Medvedev rallies to down Safin

Agassi dominated from the start, his scintillating serve largely responsible for the victory. The American opened the match with a love service game before serving three successive aces, then breaking to take a 4-3 lead.

In the second set, never appearing threatened, Agassi waited until 5-4 before breaking the Dutchman, still winless this season.

The loss was another blow to Siemerink, who is struggling to make up ground in the ATP rankings, where he has slipped from 19th to 94th over the last nine months.

In other first-round play, Ukraine’s Andrei Medvedev, who lost to Agassi in the French Open final, came back from a one-set deficit to defeat Russia’s Marat Safin 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(7-2).

Still looking for his first title of the season, the Ukrainian appeared headed for a quick exit with Safin cruising to a first-set victory. But Medvedev, ranked 34th, made a timely recovery, winning the second and the tie-break to keep his record intact against the Russian.

In other play, American qualifier Chris Woodruff upset Austria’s Stefan Koubek 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 and Slovakia’s Karol Kucera defeated Sweden’s Thomas Johansson 7-5, 6-3

Rios moves up

SHANGHAI: Top seed Marcelo Rios crushed a Croatian to reach the quarter-finals of the $350,000 Shanghai Open today while Australian Todd Woodbridge had a rare chance to erase a weekend loss.

Chile’s Rios, seventh in the world on the ATP Tour, easily handled the big-hitting of Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, earning a 6-3, 6-2 win into the last eight on a cloudy day in China’s financial centre.

He will face an opponent in Woodbridge who came back from the dead today after losing in weekend qualifying rounds to South Korea’s Hyung-Taik Lee.

Butas it happened, when fellow Aussie Mark Woodforde pulled out of the main draw hurt, his doubles partner Woodridge was next in line for a spot.

His opponent in the second round was none other than Lee, ranked 288th in the world.

The match lasted for two hours and 29 minutes as the Aussie barely scraped through, reaching his first quarter-final in exactly in a year. Woodbridge was forced into a long comeback effort when his Asian opponent claimed the first set.

The Australian started his roll with Lee serving while leading a set and 2-0 and up 40-0. From that point, the South Korean won only four of 29 points and could only watch as Woodbridge took the set.

Lee had a match point which he failed to convert and Woodbridge failed on his first three winning chances, but he finally squeaked through a tie-breaker to advance.

Novotna bids adieu

FILDERSTADT (GERMANY): Jana Novotna, the 1998 Wimbledon champion, ended her 12-year career yesterday, losing her final match on the tour to Silvia Farina6-3, 6-4 at the Porsche Grand Prix.

Novotna, who turned 31 three days ago, has dropped to No 18, her lowest ranking in 10 years. She was No 2 in the world in 1997 and after winning Wimbledon last year.

She was sidelined for a long time after spraining an ankle and partially tearing ligaments in June.

After losing in the 3rd round of the US Open, Novotna said she would quit at the end of the year. But a first-round loss to Magdalena Maleeva in Luxembourg two weeks ago persuaded Novotna to play only one more tournament.

Novotna won 24 titles on the WTA Tour after turning pro in 1987. But she had only one title this year, in February in Hanover, Germany, when she beat Venus Williams in the final. She also won 73 doubles titles.

Novotna was honoured at the end her match and received a standing ovation as she waved to the crowd.

In other matches, Anke Huber of Germany fought back after trailing 1-5 and 15-40 in the second set against Julie Halard-Decugis.

Huber saved two match points and went on tooust the seventh-seeded French player 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Jennifer Capriati reached the second round of the $520,000 indoor tournament by beating Irina Spirela 6-4, 6-1 while Sabine Appelmans upset fifth-seeded Amanda Coetzer 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.