Sports Briefing

Sai Jayalakshmi broke Archana first and third service at 40-0 and 40-15 to take a 4-0 lead. Archana won the fifth game but again her service in seventh game was broken at 40-40, which lost her the first set at 1-6.

In the second set, Sai Jayalakshmy and Archana broke each other’s service and levelled the score at 5-5. Sai Jayalakshmy held her 11th game and then broke Archana’s service in Twelveth game when she made double fault at 30-40 and lost the set and match at 1-6, 5-7.

Archana made four double fault against eleven by Jayalakshmy throughout the match. Jayalakshmi made 34 unforced errors against 39 by Archana.

Kafelnikov, Moya lose, Kuerten marches on

ROME: Brazil’S Gustavo Kuerten trounced world number one Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the third round of the Italian Open yesterday while Carlos Moya, Kuerten’s successor as French Open champion, was beaten in straight sets.

Kuerten crushed Kafelnikov 7-5 6-1 and produced some super baseline tennis on Rome’s red clay to suggest he may once again figure next month at Roland Garros, where he won his first major title two years ago.

Moya was beaten 6-3 7-5 by Argentine Franco Squillari, who had lost in the qualifiers at the weekend and returned to the frame only when 11th seed American Todd Martin dropped out with an injured shoulder.

In the day’s other big tie, US Open champion Pat Rafter produced his best performance for nine months to survive a second set fightback by Andre Agassi and win 6-1 7-6 (7-4).

Kuerten will face Slovak Karol Kucera, who came from a set down to beat Britain’s Tim Henman 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in a gruelling floodlit late match which lasted two hours 24 minutes.

Australia’s Rafter will meet Ecuador’s Nicolas Lapentti while Squillari’s prize for defeating Moya is a quarter-final clash against another Spaniard, World number seven Alex Corretja.

Spain’S 15th seed Felix Mantilla against Germany’s David Prinosil completes the quarter-final line-up.

Kuerten, who beat Kafelnikov in the quarter-finals of his triumphant 1997 French Open campaign, broke serve in the first and fifth games of their final set as he raced into a 5-1 lead.

He squandered one match point at 40-30 on Kafelnikov’s serve when he overhit a forehand return but created another when he won the next point with a rasping cross-court backhand.

The Russian served to stay in the match, Kuerten returned and the ball thudded into the net cord before dropping into Kafelnikov’S side of the court to give the 16th seed victory after an hour and eight minutes.

Moya had dropped only nine games in his first two matches but was outplayed by Squillari, ranked 47th in the world.

Rafter played faultlessly against Agassi, combining his natural serve-and-volley game with his new-found confidence on clay to take the first set in just 28 minutes with two aces on the final two points.

The second set looked to be going the same way when Agassi dropped serve to 30 in the opening game but the rest of the set went with serve as the American found his stride.

He saved a first match point at 40-30 on rafter’S Serve and went on to break serve with a brilliant backhand return.

The former Wimbledon champion forced a tie-break but Rafter’s booming serve won out and the Australian clinched it 7-4 after an hour and 24 minutes on centre court.

Hingis in quarters

BERLIN: World number one Martina Hingis cruised through to the quarter-finals of the German Open today with a straightforward 6-4 6-1 win over Russian Elena Likhovtseva.

Top seed Hingis, chasing her first triumph in the Berlin clay-court event, was leading 4-1 in the second set when a heavy shower halted play. But the sky soon cleared and the 18-year-old Swiss sealed victory. She will now face Austrian Barbara Schett, seeded 16th, for a place in the last four.

Schett, a semifinalist in Hamburg earlier this month, beat sixth seed Nathalie Tauziat of France 6-1 4-6 7-6 after a close battle.

Former world number one Steffi Graf had earlier recovered from a slow start to beat Zimbabwe’s Cara Black 7-6 6-2 and advance to the last eight. Graf goes on to meet France’s Julie Halard-Decugis, who beat Pavlina Stoyanova (Bulgaria) 6-1 6-0.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the fourth seed, also qualified by beating Conchita Martinez 6-1 0-6 7-5 in an all-Spanish tie. Sanchez-Vicario, warming up for the defence of her French Open title, will now face Serena Willams, the seventh seed, who beat fellow American Lisa Raymond 6-1 7-6.

France’s Amelie Mauresmo, who burst into the limelight by reaching the final here last year, fell to Romanian Ruxandra Dragomir in straight sets, 6-2 7-5. Dragomir, who had knocked out Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna in the previous round, will play Swiss Patty Schynder, the eighth seed, in the quarter-finals.

Schnyder was made to work by Israel’s Anna Smashnova before winning 2-6 7-6 6-1.