Sharapova wins then withdraws from Rogers Cup

MONTREAL (AP) -Third-seeded Maria Sharapova withdrew from the Rogers Open after her second-round victory Wednesday because of a shoulder injury, possibly jeopardizing her participation at the Beijing Olympics.

Sharapova of Russia defeated Marta Domachowska of Poland 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 in a match that took nearly three hours. She will have an MRI on Thursday.

Top-seeded Ana Ivanovic, playing with a swollen thumb, advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over Petra Kvitova.

Trailing 3-4 in the second set, Sharapova had the trainer come out to look at her right shoulder, an injury that might have contributed to her committing 17 double faults in the match. Though she eventually lost the second set, Sharapova won the first four games of the final set to lock up the match.

"It's obviously unfortunate,'' Sharapova said. "You know, you try to do every little possible thing you can. But at the end of the day when you go on court and you're thinking about aggravating things, you're thinking about an injury, it's not really the way to play.''

Sharapova said she considered not coming out for the third set, and she will have tests on the shoulder that's been bothering her since March when she aggravated it at Indian Wells.

She said her presence at the upcoming Olympics and the U.S. Open, which begins in late August, will depend largely on the results of the tests.

"At the end of the day, it's tough to go on court and not be close to even 50 percent,'' Sharapova said. "I'm too good of a player to go out there and try to fight through something that I think can eventually become something serious.''

Third-seeded Maria Sharapova also advanced despite an injury, beating Poland's Marta Domachowska 7-5, 5-7, 6-2. Sharapova called for the trainer trailing 3-4 in the second set to look at her right shoulder, an injury that might have contributed to her committing 17 double faults in the match.

Though she eventually lost the second set, Sharapova of Russia won the first four games of the final set to lock up the match.

Ivanovic, who hurt her right thumb while practicing 10 days ago, refused to use the injury as an excuse for her performance in her first match since Wimbledon.

In other matches, Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia beat Aleksandra Wozniak of nearby Blainville, Quebec, 6-0, 6-4.

No. 7 seed Dinara Safina of Russia and ninth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland each advanced to the third round in straight sets.

Safina easily dispatched fellow Russian Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 6-4. Schnyder came back from a 2-5 hole in the second set to beat Monica Niculescu 6-1, 7-5.

Sixth-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze of Russia beat Jill Craybas of the United States 6-2, 7-5.

Two seeds lost Wednesday. No. 13 seed Maria Kirilenko fell to local favorite Stephanie Dubois of Laval, Quebec, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (4), and 15th-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy lost 6-3, 0-6, 6-3 Michelle Larcher de Brito, a 15-year-old qualifier from Portugal.

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Sharapova scoots into 4th round

WTA projects bigger purses — and fines

MONTREAL - Women's tennis will get a 40 percent pay raise next year along with bigger fines, suspensions and responsibility for the leading players.

Road Map 2010, the WTA's masterplan to bring order to the sport's structure and schedule, will be formally unveiled at the U.S. Open next month.

But WTA president Stacey Allaster, during a visit to the Montreal Cup on Tuesday, revealed details of the ambitious overhaul which will be rolled out next season, a year earlier than planned.

"The 2006 season was a disaster," Allaster told reporters. "We failed to deliver on our player commitment to any of our top 10 events. We just felt something needed to be done now.

"We're trying to change a culture, where it's not an option but a commitment when you enter a top level event.

"The top players will be doing the heavy lifting so they should share in more of the rewards, more prize money, more bonus pool money, more ranking points."

Tour prize money will rise from $63.6 million in 2006 to $84.4 million next season but it will come at a price with a more regimented system and greater accountability.

Under Road Map 2010, 26 Tier One and Tier Two events will be combined into 20 Premiere tournaments with players committed to play in at least 10.

Four $4.5 million tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing will be mandatory for all players who qualify.

MANDATORY EVENTS

Below the mandatory events will be five $2 million stops in Canada, Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati and Tokyo, of which the top-ranked players must play at least four. The WTA has committed to having at least seven of the world's top 10 players at each of these events.

Players will complete their schedules by playing in at least one or two $700,000 events.

"They asked to put the best events in the right dates and we've done all of that," Allaster said. "We've given them breaks.

"Now we're saying, there's going to be a little less flexibility on where you play and if you don't play, then there's going to be really significant ramifications."

The WTA also laid out a list of penalties designed to hurt players were it matters most, in the pocket and the rankings.

There will be zero tolerance for withdrawals from tournaments players have committed to.

If a player does pull out, even due to injury, she will forfeit bonus money ($5 million available to the top 10 ranked players) and receive zero ranking points for that event.

Maria Sharapova, one of the WTA's biggest draw cards, was a late withdrawal from last year's Montreal Cup and lost $125,000 in bonus pool money and was fined $20,000.

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Radwanska advances in Nordic Light Open

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska beat Nathalie Dechy of France 6-2, 6-3 Tuesday in the first round of the Nordic Light Open.

Radwanska was in full control on center court at Olympic Stadium until she led 5-1 in the second set. Dechy won the next two games and appeared to be turning the match, but the Pole broke her opponent for the win.

Barbora Zahalova Strycova of the Czech Republic beat Petra Cetkovska 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-4, and Cetkovska then refused to shake hands.

Zahalova Strycova protested several calls in the match. Down 3-0 in the third set, she called for medical attention and a massage. After the interruption, she turned the match around and won the last set.

Zahalova Strycova will meet fifth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain in the second round. Medina Garrigues beat Swedish wild card Sandra Roma 6-3, 6-1.

Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia also advanced to the second round, beating Anna Lapushchenkova of Russia 6-2, 6-1.

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Federer, Borg might face McEnroe, Nadal

MACAU - Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg will team up for a special doubles event in November, possibly against the men who ended their famous Wimbledon streaks.

Federer and Borg will face John McEnroe and either Rafael Nadal or James Blake at The Venetian Macau Tennis Showdown on Nov. 20 in a Tour of Champions event.

Federer and Borg each won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles. Nadal ended Federer's run in an epic five-set match this month and McEnroe snapped Borg's streak in 1981.

McEnroe's partner will come from the country that loses the Davis Cup semifinal between the U.S. and Spain in September.

The showdown will start with a one-set match between Borg and McEnroe, followed by a best-of-three sets between Federer and Nadal or Blake.

The two-set doubles match will be decided by a 10-point tiebreaker, if necessary.

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Sugiyama, Kuznetsova advance in Toronto

MONTREAL (AP) -Ai Sugiyama of Japan downed 16th-seeded Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 Tuesday in an opening-round match at the Rogers Cup.

The 33-year-old Sugiyama dropped the first three games of the first set, then won eight straight against the 19-year-old Vaidisova.

It was a tough day for Americans, with only Jill Craybas remaining in the $1.34 million hardcourt tournament after her 6-4, 6-3 victory over Sharon Fichman of Canada at Uniprix Stadium.

Bethanie Mattek, who cracked the top 50 in world rankings by reaching the semifinals last week in Los Angeles, fell 7-5, 6-2 to 56th-ranked Marta Domachowska of Poland. Jamea Jackson lost to 11th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-1, 6-1, Ahsha Rolle was beaten by Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 6-4, 6-2 and Julie Ditty fell 7-6 (4), 6-0 to Melina Czink of Hungary in a battle of qualifiers.

In the late match, Dominika Cibulkova upset fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-2.

Fourth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced when fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva retired in the second set with a right shoulder injury. Kuznetsova led 6-1, 1-0 at the time.

Aleksandra Wozniak beat Chan Yung-Jan of Taiwan 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 and the Canadian will play Jelena Jankovic of Serbia on Wednesday.

In other matches, 12th-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia beat Marie-Eve Pelletier of Canada 6-0, 6-1, 13th-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia topped Anne Keothavong of Britain 6-1, 7-5, and 15th-seeded Flavia Pannetta of Italy rallied past Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.

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Bartoli fights sore leg, wins Rogers Cup opener

MONTREAL (AP) -Marion Bartoli of France overcame a sore thigh to defeat qualifier Melanie South of England 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0 Monday in the opening round of the Rogers Cup.

