwank (Argentina) bt Sebastien Grosjean (France) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; 1-Andy Roddick (US) bt Ramon Delgado (Paraguay) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); Viktor Troicki (Serbia) bt Denis Gremelmayr (Germany) 6-4, 6-2.

BARTOLI SIDELINED

MASON (Ohio): Abdominal pain knocked top-seeded Marion Bartoli out of the Cincinnati Women’s Open during her first-round match against Jamea Jackson on Tuesday.

Bartoli lost the first set 7-6 and was trailing 2-1 in the second set when she called for a trainer, who worked on Bartoli’s abdomen. The Frenchwoman then practiced her service action before deciding to play on. She won the next game to tie the set at 2-2, but continued to hold her abdomen between points and retired.

Results:

First round: Jamea Jackson (US) bt 1-Marion Bartoli (France) 7-6 (7-5), 2-2 – Bartoli retired; 5-Amelie Mauresmo (France) bt Stephanie Cohen-Aloro (France) 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-1; 6-Aleksandra Wozniak (Canada) bt Aiko Nakamura (Japan) 6-3, 6-2; Yanina Wickmayer (Belgium) bt Vasilisa Bardina (Russia) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3; Julia Vakulenko (Ukraine) bt Monica Niculescu (Romania) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4; Vania King (US) bt Tathiana Garbin (Italy) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; 2-Nadia Petrova (Russia) bt Galina Voskoboeva (Russia) 6-3, 6-0.—Agencies