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LONDON, June 10: Andre Agassi celebrated his personal millennium on Tuesday with victory at the Stella Artois Championships in his 1,000th professional match.
The 33-year-old juggled swirling winds and a lively Peter Luczak to win 7-6 6-4.
It was a fitting milestone win on Queen’s Club’s grass Centre Court, mirroring the success he enjoyed in his first match 17 years ago.
Then, with flowing blonde hair and bucket-loads of attitude, he beat John Austin in the first round of an event in La Quinta, California.
The 998 matches in between have featured some of the most scintillating tennis, earning Agassi the world number one spot and eight grand slam titles.
Seeded second here and ranked two in the world, Agassi could next face a fellow former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek in the third round. Krajicek plays Jan Vacek on Wednesday.
Earlier Tim Henman’s Wimbledon preparations got off to a hesitant start when the British number one squeezed past Davide Sanguinetti 3-6 6-3 7-6.
Four times a Wimbledon semi-finalist, Henman struggled with his serve throughout the match and was fortunate to survive a match point while trailing 6-5 in the third set.
Third seed Andy Roddick made light work of his first foray on to grass this season, thrashing Rik De Voest 6-3 6-2 in the second round.
The American, a first-round loser at the French Open two weeks ago, never looked bothered at the 800,000 Euro ($936,500) championships, advancing in just 51 minutes.
HALLE, (Germany), June 10: Roger Federer took the first step towards rebuilding his shattered confidence with victory over Sargis Sargsian at the Gerry Weber Open on Tuesday.
The top-seeded Swiss, who suffered another grand slam disappointment when he was beaten in the first round at the French Open, struggled early but grew in confidence to beat the Armenian 7-5 6-1 and reach the second round.
One of the most naturally talented players in the game, Federer has been accused of mental frailty, something which cropped up again in Paris when he was beaten by Peruvian Luis Horna.
When he was broken in the fifth game of the first set, he appeared headed for another early defeat but broke back for 5-5 and then broke Sargsian again two games later to seal the set.
World number five Federer then relaxed and produced some fine tennis to break serve twice more and advance to round two. There, he will play Spaniard Fernando Vicente.
Earlier, Mikhail Youzhny revived memories of his Davis Cup final heroics, recovering from a nightmare start against French teenager Paul-Henri Mathieu.
The Russian sixth seed, who came from two sets down to beat Mathieu in the deciding rubber of the Davis Cup final in December, lost the first five games but stormed back and was leading 1-6 6-1 5-2 when Mathieu retired, citing ‘flu.
Eighth seed Arnaud Clement, also from France, secured his place in the second round with a 50-minute 6-3 6-0 win over Canadian qualifier Frederic Niemeyer.
Clement will now play Ivan Ljubicic for a place in the quarter-finals after the big-serving Croat disappointed the home crowd by beating former champion David Prinosil 7-6 6-2.
There was better fortune for another German though, Nicolas Kiefer, also a former Halle winner, continuing his comeback from injury with an easy 6-3 6-0 victory over Belgian Olivier Rochus.
Results:
First round:
Andre Sa (Brazil) bt Gilles Elseneer (Belgium) 6-2 7-6 (7-1); Dick Norman (Belgium) bt Mardy Fish (U.S.) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-3); Max Mirnyi (Belarus) bt George Bastl (Switzerland) 6-3 6-4; Marc Rosset (Switzerland) bt John van Lottum (Netherlands) 7-6 (7-1) 7-5; Taylor Dent (U.S.) bt Robert Kendrick (U.S.) 6-2 7-5; Alex Bogdanovic (Britain) bt Arvind Parmar (Britain) 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 7-6 (7-2); Todd Reid (Australia) bt Nicolas Mahut (France) 6-3 7-5; Michel Kratochvil (Switzerland) bt Gregory Carraz (France) 6-3 7-5
Second round:
Xavier Malisse (Belgium) bt Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) 6-3 7-6 (7-3); Tim Henman (Britain) bt Davide Sanguinetti (Italy) 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-3); Andy Roddick (U.S.) bt Rik De Voest (South Africa) 6-3 6-2.—Reuters