The 10th-seeded Bartoli received on-court treatment to her right thigh and had a short break during the second set, but looked solid in the third.

American Vania King was upset 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 by qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito, a 15-year-old from Portugal.

Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia rolled past Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-1, 6-1 at Uniprix Stadium.

Ninth-seeded Patty Schnyder led 7-6 (6), 3-2 when Yuan Meng pulled out with a thigh injury. Schnyder will play Monica Niculescu, who ousted American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-2.

Dominika Cibulkova rolled past Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-1. She will face fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva in the second round.

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Robredo ousts Fish at Cincinnati Masters

MASON, Ohio - Twelfth-seeded Tommy Robredo, a winner two weeks ago on clay, picked up his hard-court game on Monday and beat nemesis Mardy Fish 6-2, 6-2 in the opening match of the Cincinnati Masters.

Robredo is 3-3 against Fish, including a loss in their previous meeting at the Australian Open in January.

“He destroyed me in three sets,” Robredo said. “So I had to be very focused from the beginning, and I think I did it.”

The $2.6 million ATP Western & Southern Financial Group Masters is being played at the Lindner Family Tennis Center north of Cincinnati. Defending champion Roger Federer, Wimbledon and French Open champion Rafael Nadal and the rest of the top eight seeded players all had first-round byes.

No. 16 seed Ivo Karlovic beat Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 6-4, but the other two seeded players in action Monday were eliminated.

Tommy Haas beat No. 14 Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-4, and Tomas Berdych knocked off No. 13 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Federer is scheduled to play Tuesday against Robby Ginepri, who advanced by beating Jonas Bjorkman 6-0, 7-6 (5).

“We played here a couple years ago and I actually took a set off him, so I know I can fare up pretty well against him,” Ginepri said of Federer. “It’s going to be a difficult match, obviously. I’ll have to serve extremely well and be patient out there and try to attack his backhand when I can.”

In an all-Russian evening match, Dmitry Tursunov beat Marat Safin 7-6 (5), 6-4. Safin disputed numerous calls, had several long talks with the umpire and threw his racket in disgust near the base of the umpire’s chair after going down 5-4 in the final set, a service break that also seemed to break his spirit.

In other matches, Ernests Gulbis beat Jarkko Nieminen 7-6 (7), 6-2; Robin Soderling defeated Julien Benneteau of France 6-0, 6-3; Andreas Seppi eliminated Feliciano Lopez 7-5, 7-5; Philipp Kohlschreiber ousted Michael Yani 6-3, 6-4; and Sam Querrey beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Robredo was 4-6 in matches in the first three months of the year, but is 24-9 since then.

“When clay courts started, I was playing a lot better and getting my confidence back,” Robredo said. “Hopefully, now I can get the same level as I did on clay at the last part of the clay season and bring back here new great results.”

Robredo won the clay court tournament at Bastad, Sweden, two weeks ago, beating Berdych in straight sets. Robredo was knocked out of the hard court Masters Series tournament in Toronto last week in the second round by Marin Cilic.

Everything went his way Monday.

“At the beginning of the year, I was feeling pretty bad inside the court every time I was playing. I had to fight against myself and not against the opponent,” he said. “Now I’m fighting against the opponent again, which is great.”

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Errani wins Slovenia Open final to earn 2nd title

PORTOROZ, Slovenia (AP) -Sara Errani of Italy won her second title in three weeks on Sunday by defeating Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-3, 6-3 in the Slovenia Open final.

The eighth-seeded Errani won her first career WTA Tour event at Palermo at the beginning of this month. She has won 10 matches in a row.

The server lost half of the games in the match, with Errani taking six of 10 break-point chances, and the fourth-seeded Medina Garrigues claiming three of nine.

Errani upset No. 1-seeded Maria Kirilenko in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals.

Medina Garrigues dropped to 8-5 in finals.

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Safina wins in Carson for 2nd title of year

CARSON, California (AP) -Dinara Safina of Russia won her second title of the year in sweeping aside Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-4, 6-2 in the final of the East West Bank Classic on Sunday.

The 22-year-old Safina closed out the 70-minute match with a crosscourt backhand return for her sixth straight service break.

Safina was the third player this year to win a tournament after facing a match point, though 10th-seeded Pennetta didn't come close to pressing her that hard.

Qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva nearly eliminated fourth-seeded Safina in the third round before she won in a third-set tiebreaker. Safina followed that cliffhanger by bumping off Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and top-seeded Jelena Jankovic to reach her fourth final in her last five tournaments.

"It happens like that sometimes,'' Safina said after her seventh career victory on the WTA Tour. "One match, you pull it out somehow and you start the next day to play better. That's what happened. I was just playing better and better.''

Safina wasn't as sharp in the final on a warm, breezy afternoon. But she said that considering how badly she wanted the title and how nervous she was, she "played a pretty good match.''

Safina, world ranked No. 9, will swap places with countrywoman Anna Chakvetadze to a career-high No. 8 in the new list on Monday.

Pennetta, who was playing in her first top-level final, said she "didn't serve very well'' and "on the important points she (Safina) was playing so good, so aggressive, she didn't give me a lot of chances.''

Pennetta, a six-time winner on tour, was trying to win her third title this year.

Top seeded Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung of Taiwan won their seventh doubles title with a 2-6, 7-5, 10-4 victory over Eva Hrdinova and Vladimira Uhlirova of the Czech Republic.

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Nadal beats Kiefer to win Rogers Cup title

TORONTO - Rafael Nadal beat Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday to win the Rogers Cup, his fifth straight tournament victory.

The second-seeded Spaniard has won 29 consecutive matches and seven tournaments — including the French Open and Wimbledon — this year. This was his first win on hard court this season.

“I win on every surface, no? I win on grass, on hard, on indoor, and on clay, too,” Nadal said. “So if I am playing my best tennis I can win on every surface, no?”

Kiefer, of Germany, was unseeded and ranks 37th in the world. He was playing in his first ATP final since 2005. It was Nadal’s second Rogers Cup title.

Nadal first broke Kiefer in the fifth game when Kiefer, down 15-40, had Nadal far out of position but gently laid his drop shot into the net.

The players held serve until the ninth game, when Kiefer’s double fault gave Nadal the set point.

Kiefer had a chance to break Nadal in the fifth game of the second set, but after going to deuce six times, Kiefer hit a backhand well wide.

That’s when Kiefer came unraveled. He double-faulted twice in the next game, then launched a forehand 40 feet into the air and long before Nadal’s forehand winner gave him the break.

“I don’t know — I mean, if I would have the solution, I would change it, but so far I didn’t find a little thing,” Kiefer said.

Nadal took seven of the next nine points to clinch his 30th career title, spreading his arms out and looking to the sky in celebration.

Nadal was the last seed standing in a tournament that saw top-ranked Roger Federer, No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko, No. 5 David Ferrer and No. 6 Andy Roddick get bounced in the third round, and defending champion Novak Djokovic exit in the quarterfinals.

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Kiefer reaches final at Rogers Cup

TORONTO (AP) -Rafael Nadal beat Andy Murray 7-6 (2), 6-3 to reach the final of the Rogers Cup on Saturday night and put himself in line for his seventh title of the year.

He'll face Nicolas Kiefer, who reached the championship with a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over Gilles Simon on Saturday.

Nadal, who won in Toronto in 2005, won the French Open and Wimbledon earlier this year. In three career meetings, he's never dropped a set to Kiefer.

An uncharacteristically aggressive Murray went shot-for-shot with Nadal in the first set, during which both players held serve. It wasn't until the tiebreak that he flinched. Down 2-6, Murray double-faulted on set point.

He still came out strong in the second set. It took 18 points for Nadal to hold serve in the first game, and when Nadal broke Murray in the fourth game, the gangly Briton broke back in the fifth.

"You know, he's definitely doing a lot of things better than he was in the past,'' Murray said. "I think he's moving better on hard courts, and I think he's sort of changing the pace of the ball a little bit more and not playing so far behind the baseline like he did in the past.

"That's why I think he'll be No. 1 in the world soon.''

