Kafelnikov spoils Bjorkman debut

HANOVER, NOV 12: Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov continued his late-season revival as he won his opening white group round-robin match over Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) here today at the $3.3 million ATP World Championship.

Kafelnikov, who only qualified for the eight-man field with a tournament victory at the Kremlin Cup, overpowered Bjorkman, the world No 4, competing for the first time in an end-of-season event.

The Swede had a chance to take the match to a third set when Kafelnikov mis-hit an overhead smash long on a break point against his serve, losing the game while serving for the match to make the scoreline 6-6.

Kafelnikov came back from 4-2 down in the tie-breaker and took the match on his second match point.