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Agassi continues mastery over hard-serving Arthurs
Posted 03:57pm (Mla time) Mar 13, 2005
Agence France-Presse
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INDIAN WELLS, California–Eight-time major winner Andre Agassi beat Wayne
Arthurs in a second round match at the Indian Wells WTA/ATP Masters Series
event, ending Arthurs’ run of 109 undefeated service games.
Agassi broke Arthurs’ serve four times and once again showed why he is the
best returner on the planet, rolling to a 6-4, 6-1 victory in the
4.8-million dollar hardcourt event.
“I had to walk that fine line of being aggressive but not taking too many
chances,” Agassi said. “It was a bit breezy and maybe he couldn’t serve as
close to the lines as he wanted.”
The 34-year-old Agassi and Arthurs, 33, are the oldest players in the men’s
draw and one of the most intriguing matchups.
Heading into Indian Wells, Arthurs’ blistering serve looked to be
unbreakable but Agassi is considered one of the best service returners in
the game.
Oddly, the last time they met Agassi halted Arthurs’ streak of 111 games
without dropping his serve in the fourth round at Wimbledon in
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1999. It is considered to be the longest recorded service streak on the ATP
Tour.
Arthurs won his first ATP singles title in Scottsdale two weeks ago and
helped Australia defeat Austria in Davis Cup last week.
He had nine double faults and made 20 unforced errors in the 61-minute match
in front of 10,000 at the main stadium.
Agassi won the Indian Wells title in 2001, beating Pete Sampras 7-6 (7/5),
7-5, 6-1. He was runner-up in 1995 and 1990.
Andy Roddick narrowly avoided getting upset by 45th-ranked Fernando Verdasco
of Spain winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7/2) in Roddick’s tournament-opening match.
“He was playing better than I was, and I was just trying to hang on,”
Roddick said.
Third seeded American Roddick stumbled into the third round by beating
Verdasco in a tiebreaker after they split the first two sets.
“It was nice to get that mini-break and consolidate it,” Roddick said. “That
is the name of the game in tiebreakers is consolidating mini-breaks. It
makes a huge difference with that three-point swing.”
Roddick looked at times like he was still hung over from America’s
surprising loss to Croatia in Davis Cup action last week.
“When you come off something really disappointing, you want to come back and
get involved in something really positive right away.
“Maybe it was good to have a tough match and really have to dig to get
through it,” said Roddick, who has 16 career singles titles.
Roddick, who has never made it past the quarter-finals in Indian Wells, led
the ATP in aces fired in 2004 with 1,017 and posted the fastest serve
recorded at 155mph in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup.
He will square off in the next round against Czech Jiri Novak, who beat
Belgium’s Olivier Rochus 6-3, 6-4.
Englishman Tim Henman was also given a scare in his opening match, coming
from behind to beat France’s Arnaud Clement 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The two-time Indian Wells finalist lost 6-3, 6-3 to Roger Federer in last
year’s championship match. He also reached the final in 2002.
“It was a struggle to find my rhythm and all aspects of my game,” said the
30-year-old Henman, a classy serve and volleyer.
Armenian Sargis Sargsian earned the nickname “Ironman Sarg” during the 2004
US Open after a pair of back-to-back four-hour plus matches.
But on Saturday he lasted just 48 minutes on the court, losing 6-0, 6-0 to
German Nicolas Kiefer.
It was just the second time on the tour this year a player has been unable
to win at least one game in a match.
In other men’s matches, David Nalbandian dominated fellow Argentine Juan
Monaco 6-2, 6-1, Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan defeated Agustin Calleri, of
Argentina, 7-5, 6-4 and Fernando Gonzalez outslugged Brit Greg Rusedski 7-6
(7/4), 7-6 (7/5).
In the women’s draw, Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova hit two aces and
hammered 15 winners to beat Angela Haynes 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round.
The 17-year-old Russian, who has already won two WTA titles this year, had
six backhand winners to Haynes’ none in the 67-minute match.
The women’s field at the 4.8-million dollar event is wide open this year
with world number one Lindsay Davenport, France’s Amelie Mauresmo, third
seed Sharapova, US Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova and unseeded Belgian Kim
Clijsters all a threat for the title.
Top seed Davenport won easily over Bulgarian teen Sesil Karatancheva 6-3,
6-2.
The turning point of the Sharapova match came when the Russian broke Haynes
in the sixth game of the second set to go up 4-2.
“The first match is never easy. You don’t know what to expect,” Sharapova
said.
“I don’t play against too many girls ranked ahead of me because I am number
three in the world, so they have nothing to lose.”
In other women’s matches, France’s Nathalie Dechy weathered a second set
stumble to beat countrywoman Emilie Loit 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 and No 6 seed Nadia
Petrova, of Russia, routed Antonella Serra Zanetti, of Italy, 6-0, 6-1.
Also advancing to the third round were No 13 seed Daniela Hantuchova, No 19
seed Fabiola Zuluaga and No 25 Dinara Safina.