Nadal was the only player in the top seven seeds to make the semifinals, and heavyweights Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have already been ousted.

But Nadal seems to be operating on another level right now.

"I played against Andy very good today because he - my opinion - he played one of his best matches against me,'' Nadal said.

Kiefer hasn't won an ATP event since 2000 in Hong Kong and hasn't appeared in a final since 2005 in St. Petersburg.

The match lasted 2 hours, 59 minutes, mostly filled with groundstrokes from the baseline. As he's done all tournament, Simon played patiently, kept the ball in play and waited for Kiefer to make mistakes. And, again, it worked, as Kiefer made 69 unforced errors.

"I didn't play my best tennis, but in the important moments I could pick up my game and I was playing pretty good,'' Kiefer said.

But Simon made a few too many of errors of his own. Up 5-4 in the third set, Simon had a ball gently bounce high in front of him and he primed for an overhead smash, before launching the ball into the bottom of the net.

He finished with 32 unforced errors of his own, and only capitalized on three of 13 break point chances.

Simon won't have to wait long for another crack at Kiefer. They've drawn each other in the first round of next week's ATP tournament at Cincinnati.

"Yeah, the revenge,'' Simon said with a laugh.

In doubles, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic advanced to the final with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over India's Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic.

The No. 2 seeds will play the winner of the other semifinal, between Americans Mark and Bob Bryan and Australia's Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr, which was scheduled later Saturday.

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Errani reaches Slovenia Open semifinals

PORTOROZ, Slovenia (AP) -Eight-seeded Sara Errani eliminated No. 1 Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 7-5 on Friday, winning her eighth straight match to reach the semifinals at the Slovenia Open.

Errani, who won last week's WTA Tour event in Palermo, Italy, next faces third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who beat Russia's Vera Dushevina 6-0, 6-1.

Wozniacki won 80 percent of the points on her first serve, faced only three break points and needed only 54 minutes to defeat Dushevina.

The other semifinal will pit No. 4 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain against 19-year-old German Julia Goerges.

Medina Garrigues converted five of 14 break chances and faced only one break point herself in beating Russian Elena Bovina 6-3, 6-2.

Goerges reached the semifinals of a WTA Tour event for the first time since Stockholm last year, beating Petra Martic of Croatia 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a match that had 11 breaks of serve - six by Goerges - and took over two hours to complete.

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Nadal wins at Rogers Cup; Blake upset

TORONTO (AP) -Andy Murray eliminated defending champion Novak Djokovic from the Rogers Cup with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win in the quarterfinals Friday night.

Murray dominated Djokovic in the first set and held him off in the second, when Djokovic tried to come back.

"It's not easy. You have to try to be as consistent as much as you can if you want to stay at the top,'' Djokovic said. "You have players like Andy, still young and up and coming. ...

"Now there's a lot of great players, and everybody is working hard to get to the top.''

Murray, who had never beaten the 21-year-old Serb in four career meetings, moved beautifully, chasing down loose balls and making difficult shot after difficult shot.

"It's a big win mentally for me,'' Murray said. "You know, the last three times I played him, I lost pretty badly.''

Djokovic, for his part, committed 36 unforced errors to Murray's 19, with 20 of those coming off his forehand.

"In general, I was not really happy with my performance,'' Djokovic said.

Murray, from England, will play Rafael Nadal. The second-seeded Spaniard knocked off No. 10 seed Richard Gasquet of France 6-7 (12), 6-2, 6-1.

Meanwhile, seventh-seeded James Blake became the latest big-name player to lose at the Rogers Cup when he was routed 6-1, 6-2 by Nicolas Kiefer of Germany. Kiefer, ranked 37th in the world, will play Gilles Simon.

Kiefer and Simon are the unlikely victors in a bracket that featured Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick and Blake.

"I mean, I didn't even know what's happening,'' said Simon, the 22nd-ranked Frenchman who defeated Croatia's Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Friday. "I'm just so confident, I want to win every match, even if I'm tired. I know I'm playing very good at the moment.''

Kiefer dispatched Blake 6-1, 6-2. He said the win wasn't quite as straight-forward as it looked.

"It wasn't easy,'' he said. "Maybe it looks easy, but I also have to play (at a) very high level.''

Kiefer hasn't won an ATP tournament since 2000, in Hong Kong. But Simon wisely isn't taking anything for granted.

"I just hope that we are going to play a great match with a great fight,'' Simon said. "Even if I died on the court, yeah, I'll just give the maximum tomorrow.''

Simon, ranked 22nd in the world, has already beaten Federer, American qualifier Donald Young and Argentina's Jose Acasuso in the tournament.

The match between Simon and Cilic was far from a classic. The players combined for 104 unforced errors, including 64 by Cilic. The 19-year-old Cilic fired 37 winners, while Simon connected on just 15 - but that's his game. He kept the ball in play and waited for Cilic to make mistakes, which he frequently did.

The match didn't quite capture the imaginations of the center-court fans at the Rexall Centre, who were relatively quiet throughout.

"Let's go Federer,'' jeered one onlooker during the second set.

Second-seeded Rafael Nadal, third seed Novak Djokovic, eighth seed Andy Murray and 10th seed Richard Gasquet were scheduled to play later.

In doubles action, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic have moved on to the semifinals.

The No. 2 seeds defeated France's Paul-Henri Mathieu and Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (4), 6-4.

They'll play seventh seeds Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India.

The 44th-ranked Cilic made a mark in the tournament, defeating the sixth-seeded Roddick, 12th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo and Czech qualifier Lukas Dlouhy in an impressive run to the quarterfinals.

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Roddick 'doesn’t feel comfortable' on court

TORONTO (AP) -Something is wrong with Andy Roddick.

The sixth-ranked Roddick dropped a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 decision to Croatia's Marin Cilic at the $2.6-million Rogers Cup on Thursday. Following the loss, the American said he felt a bit off.

"Something doesn't feel comfortable,'' he said. "I keep feeling if I get a couple, three, four matches into a tournament I'll be all right.

"I'm not able to do that. It was pretty ordinary out there today.''

Roddick is 28-8 in matches this season, including titles in San Jose and Dubai. He endured his worst Wimbledon loss last month, falling to Janko Tipsarevic in the second round.

His struggles are in more than one area of his game.

"It's a little bit across the board,'' said Roddick, who won the Rogers Cup in 2003. "(My) forehand is just not doing anything. I'm missing it. That's the one that I need to click right now.''

His frustration was obvious from the onset of his match Thursday, culminating in an odd exchange with the umpire.

With Cilic leading 4-2 in the third set, a fan yelled something just before Roddick went to serve. Roddick yelled something back, then followed through with a service winner.

In a gracious move, Roddick asked to replay the point, figuring it should have been a let, and Cilic complied.

"It was obvious that I had said something, so I gave the guy the let just because I probably would have accepted the same,'' he said.

Roddick then served an ace, which the umpire ruled out - drawing Roddick's ire. He successfully challenged the call, but was still upset.

"It's almost impossible to be 100 percent sure on balls that miss on the far side of the court when they're traveling 130 miles an hour,'' he said. "Then, to do it after, you know, someone had given something back, I thought was just unnecessary.

"I just thought that was pretty bush league.''

Still, Roddick didn't blame the officiating for his latest setback.

"At that point I was down a break, so it didn't really affect the match at all,'' he said. "That's certainly not the reason for the loss.

"I think my play was definitely the reason for that.''

Whatever is ailing him, Roddick said he's going to play through it.

"What can you do? You go out there,'' he said. "You're not going to fix anything on the bench, that's for sure. You try to deal with it. All it takes is one event, couple matches, to turn things around. It's happened a million times.

"You know, hopefully it'll happen next week.''

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Jankovic's serve notches her easy win in Carson

CARSON, Calif. (AP) -Jelena Jankovic rode her improved serve to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Melinda Czink of Hungary in the East West Bank Classic on Thursday, keeping the top-seeded Serb on course to take over the No. 1 ranking.

Jankovic served seven aces in knocking out "lucky loser'' Czink, who lost in the second round of qualifying but got into the main draw when Svetlana Kuznetsova withdrew with an injured right knee.

