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Clash of Britons: Henman is a cut above
Rusedski
Upsets continue as Swede Bjorkman knocks
out Canas
OSSIAN SHINE
MELBOURNE, JANUARY 18: British
sixth seed Tim Henman blew aside compatriot Greg Rusedski
6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in an explosive night match at Melbourne
Park on Friday to move into the last 16 of the Australian
Open.
Henman will meet Swedish doubles specialist
Jonas Bjorkman for a place in the quarter-finals after convincingly
winning the much-hyped clash branded the Battle of Britain.
It is the third year in a row Henman has
reached the fourth round here.
The match was a first between two Britons
at the Australian Open since the sport turned professional
in 1968 and, while the tennis was not always of the highest
quality, the drama did not disappoint.
Henman displayed all his finesse and touch
around the net to triumph over the powerful Rusedski and extend
his record over him in head-to-head matches to 5-2.
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End of the
road for Paes-Bhupathi
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MELBOURNE: The Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi
and Leander Paes crashed out of the Australian Open
on Friday.
The Indians, seeded third, lost in the second round
of men’s doubles to the French pair of Michael Llodra-Fabrice
Santoro 2-6,4-6.
The match which lasted 66 minutes was fought very
closely but the French pair came out winners on account
of better breakpoint conversions (2 of 2) as compared
to the Indians’ 0 of 4.
The Indians were totally off-colour today and had
two double faults and four unforced errors as compared
to just one each by the French pair. The French broke
the Indians once in each set.
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The pair last met in Adelaide two weeks
ago. Henman won that match and went on to win the title.
Henman is the highest seeded player left
in the draw. He now has an excellent chance to make his grand
slam breakthrough here. There are only two other seeds in
his half of the draw, 26th seed Jiri Novak and 16th seed Thomas
Johansson.
In the top half of the draw lurk seventh
seed Tommy Haas, eighth seed Pete Sampras, ninth seed Marat
Safin and 11th seed Roger Federer.
CANAS BEATEN: Venus Williams overcame
a worrying knee injury and a tenacious Daniela Hantuchova
to stave off a shock defeat and move into the fourth round
with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory.
But in the men’s draw, the upsets continued
as Swedish doubles specialist Jonas Bjorkman knocked out 12th
seed Guillermo Canas 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
The second-seeded Williams, suffering from
tendinitis and with her left knee taped, recovered from a
set down to advance as she seeks her first Australian Grand
Slam singles crown.
Venus was joined in the fourth round by
third seed Martina Hingis who coasted through with an effortless
6-1 6-0 win over Barbara Rittner.
The former world No.1 raced to victory
in just 46 minutes as she outran and outplayed her German
opponent on the Rod Laver centre court.
Her opponent in the fourth round is South
Africa’s Amanda Coetzer after Coetzer, twice a semifinalist
here, beat 17th seed Barbara Schett 6-3, 6-3.
Four-times champion Monica Seles also made
it through, battling past plucky Italian Francesca Schiavone
6-4, 6-4.
Bjorkman, twice a doubles champion at the
Open, next meets Tim Henman.
Adopted Australian Taylor Dent’s run came
to an end as he lost to Adrian Voinea 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6,
6-3.
The son of former Australian player Phil
Dent had earlier knocked out Swedish 31st seed Andreas Vinciguerra.
Jiri Novak booked his fourth round spot.
The Czech beat Spain’s Francisco Clavet 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, but
Yevgeny Kafelnikov’s conqueror Alex Kim fell to fellow qualifier
Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. (Reuters)
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