Kafelnikov, Rafter blown away in desert

Kafelnikov, Rafter blown away in desert
Agencies

Dubai, March 1 : Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov was fortunate to escape a fine after storming out of the stadium and twice refusing to talk to the media following a second round loss to his bogey player Thomas Johansson.

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The Swede’s 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 victory in the Dubai Open was the sixth successive time he had beaten the third-seeded Russian and afterwards, unable to contain his frustration, Kafelnikov ignored requests for interviews, snatched up his bags and hurried away in a car.

Kafelnikov then compounded it by returning to the arena and again refusing to talk after being told he had to wait for two other players to do their interviews.Johansson enjoyed the baseline rallies of manoeuvring, wrong-footing and pace-changing, doing many of the things that Kafelnikov attempted to do, only slightly better.

Later the tournament suffered an even bigger blow when Patrick Rafter also went out. The fifth-seeded former US Open champion from Australia was beaten 7-6 (7/1), 4-6, 6-1 by Andre Medvedev who became inspired afer recovering from a poor start.

There was no hint of the battering which the Ukrainian was about to give Rafter’s serve when he went 1-4 down in the first set, but once Medvedev had broken back, everything changed.

Kuerten, Coetzer advance
n ACAPULCO (Mexico): Top seed Gustavo Kuerten, looking for back-to-back titles after winning last week Buenos Aires, rolled to a 6-4, 6-1 second-round victory over Spain’s Felix Mantilla at the Mexican Open claycourt event on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old Brazilian appears to have found the form that brought him his second French Open crown last year.

Third seed Carlos Moya and fourth-seeded Argentine Gaston Gaudio also advanced. Moya cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over fellow Spaniard Alberto Martin, while Gaudio held off Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-3.Another Moroccan met a similar fate as eighth seed Hicham Arazi was bounced 6-3, 6-1 by Guillermo Canas of Argentina.

On the women’s side, top seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa coasted to a 6-4, 6-1 second-round victory over Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo of Spain. Mariana Diaz-Oliva of Argentina moved into the third round when third seed Sandrine Testud of France retired suffering from colitis after dropping the first set, 6-2.

Fourth seed Paolo Suarez of Argentina, who captured last week’s event in Bogota, coasted past Austria’s Patricia Wartusch 6-1, 6-3 and sixth-seeded American Corina Morariu crushed Sylvia Plischke of Austria 6-2, 6-1.

Philippoussis struggles to winSAN JOSE: Fresh off his title in Memphis but recovering from the flu, two-time defending champion Mark Philippoussis barely survived his opening round match at the Sybase Open on Wednesday. The big-serving Australian squeaked past Germany’s Marcus Hantschk 6-3, 6-7 (7-9), 6-3. Effectively employing long, deep groundstrokes on a slow indoor court, Hantschk fought off seven match points before falling to the massive Australian, who bombed in 13 aces in the two-hour, 14 minute contest.

Greg Rusedski served his way into the final eight with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Italy’s Renzo Furlan, while sixth-seeded American Jan-Michael Gambill staved off powerful teen compatriot Andy Roddick 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-1).