Czink's tournament run included a 6-3, 6-3 upset of 13th-seeded Virginie Razzano. The 25-year-old Hungarian reached the third round of a WTA event for just the second time this year.

Jankovic can dislodge countrywoman Ana Ivanovic from the top ranking by winning the tournament, her first since injuring her right knee at Wimbledon.

"There's no pain and I'm really happy about that,'' she said. "My legs are a little bit hurting. I'm not used to playing matches every day and playing after not doing anything for two weeks. Now it's time to get in shape.''

Jankovic is wearing tape on her knee for protection.

"Without the tape, it would be a risk because the knee is still fragile,'' she said.

Jankovic served seven aces - never her strong suit - with her serve bailing her out at love-40, 2-all to win that game. She connected on just 28 percent of her first serves Wednesday, but improved to 63 percent Thursday, when she won 81 percent of her first-serve points.

"If I could hit this serve every day like that, my life would be so much easier,'' she said, laughing. "You don't have to break a sweat and you're winning games.''

Jankovic wore a hot pink dress, which was late arriving. She wore a white top and skirt, which didn't fit well, a day earlier.

"The pink dress played better today,'' she said.

Third-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia couldn't say the same. She was upset by 14th-seeded Sybille Bammer, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Also dismissed was No. 5 Vera Zvonareva, who lost 6-4, 7-5 to Nadia Petrova, last year's runner-up.

Petrova will play Jankovic in Friday's quarterfinals.

No. 4 Dinara Safina fought off a match point in outlasting Russian countrywoman Alla Kudryavtseva, 7-6 (1), 0-6, 7-6 (3) in a late match.

Other winners were No. 8 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, No. 10 Flavia Pennetta of Italy, and Yuan Meng of China.

While Czink's run ended, Bethanie Mattek kept rolling.

The 23-year-old player from Miami defeated Olga Govortsova of Bulgaria, 7-5, 6-2, to continue a solid showing that began in April. She trailed 5-2 in the first set.

"I was just making a couple mistakes and she was playing well,'' Mattek said. "I got a little more intense and rattled off seven games in a row.''

Mattek has boosted her ranking nearly 100 places since then and can expect to rise higher, helped by her upset of 11th-seeded Nicole Vaidisova earlier this week.

"I've been playing really well. It just keeps building every match I play,'' she said. "If I do play up to my potential, I'm expecting myself to win. I'm really confident in my game right now. Two years ago, I couldn't say that.''

Kuznetsova and 10 other players, including Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport, withdrew from the $650,000 tournament.

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WTA suspends on-court coaching experiment

LOS ANGELES - The WTA Tour has indefinitely suspended its two-year experiment with on-court coaching.

"It's been suspended. The Tour will evaluate the results of the testing period and make a decision as to whether to adopt on-court coaching or not," WTA spokesman Andrew Walker said. "A specific timeframe for this decision has not been set."

The WTA Player Council attempted at this year's Wimbledon to organize a vote on the experiment but the players were divided in their opinions.

"I'm for it but they wanted more opinions," Player Council representative Patty Schnyder told Reuters at the Los Angles Classic. "The results weren't convincing enough and some of the younger players don't know what they want, so we need more time to see how they feel."

The controversial initiative, which was never tried out at the grand slam tournaments, provoked strong reactions from the players.

Some think that as an individual sport which encourages players to think for themselves tennis should never allow coaches on court to give advice.

Others believe it would add entertainment value to the game as it would make coaches more visible to fans when they are called on court in between sets.

MIXED FEELINGS

Experienced Russian Nadia Petrova has mixed feelings.

"It's a little distracting when you have coaches walking on court and most of them are parents, that's what I didn't like about it," Petrova said.

"On the other hand it worked perfectly for me. I just started working with my coach and he would come on court and give me advice. But now that it's over it's fine. Many players just use as a safeguard because they don't know what to do so their coach tells them. You have to use their head in matches."

Switzerland's Schnyder does not believe coaches can decide matches tactically but thinks they can have an important emotional influence.

"If the person supports is making you feel better and it helps the game's appeal overall, it's better," said Schnyder, who is coached by her husband Rainer Hoffman.

The Player Council will re-visit the issue at the tour championships in Doha in November.

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Goerges upsets Srebotnik in Slovenia Open

PORTOROZ, Slovenia (AP) -Julia Goerges upset second-seeded Katarina Srebotnik for the second time in less than a month, winning 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Slovenia Open.

The 19-year-old German, ranked 99th on the WTA Tour but who reached the quarterfinals at Memphis is March, also upset the Slovenian in the first round at Wimbledon.

While it took three sets, including a marathon 16-14 final set at Wimbledon, Goerges needed only 1 hour, 14 minutes to subdue Srebotnik on Thursday.

Top-seeded Maria Kirlenko won her second consecutive match in straight sets, beating Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals.

Kirlenko, who needed 62 minutes and fought off all four break points in a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Nika Ozegovic on Tuesday, needed 15 minutes more to subdue Vinci. She converted six of 15 break opportunities and capitalized on Vinci's five double faults.

Qualifier Elena Bovina also scored another upset, beating Frenchwoman Camille Pin 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6) to advance to the final eight.

Also reaching the quarterfinals was eighth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy, beating compatriot Mara Santangelo 6-2, 6-4.

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Improving Mattek moves into third round at Carson

CARSON, Calif. (AP) -Bethanie Mattek, who has improved her ranking almost 100 places since early April, took another step forward Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-0 victory against 11th-seeded Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic in the second round of the East West Bank Classic.

The 23-year-old Mattek, from Miami, was ranked 153rd in the WTA Tour rankings on April 7 after losing six of seven matches to open the season. But she made it to the semifinals of a grass-court tournament in England before losing to Serena Williams in the round of 16 at Wimbledon, moving her into 59th place entering this $600,000, 56-player event.

Mattek's win over Vaidisova was her ninth in 11 matches, including a 6-3, 6-0 win over Vaidisova in England. Mattek's third-round opponent Thursday will be Olga Govortsova of Belarus, who upset No. 6 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia on Tuesday.

Fourth-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia also moved into the third round, beating Shuai Peng of China 6-2, 6-2. Eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, No. 9 Nadia Petrova of Russia, No. 10 Nadia Pennetta of Italy and No. 14 Sybille Bammer of Austria also advanced.

Howver, seventh-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland was another upset victim, losing to veteran Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-4, 7-5; and 122nd-ranked Meng Yuan of China eliminated No. 16 Sania Mirza of India, 6-4, 6-3.

Mattek said her turnaround has been primarily due to being physically fit and able to play more often and more consistently.

"I attribute a lot of it to my fitness level,'' she said. "I think I'm in the best shape of my career right now. I've played a lot of matches and that's made me mentally tough.

"I've been able to fight my way through matches. I've stayed a lot healthier this year. Last year I'd win a match 7-6 in the third (set) and then be dead for the next match. Plus when you're playing the top girls week in and week out you get a feel for their game. It's a lot faster, but you get used to that pace. I've had a great couple of months.''

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Federer stunned in 2nd round of Rogers Cup

TORONTO - Top-ranked Roger Federer was knocked out of the Rogers Cup with a 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 loss to France’s Gilles Simon in a second-round match Wednesday night.

Federer, who won the tournament in 2004 and ’06, was playing his first match since losing the Wimbledon final in five sets to Spain’s Rafael Nadal.

“That’s just unbelievable for me to win against him,” Simon said.

Federer, who became the first top seed to lose in his first match here since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002, finished second here last year to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

“The problem was my game today,” Federer said.

It was the biggest surprise of a soggy day at the tournament that saw play disrupted for nearly six hours by thundershowers.

Second-seeded Rafael Nadal looks like the favorite now, though he didn’t look stellar in his first match Wednesday, struggling early on before ousting Ottawa-born qualifier Jesse Levine 6-4, 6-2.

There were several other notable upsets on the day. Croatian Marin Cilic ousted 12th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4; Sweden’s Robin Soderling defeated 13th seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4; Argentina’s Jose Acasuso beat 14th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; and Russian Igor Andreev got past 16th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Of course, nothing compares to eliminating Federer.

