Kafelnikov stumbles to fifth straight Estoril loss

Estoril (Portugal), April 12: Yevgeny Kafelnikov won the first set but collapsed in the third on Tuesday evening, maintaining his record of never having won a match at the 765,000 dollar Estoril Open tennis tournament in five tries.

Kafelnikov was apparently unable to forget about the 4-1 Davis Cup quarter-final hammering his nation took at the weekend, at the hands of Spain.

The 26-year-old slow starter on clay now starts the season from deep in a slump, hoping to come good in time for the French Open, starting in two months, an event which he won in 1996.

The plucky Clavet saved three Kafelnikov match points in the second set and then won the tie-breaker when the Russian netted a backhand.

In the third, the Spanird started with a break, profited from two double-faults by his opponent in the third game and rolled onto victory, taking more than two hours.

Clavet, who beat Andre Agassi last month on hardcourt in Arizona, next faces Argentine Juan Chela, winner of a title on clay at Mexico City last month.

Second seed Magnus Norman and number four Tim Henman led the rest of the seeds to wins on a blustery day at the Estadio Nacional.

Norman plowed through Frenchman Jerome Golmard 7-6 (7/1), 6-1, while Henman defeated Spain's qualifier Oscar Burieza 6-3, 6-4.

"A victory like this may look straight-forward, but he had a lot of break chances and I saved nine break points," said Henman. "That was important in the match and very important for me.

Seventh seed Felix Mantilla of Spain overcame compatriot Gala Blanco 6-3, 6-1, while eight-seeded Frenchman Nicolas Eescude beat Nuno Marques of Portugal in straight sets.

In the women's first round, two French seeds advanced.

Number two Nathalie Dechy defeated Spanish qualifier Nurla Llagostera 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, while third-seeded Anne-Gaelle Sidot needed to win a three-set battle to overcome Hungarian Anna Maria Foldenyi 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Spanish sixth seed Cristina Torrens Valero beat Romanian Catalina Cristea 6-1, 6-2.

Injured Serena bows out

AMELIA ISLAND (USA): US Open champion Serena Williams suffered a flare-up of tendinitis in her left knee and dropped out of a 535,000-dollar WTA Bausch and Lomb tennis event, one game from losing to Argentina's Paola Suarez.

Williams, seeded second, was making her first appearance in the event. It was her season debut on clay, and is the first US tune-up event for the French Open on the WTA tour.

Suarez was leading 6-3, 4-6, 5-2, when Williams found she was unable to continue. The injury was described as a recurrence of patellar tendinitis in her left knee. She was scheduled to be re-evaluated today in Boca Raton.

Spain's Conchita Martinez, the fourth seed and 1995 champion, beat Russia's Elena Dementieva 7-5, 6-2.

Seventh seed Anna Kournikova of Russia and eighth seeded Austrian Barbara Schett also reached the third round. Kournikova, a 1999 semi-finalist here, got past Anne Kremer of Luxembourg 7-5, 7-6 (7/4), as she searches for her first singles title. Schett dumped Gala Leon Garcia of Spain 6-2, 6-2.

The reigning US Open champion, Williams has compiled a 15-5 record this season, all on hard courts, and claimed her only tournament title at Hannover, Germany in February.

Martinez has won 15-of-21 matches in 2000, finishing runner-up at Australian Hardcourt Championships in January.

Top seed Mary Pierce of France, the 1998 champion, defending champion and third seed Monica Seles of the United States, fifth seed Sandrine Testud of France and two-time winner and sixth seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain will play their second-round matches today.

Morroccan trio advances

CASABLANCA: Moroccan trio Younes El Aynaoui, Karim Alami and Hicham Arazi, all scored straight sets victories on Tuesday to advance to the second round of the 350,000-dollar ATP Tour tennis event here.

Top-seeded El Aynaoui downed Albert Portas of Spain 7-5, 7-5, second seed Alami beat Germany's Tomas Behrend 6-3, 6-4 and third-seeded Arazi ousted Antony Dupuis of France 6-3, 7-5.

Spain's Fernando Vicente, seeded sixth, pulled out a three-set victory over qualifier Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, winning 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, and he now takes on Herbert Wiltschnig of Austria, who cruised past Thierry Guardi Ola of France, 6-2, 6-2.

Davis Cup seeds

LONDON: France, Britain and Italy are among eight countries seeded for qualifying draw for the Davis Cup World Group, the International Tennis Federation has announced.

The seeded nations also include Morocco, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Zimbabwe, the ITF said on Tuesday.

They will be drawn against Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Chile, Ecuador, India, Romania and Uzbekistan.

The winning nations in the qualifying round to be played in July will secure places in the 2001 Davis Cup world group, while the losers will compete in the zonal group one competitions.

In today's draw are the eight losers from the first round of the world group this year - Zimbabwe, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Sweden, Romania, Belarus and Morocco qualified from the Euro-African zone, Ecuador and Chile from the American zone, and Uzbekistan and India from the Asia-Oceania zone.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.