“For sure, this is my best victory,” said Simon, ranked 22nd in the world. “I don’t think that you win so many times against the No. 1 in the world. It happens maybe in the career of a player maybe two, three times if you are lucky.”

The match started off smoothly for Federer until Simon broke his serve to go up 4-2 in the second set. Federer returned the favor and held serve to draw to 4-4 and then 5-5, but Simon held serve in the 11th game and broke Federer in the 12th to take the set.

“As the match went on I struggled a little bit to put the forehands away,” Federer said. “He’s a good baseliner. We saw that today. He moves well. He’s deceiving because he’s kind of thin and tall but moves really well for his height, you know. He flicks a lot of balls with his backhand as well, so when you come in you can’t see where he plays.”

Suddenly, Federer’s side of the bracket looks wide open.

Fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko is the highest seed remaining there. He defeated Germany’s Tommy Haas 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Wednesday. Seventh-seeded James Blake was also a winner, beating Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.

On the other side, there’s defending champion Djokovic, as well as fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, eighth-seeded Andy Murray of Britain, and ninth-seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka — who won their matches Wednesday — and of course, Nadal.

The Spaniard seemed to have the support of the fans at the beginning of his match against Levine. One fan waved a Spanish flag with “Vamos Rafa” scrawled across it.

Some support swayed over to Levine’s side as the plucky 20-year-old took an early lead and played Nadal tough.

“I think they really got behind me a lot of times, and that was helpful,” said Levine, who moved to Florida when he was 13 and represents the U.S. in international play. “There was a lot of Rafa supporters out there. I was trying to hold my own and hoping to get some support behind me, and I felt like there was.”

Levine said he was rolling until he stopped to think about whom he was playing, and where.

“I think I was in that zone, not sure really where I was, and then I kind of came to my senses and realized that I’m playing Nadal on center court,” he said. “Obviously, nerves got a little bit of me there.”

Levine took advantage of an uncharacteristically sluggish Nadal early. He broke the Wimbledon champion in the fourth game before taking a 4-1 lead in the first set. But then he failed to capitalize on a break-point chance in the next game. Up 4-3, he missed another break point, and Nadal took over from there.

“Once he got that break back I think that he really got settled into the match,” Levine said. “I came out kind of flying, and that’s what I wanted to do, but I didn’t want to let him back in like I did, obviously.”

Still, Nadal was impressed by Levine, who’s ranked No. 123 in the world, though he did admit to having never seen him play before their match.

“He’s young, so he can be a very good player,” Nadal said. “Today wasn’t my best match obviously, but I didn’t feel very bad after the beginning,” he said. “If I don’t play better, I’m going to have a lot of problems.”  

  ALSO ON THIS STORY  Discuss: Sound off on tennis message boards

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Girl ejected for wearing earpiece during match

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - An 8-year-old girl was ejected from a junior tennis tournament on New Zealand’s South Island when officials discovered she was wearing a radio earpiece to receive instructions from her father.

Tournament referee Rob Wilkinson said officials became suspicious because the match involving Ukranian-born Anastasiya Korzh featured a “heightened number of questioned calls.”

Officials found the earpiece hidden under the girl’s headband, linked by a cord to a receiver under her shirt, The Press newspaper reported.

Korzh’s father said the earpiece was only being used to help the girl keep score in the under-10 tournament.

She was playing in her first tournament.

  ALSO ON THIS STORY  Discuss: Sound off on tennis message boards

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Kournikova avoids Gimelstob following insult

WASHINGTON (AP) -Anna Kournikova doesn't care about Justin Gimelstob or what he thinks about her.

Last month, Gimelstob insulted the 28-year-old tennis diva on a radio show, but fans who were hoping to see the two face off on court were likely to be disappointed.

Kournikova was in Washington on Wednesday night with World Team Tennis' St. Louis Aces, who were playing the Washington Kastles, featuring the 31-year-old Gimelstob. The two were not scheduled to play each other in mixed doubles.

In the radio appearance, Gimelstob used a derogatory term to describe Kournikova and made suggestive comments about another player, Nicole Vaidisova.

Kournikova declined to engage in a verbal volley.

"I really don't want to discuss the matter,'' Kournikova said. "I don't want to give it any more attention or meaning that it already has received. I'm just treating this like any other match.''

Television commercials featuring Gimelstob promoting the U.S. Open Series were scrapped by the U.S. Tennis Association following his remarks and he was suspended for one match without pay by World Team Tennis, but stayed on the air during Wimbledon for his job with the Tennis Channel.

Gimelstob, who retired last year from the tour and sits on the board of the ATP, made no effort to reach out to Kournikova during pre-match festivities. When Kournikova was questioned about Gimelstob, she tried to deflect attention from him.

"I actually forgot about it until you just mentioned it,'' Kournikova said. "It's really no big deal to me.''

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Hantuchova makes early exit from Carson event

CARSON, Calif. (AP) -Sixth seed Daniela Hantuchova, the runner-up in the East West Bank Classic three years ago, made an unexpectedly early exit on Tuesday night, losing to Olga Govortsova, 6-2, 6-4, as the second round of the WTA Tour event began without Serena Williams.

Williams, the tournament's No. 2 seed, withdrew early in the day with a left knee injury.

Govortsova, 19, of Belarus, squandered three match points on her serve in the ninth game of the second set, then capitalized on the fourth one with a forehand to the open court at 30-40 on Hantuchova's serve. Govortsova, who is ranked No. 43, admitted to some nerves after taking a 5-1 lead in the second set, especially since the 12th-ranked Hantochova had rallied in a similar situation to win their first meeting last year.

"When I was up 5-1 I started to think I'm going to win the match, then she started to play more aggressive,'' Govortsova said. "Then at 5-4 I started to hit the ball again and finally won. She hits the ball really deep and has a good serve. To beat her, you have to be aggressive.''

Hantuchova, who still is trying to find her form after a long layoff from a stress fracture in her right heel, said that her game is "not there yet. I just have to be patient, keep practicing and keep working hard. It's a long way back.''

Anna Chakvetadze, of Russia, the No. 3 seed, had no trouble in her second-round match, toppling Marta Domachowska of Poland, 6-1, 6-1, in 49 minutes.

Earlier in the day, before Stephanie Dubois of Canada closed out the first round by beating Playboy magazine cover girl Ashley Harkleroad, 6-2, 6-3, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Nadia Petrova moved into the second round of the East West Bank Classic on Tuesday with her first hardcourt win since January, a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Russian Alina Jidkova. She was joined in the second round by No. 10 Flavia Pennetta of Italy, No. 11 Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic and No. 15 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.

Williams had withdrawn Saturday at Stanford, but expressed a desire to play at the Home Depot Center over the advice of medical personnel and her father. But she said that after warming up Tuesday morning she knew she could not compete and joined sister Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Svetlana Kuznetsova on the sidelines.

Top seed Jelena Jankovic, who could claim the No. 1 ranking in the world by winning here, will play her first match Wednesday against 98th-ranked American Vania King. Jankovic is coming back from a knee injury and has been idle since Wimbledon.

Pennetta was a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Stanford champion Aleksandra Wozniak; Vaidisova beat Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, and Cibulkova ousted Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-4, 6-3. King set up her match with Jankovic by beating Angela Haynes 6-3, 6-3.

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Roddick rolls at Rogers Cup

TORONTO (AP) -With the match on the line, Andy Roddick was too much for Nicolas Mahut.

The sixth-seeded American won his second-round match at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament Tuesday, ousting Mahut 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in a match that was twice interrupted by rain.

Roddick needed just 28 minutes to take both the first and third sets. Roddick was especially strong in the third, hitting six of his 18 aces in the final nine games and going 15-for-15 in first serve points won.

"I thought I moved well and most importantly I felt good physically,'' Roddick said. "All in all, I think it was a good match.''

Also, Peter Polansky dropped a 6-2, 6-4 decision to American Jesse Levine.

Polansky's departure left Frank Dancevic as the lone Canadian remaining in singles, but he was eliminated, too.

Dancevic, who reached the quarterfinals of last year's tournament in Montreal before being eliminated by Rafael Nadal, was knocked out on Tuesday by third-seeded Novak Djokovic - the defending champion. Djokovic advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 second-round victory.

Dancevic, who upset Mario Ancic of Croatia in the first round, was scheduled to play a doubles match with Levine against Australians Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr on Wednesday night.

In other action, Germany's Tommy Haas beat Spain's Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-2; 16th-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic beat Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-1; Russian Igor Andreev got past France's Gael Monfils 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3); Sweden's Robin Soderling defeated Argentina's Guillermo Canas 7-5, 6-1; Sweden's Thomas Johansson got past Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 7-6 (4), 6-1; Gilles Simon of France defeated American Donald Young 6-1, 6-3; Marin Cilic of Croatia beat Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 and Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman beat France's Arnaud Clement 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.

Roddick initiated one of the suspensions in play when in the first set he walked off the court leading 3-1 during rain. Roddick said he did so more to prevent injury than risk losing momentum in the match.

"Sure, but I was also scared that I would slip and break a leg,'' he said. "The risk-reward there was a little obvious.

"It was coming down pretty hard.''

Roddick also disputed a line call that allowed Mahut to hold serve in the second set and tie the score at 1-1. Roddick was chasing down a Mahut shot when it was called out, so he didn't swing at it despite being close enough to. The call was overruled - rightfully so, the American said - so Roddick figured there would be a replay of the point.

Instead, however, the umpire gave Mahut the point to tie the set.

"I guess the rule is you have to be 100 percent sure the person can't get to the ball and I said I would've had to have alligator arms not to get to that ball,'' he said. "I was a foot away from it so I just couldn't understand it.

"And then I think when they realize they're wrong sometimes they sit here until they convince themselves that they made the right call. But the replay guy completely sold him out. I had a talk with him just now and everything is fine but I finally said, 'I don't really care about the point, I just want you to tell me you know you made the wrong call.' Some days they go your way, some days they don't.''

By beating Polansky, Levine advances to a second-round showdown with Spain's Rafael Nadal, the tournament's second seed and this year's French Open and Wimbledon singles champion.

"Obviously I'm looking forward to playing on (Center Court) against Rafael Nadal,'' Levine said. "He's a great player and I always watch him on TV and it will be kind of cool to play him.''

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Wozniacki beats Klepac at Slovenia Open

PORTOROZ, Slovenia (AP) -Inaugural champion Klara Zakopalova upset seventh-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the Slovenia Open on Monday.

Zakopalova, from the Czech Republic, won the first Open in 2005 and was too composed for Navarro, a French Open quarterfinalist.

"Today it was very windy and it was very tough to play. I was a bit more lucky,'' Zakopalova said.

Fifth-seeded Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria also lost, to Katie O'Brien of Britain 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-2.

O'Brien was a late substitute in the main draw for Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, who had to withdraw with shin splints. She thought she'd wasted her opportunity.

"After leading 4-1 in the second set I lost five games in a row and I thought I had blown my chance, so I was really pleased I managed to regroup and the win in the third,'' O'Brien said.

The two other seeds in action were winners: Third-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki defeated Slovenian wild card Andreja Klepac 7-5, 6-0, and fourth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain beat Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-1, 6-3.

In other first-round matches, Vera Dushevina of Russia was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain, Croatia's Petra Martic ousted Germany's Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-2, and Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine beat local wild card Polona Hercog of 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Top-seeded Maria Kirilenko and No. 2 Katerina Srebotnik both play on Tuesday.

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Doubles specialists suspended for betting

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Doubles specialists Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak, both coming off tournament titles, were suspended Monday by the ATP for betting on tennis matches.

Neither player wagered on his own matches, and an independent hearing officer found no evidence of any intent to affect the outcome of matches bet upon, the governing body of men’s tennis said.

Cermak, a Czech ranked 34th in doubles, was suspended for 10 weeks beginning Monday and fined $15,000. He’s ranked 34th in doubles and teamed with Rogier Wassen to win the doubles title Sunday at the Dutch Open.

Mertinak, a Slovak ranked 37th in doubles, was suspended for two weeks and fined $3,000. He teamed with Petr Pala to win the doubles Sunday at the Croatia Open.

Professional tennis has taken steps to combat gambling since an online betting site voided all bets on a match involving top-five player Nikolay Davydenko last year because of suspicious gambling patterns.

Five Italians have been suspended and fined for betting on tennis. Other players have come forward to say they were approached by people trying to influence a match.

The ATP said an investigation begun last November found Cermak wagered on matches from September 2006 to February 2007. Mertinak bet on matches in October 2006, the ATP said.

“The ATP’s tennis anti-corruption program is clear that gambling on any form of tennis match will not be tolerated,” said Gayle David Bradshaw, ATP executive vice president. “The program was introduced to ensure the integrity of our sport, and all connected to the tour have a duty and responsibility to ensure that integrity is upheld.”

At Wimbledon last month, the ATP board approved new match-fixing sanctions recommended by an independent panel.

Under new guidelines, players are required to report any suspicious contact from gambling syndicates within 48 hours of being approached. Sanctions range up to life bans for players found guilty of match fixing. Players and their families and entourages also could be banned from betting on matches.

  ALSO ON THIS STORY  Discuss: Sound off on tennis message boards

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Serena plans to play through left knee injury

CARSON, Calif. - Serena Williams plans to keep playing through a left knee injury despite advice from a doctor and her father that she rest with less than three weeks before the Beijing Olympics.

She figures her injured knee “will be old news” by the time the Olympic tennis competition begins Aug. 10.

Williams withdrew from Saturday’s semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford after injuring her knee. She said that an MRI exam afterward revealed an inflamed joint.

“I’ve been playing a lot of tennis, that’s basically what it is, a lot of use,” she said Monday. “I haven’t had enough time to train the way I normally do off-court because I’m playing a lot.”

Williams, ranked fifth in the world and seeded second for this week’s East West Bank Classic, received a first-round bye and is scheduled to play her opening match Wednesday against Czech Petra Kvitova.

“I’m taking it day-by-day and I’ll see how I go,” she said. “I’m doing rehab for it three times a day, just to make sure that I’m ready.”

Serena’s older sister, Venus, and Lindsay Davenport already withdrew from Carson because of right knee injuries, making for a rash of knee injuries on the U.S. Olympic team.

Venus has said she plans to play next week’s WTA tournament in Canada before going to Beijing, while Davenport has not indicated her immediate plans.

Serena said a doctor and her father, Richard, recommended that she skip this week’s tournament near her hometown of Compton.

“He’s always passive and I’m more aggressive,” she said about her father. “I’ve been doing really well all year and I’ve been playing a lot. What I want to do is play tennis and play tournaments for this year and several years. I just feel like that’s all I want to do.”

Williams has played nine tournaments this year and won three consecutive titles. She has a 33-5 match record, including a loss to Venus in the Wimbledon final.

That’s in sharp contrast to her previous lower level of activity outside the Grand Slam tournaments.

“I just didn’t want to play as many tournaments because I felt like I just didn’t need to. I think it worked for me,” she said. “I’ve always just played what I wanted to play, regardless.”

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Gasquet overcomes Llodra in Toronto opener

TORONTO (AP) -Richard Gasquet opened his bid for a second Rogers Cup final in three years when he defeated fellow Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on Monday.

Gasquet, the 10th seed who was runner-up to Roger Federer in 2006, showed some nerves in beating his friend Llodra in their first encounter.

All the other seeds in action, bar No. 11 Radek Stepanek, were winners in straight sets, including No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, No. 12 Tommy Robredo of Spain, No. 14 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, and No. 15 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.

Stepanek, a semifinalist last year, was ousted by Spain's Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The second of Gasquet's seven aces gave him the first set but Llodra broke Gasquet to force a third set. Gasquet broke for 3-2 and again for the match.

"It wasn't a good match. It was the first round and it is a match with a friend - it is always difficult with a friend,'' Gasquet said. "I was playing well and leading 6-3, 3-2 with a break, and after that I lost a little bit of my confidence. He played better and won the second set after that, it was difficult for me to fight, it was difficult with the wind and everything.''

Wawrinka beat Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-4, 7-6 (4), Robredo accounted for Canadian wild card Frederic Niemeyer 7-6 (4), 6-1, Gonzalez dispatched Julien Benneteau of France 6-2, 6-1, and Youzhny beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-6 (1), 6-2.

In other first-round matches, Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, a semifinalist in 1999 and 2004, beat Mardy Fish of the United States 7-5, 7-6 (4), and American Robby Ginepri topped Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 for his first win in five visits.

Nicolas Mahut of France withstood 15 aces from Janko Tipsarevic to beat the Serb 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2, Jose Acasuso of Argentina defeated Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-7 (1), 6-3, 7-5, and Frank Dancevic pleased Canada fans by upsetting Mario Ancic of Croatia 6-3, 6-4.

There was a tense moment in the seventh game of the first set with Dancevic leading 4-2. Ancic ran heavily into the umpire's chair while trying to track down a drop shot. Ancic took the brunt of the collision on his right shoulder, but required no medical attention.

Dancevic's victory earned him a second-round match with defending champion and third seed Novak Djokovic on Tuesday.

"The guy is No. 3 in the world and I'm going to have to try and keep my focus throughout the whole match and not have any lapses,'' Dancevic said. "I've never played the guy before so it's exciting for me and we'll see what happens.''

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Roddick feeling healthy for 1st time in a while

Andy Roddick’s right shoulder feels healthier than it has in months, just in time for him to begin preparing for the U.S. Open.

Roddick is in the field at the Rogers Cup, which begins Monday in Toronto, part of the U.S. Open Series of hard-court tournaments leading up to the year’s last Grand Slam tournament.

He hasn’t played a match since losing to Janko Tipsarevic in the second round at Wimbledon on June 26. Roddick missed the French Open because of the bothersome shoulder.

“I feel good. I’ve been on the court a lot the last couple of weeks and I haven’t had to censor my practices at all,” he said in a conference call with reporters Sunday night. “I’ve been able to go as long as I want, as hard as I want, which is a good thing. I’m not short of practice, which is really good.”

He said it’s the best he’s felt since helping the United States beat France in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in April.

Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open and finished that season ranked No. 1. He is currently No. 6 — and still in search of a second major championship.

Aiming to perform well at this year’s U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 25, he decided to skip the Beijing Olympics to concentrate on his hard-court game and avoid the long trip.

“Let me first say that it was probably one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make in my career. You normally don’t have to choose between two huge events,” Roddick said.

“My decision had nothing to do with lack of respect for the Olympics or anything like that. I completely am the biggest fan of it, and I’ll be a huge fan watching it from home. It had to do more with, at the end of my career, I want to have been making runs in Slams.”

Asked how important for him it would be to beat No. 1 Roger Federer, No. 2 Rafael Nadal or No. 3 Novak Djokovic at a Grand Slam tournament, Roddick said: “I mean, that’s kind of the next step. I feel like I had a lot of momentum going through April of this year, then kind of had a little bit of hard luck with the injury and stuff.

“I kind of almost feel like I’m starting again, you know?” he continued. “I’m starting a new season because I haven’t played that much.”

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Del Potro wins 2nd straight title at Austrian Open

KITZBUEHEL, Austria (AP) -Juan Martin del Potro defeated Jurgen Melzer 6-2, 6-1 in Sunday's Austrian Open final to win his second straight ATP Tour event.

The 19-year-old Argentine won his maiden title in Stuttgart, Germany, last week.

"These were two great weeks for me, really unbelievable,'' said Del Potro, who conceded 29 games in five matches in Kitzbuehel. "I can only dream that I will be able to play on at this level.''

It was Melzer's first final of the year. The Austrian is now 1-6 in finals, winning only in Bucharest, Romania, in 2006.

"I am very disappointed, obviously,'' Melzer said. "Everything went wrong today and he was just too good. It was a great tournament anyway as I'd never reached the final here before.''

Del Potro dominated the match with strong serves and attacking baseline play. He faced one break point in his opening service game, but conceded just three more points on serve during the rest of the first set and didn't drop a single point while serving in the second.

Del Potro's dominance put pressure on Melzer's service games. The Austrian was broken twice in the opening set and three times in the second, and received treatment on a left ankle injury in-between sets.

At 2-0 and 40-15 down in the second, Melzer broke his racket by smashing it several times on the court. He then won the next four points but finally lost after he double-faulted on Del Potro's second match point.

Del Potro became the fifth Argentine winner of the clay-court tournament in Kitzbuehel in the last six years, after Guillermo Coria (2003), Gaston Gaudio ('05), Agustin Calleri ('06) and Juan Monaco ('07), who withdraw from this year's event with an injury.

Sunday's final of the 63rd edition marked the end of the event, which is not included in the ATP calendar next year.

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Frenchman Simon wins Indianapolis Championship

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Gilles Simon of France won his first ATP title on American soil, beating Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4 at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships on Sunday.

Simon, seeded second and ranked 25th, had not reached an ATP semifinal in the United States before the Indianapolis tournament, which moved to a hard-court surface in 1988.

"That's special for me because it's not the kind of court I like to play usually,'' said the 23-year-old Simon, who earned his fourth career ATP title. "I beat some good players on this kind of court, that's why it's a very good thing to win this tournament.''

Tursunov, seeded third and ranked 32nd, was hoping to join Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick as the only players to win back-to-back singles titles in Indianapolis since 1981. Tursunov beat Frank Dancvic in last year's final.

"To be honest, I didn't really feel that pressure,'' said Tursunov, who was seeking his fifth career ATP title. "I do get a bit of jitters and my game doesn't work that well when I'm nervous. I really have to go for my shots and there's very little margin for error.''

Tursunov finished with 32 unforced errors, compared to 13 by Simon, and failed to convert any of his nine break-point chances.

"He played a few good points and then I made some silly errors,'' Tursunov said.

Simon said he didn't feel like the underdog, despite playing against the defending champion.

"Like every match I play, I think I can win,'' he said. "Even if I'm playing bad or good, I think I have a chance. ... I fight every time.

"Today was my best match of the week. I was very close to playing my best tennis.''

Tursunov was impressed with Simon's performance.

"I've never played him before, so it's a bit surprising how many balls he can get to, and he moves really well around the court,'' Tursunov said.

Ashley Fisher and Tripp Phillips won the doubles championship with a 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 victory over Scott Lipsky and David Martin. It was the first doubles title in Indianapolis for both Fisher and Phillips.

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Melzer to play del Potro in Austrian Open final

KITZBUEHEL, Austria (AP) -Jurgen Melzer will play Juan Martin del Potro in the final of the Austrian Open.

Melzer beat last year's runner-up Potito Starace 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3 on Saturday to reach his first final of the year, and Del Potro defeated Victor Hanescu 6-3, 7-6 (5).

The 19-year-old Del Potro will play his second career final, just one week after the Argentine won his first title in Stuttgart, Germany. Del Potro is 2-0 against Melzer after beating him in a 2007 Davis Cup match and in the second round of last year's U.S. Open.

"It's fantastic to be in a final again so soon,'' said Del Potro, who could become the fifth Argentine winner of the clay-court event in the last six years. "I beat Jurgen twice before but that doesn't mean anything as this is a different surface.''

Sunday's final of the 63rd edition will be the last at Kitzbuehel, which is not included in the ATP calendar next year.

"It would be really great for me to become the last winner of Kitzbuehel,'' said Melzer, whose only other ATP Tour title came in Bucarest, Romania, in 2006.

The sixth-seeded Melzer played serve-and-volley to put pressure on Starace's baseline game.

"I decided to play an attacking game and that worked out very well,'' Melzer said. "It was hard for him to keep the ball in play.''

The fourth-seeded Italian lost serve in the opening games of the first two sets, but broke back when Melzer served for the match at 5-4 in the second.

Starace saved a match point before winning the tiebreaker. He went a break up in the third set but Melzer used two breaks to complete the victory.

The seventh-seeded Del Potro used powerful serves and strong groundstrokes to dominate the opening set against Hanescu, who won his first ATP title in Gstaad, Switzerland, last week.

Del Potro fought off three break points to take the second set into a tiebreaker, where he converted his third match point with a service winner.

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Darcis reaches Dutch Open finals

AMERSFOORT, Netherlands (AP) -Defending champion Steve Darcis reached his third career ATP Tour final Saturday by beating top-seeded Frenchman Marc Gicquel 7-6 (3) 3-6 7-5 at the Dutch Open.

He will play fifth-seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes, who beat countryman Oscar Hernandez 6-1, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

Darcis won his first title in Amersfoort last year before getting a second earlier this year at Memphis.

The 31-year-old Gicquel was seeking his first career title after reaching the final at Den Bosch this year.

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Serena injures knee, pulls out of Bank of West

STANFORD, Calif. - Serena Williams’ busy summer schedule caught up with her, making her the latest U.S. Olympian dealing with a knee injury as the Beijing Games approach.

Williams injured her left knee and pulled out of the Bank of the West Classic on Saturday, becoming the third singles player on the U.S. women’s tennis team with a knee injury.

Williams retired from her match after losing the first set and falling behind in the second set of her semifinal against qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak.

“It was hurting in practice and I didn’t really practice too long because it was hurting,” Williams said. “After I got off, it was really swollen. I thought that I have to play really fast.”

She lasted only 46 minutes before pulling out of the match trailing 2-6, 1-3. Williams said the injury is different than one that forced her to undergo surgery on her left knee in 2003 and miss eight months. But that knee has bothered her since, forcing her to drop out of the 2004 Athens Olympics and to miss significant time again in 2006.

But Williams had felt healthy most of this year, playing a busy schedule since winning in Miami in the beginning of April. She played 26 matches in a three-month span that went through her loss in the Wimbledon final to big sister, Venus.

Then she returned home and played for the Washington Kastles of the World Team Tennis league before arriving at Stanford for her debut in this tournament. Williams wouldn’t blame her decision to play team tennis on her latest setback.

“You know that risk going into it,” she said. “It is what it is. I can’t blame that. I just think in general I’ve been playing a lot of tennis since Miami — especially for me.”

Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport, the other U.S. Olympic singles players, have already pulled out of next week’s East West Bank Classic in Carson, Calif., due to right knee injuries. Serena Williams said she still plans to go to Carson, but will likely have an MRI before then and could choose to rest up for the Olympics next month.

“I do plan on obviously being at the Olympics,” she said. “That’s my main goal.”

Williams struggled from the start against the 85th-ranked Wozniak and first called for the trainer when trailing 5-2 in the first set. She got the knee heavily taped and came out to finish the set, but appeared to struggle to plant on her injured leg.

“It’s unfortunate that she pulled out,” Wozniak said. “I think in the middle of the first set she started looking at her leg. I didn’t know if it was her ankle bothering her. But at the end it was her knee.”

Wozniak held serve to win the set and won 11 straight points to take a 3-1 lead early in the second. Williams then aggravated the knee while stretching for a backhand in the fifth game of the set and retired from the match. She walked off the court and embraced her father, Richard.

“I actually thought it felt better once I got it wrapped,” Williams said. “But Wozniak kept moving me. I was hoping she wouldn’t but I guess she knew better. That didn’t help at all.”getCSS("3053751")Slide show


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Szavay upset by Parmentier in Gastein Ladies semi

BAD GASTEIN, Austria (AP) -Pauline Parmentier of France will play qualifier Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic in the Gastein Ladies final.

The fourth-seeded Parmentier upset top-seeded Agnes Szavay 6-4, 6-2 in Saturday's semifinal, while 237th-ranked Hradecka defeated Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine 6-3, 6-2.

It will be Parmentier's second career final after winning in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last year, and the first final for the 23-year-old Hradecka. The Czech won 11 titles on the ITF women's circuit but had previously never passed the second round of a WTA Tour event.

Hradecka won three qualifying matches to enter the main draw, where she conceded just 17 games in four straight-set victories.

The 53rd-ranked Parmentier saved seven break points against Szavay to hold serve throughout. She broke the 14th-ranked Hungarian once in the opening set and twice in the second.

In the quarterfinals earlier Saturday, Parmentier beat last year's finalist Yvonne Meusburger of Austria 7-6 (3), 6-3 after rallying from an early break in the first set and holding off four break points in the opening game of the second.

Szavay reached the semifinals by defeating seventh-seeded Iveta Benesova 6-2, 6-2, despite struggling with her serve and double-faulting eight times.

Koryttseva eased past 260th-ranked Tereza Hladikova of Czech Republic 6-3, 6-1 to set up the semifinal meeting with Hradecka, who beat Patricia Mayr of Austria 6-3, 6-1. Koryttseva fell behind 3-1 in the opening set before winning 11 of the next 12 games.

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Venus, Lindsay withdraw from SoCal tournament

CARSON, Calif. (AP) -Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport withdrew Friday from next week's East West Bank Classic, with both citing right knee injuries.

Williams hasn't played a tournament since defeating her younger sister Serena to win her fifth Wimbledon title earlier this month.

"I have been receiving treatment for tendinitis in my right knee over the last several days and my medical advisers have encouraged me to allow myself an additional week to completely recover,'' she said in a statement.

Williams said she still plans to play the Rogers Cup in Montreal, the Beijing Olympics and the U.S. Open this summer.

Davenport's nagging right knee injury caused her to withdraw from a tournament for the fourth time in seven weeks. She is on the U.S. Olympic tennis team.

"I always look forward to the opportunity to play so close to home, but unfortunately my knee has not completely healed at this point,'' she said in a statement.

Meng Yuan of China moved into Williams' spot in the draw, while Stephanie Dubois of Canada took Davenport's place. Serena Williams is scheduled to play in the $600,000 Carson tournament that begins Monday.

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Serena rolls into Stanford semifinals

STANFORD, Calif. - Serena Williams spent more time waiting for her quarterfinal match to start than she did on the court against Patty Schnyder. Neither activity proved to be too stressful for the top seed.

Williams advanced to the semifinals of the Bank of the West Classic with little trouble Friday, beating the fifth-seeded Schnyder 6-3, 6-1 in just 54 minutes.

The match began more than an hour later than scheduled because Ai Sugiyama needed 2 hours, 44 minutes to win her quarterfinal over Dominika Cibulkova 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 5-3, retired. Cibulkova stopped playing because of cramping in her left leg with Sugiyama serving at 40-0 for the match.

But that extra delay proved to be no trouble for Williams.

“No one can kill time the way I can,” she said. “I’m a professional time killer. I can sit for three hours and I couldn’t tell you what I did. If it was an Olympic sport, I’d be a 20-time gold medal winner.”

Schnyder had won three of five meetings against Williams, including a match in Zurich last year when Williams retired after losing the first nine games. But Schnyder was unable to find her groove against Williams this time and went down meekly.

Williams will take on qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak in the semifinals on Saturday. Wozniak beat Samantha Stosur 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Wozniak beat Stosur 6-4, 6-2 in qualifying, but Stosur still ended up in the main draw as a “lucky loser” when Lindsay Davenport withdrew with a right knee injury.

“I just felt like, ’Hi again. Here we meet again in the quarterfinals,”’ Wozniak said. “For me it was a big deal to win again in this match.”

Williams opened the match with three straight forehand winners, and the result was never really in doubt despite Williams hitting four double faults in her first two service games and five overall.

getCSS("3053751")Slide show


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Venus, Serena, Sharapova head U.S. Open field

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are among the five past U.S. Open women’s champions in the tournament field announced Thursday.

Lindsay Davenport and Svetlana Kuznetsova are the other previous winners entered in the hard-court Grand Slam tournament, which begins Aug. 25.

Top-ranked Ana Ivanovic, the reigning French Open champion, heads a group that includes 99 of the top 100 women in the rankings. The exception: No. 98 Akiko Morigami of Japan did not enter the field because of knee surgery.

Along with the 104 players who received direct entry based on Monday’s rankings, eight women will receive wild cards and 16 will earn berths in qualifying.

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