The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Federer to meet Monfils in Doha; Marion Bartoli is champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 08, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Federer to meet Monfils in Doha; Marion Bartoli is champion

DOHA: World No. 1 Roger Federer will meet rising French teenager Gael Monfils in the final of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha.

In the semifinals on Friday, Federer, the top seed and defending champion, cruised past Germany's Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-3 to reach his first final of the year while Monfils, the No. 7 seed, overcame Italy's Filippo Volandri 6-3, 6-4.

Federer, who is celebrating his 101st consecutive week as the World No. 1, now has won his last eight matches in Doha without dropping a set.

The Swiss star reached 12 finals in 2005, winning the first 11 before his 24-match winning streak in finals came to an end against David Nalbandian at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.

Monfils, the 19-year-old from Paris, captured his first ATP title in Sopot last year and reached the indoor finals in Metz (l. to Ljubicic) and Lyon (l. to Roddick). The Doha final will be the first meeting between the two.

Malisse in final

Xavier Malisse of Belgium will face Florent Serra of France in the final of the Australian men's hardcourt championship at Adelaide after both scored surprise wins on Saturday.

Serra upset second seed Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 6-3 in the first semifinal before Malisse overpowered sixth seed Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-0.

The tournament has been littered by a series of upsets including an early defeat for Australia's Lleyton Hewitt.

Malisse and Serra both captured their first career titles last season but are unseeded in Adelaide.

Safarova triumphs

Czech teenager Lucie Safarova beat Italian fourth-seed Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the Australian women's hardcourt championship at the Gold Coast on Saturday.

The 18-year-old Safarova upset her more fancied opponent to capture her third WTA title and the second on a hardcourt and will boost her confidence ahead of the Australian Open.

The left-handed Safarova raced through the opening set in 33 minutes and then took 49 minutes to add the second and clinch the title.

"The tennis now is about power and it's very fast," she told reporters. "I always play like that. I never wanted to just run and put the balls back.

"My father taught me as a child that I have to be the one to make the winners."

Pennetta went into the final as the favourite after beating former world No. 1 Martina Hingis.

Comfortable win

Marion Bartoli of France beat Russia's Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the Auckland Open on Saturday.

The 21-year Bartoli, playing superbly from the baseline, strolled to a comfortable straight-sets win to capture her first WTA Tour title five years after she joined the circuit. Bartoli was eliminated in the semifinals at Auckland in 2004 and 2005 but made it through to her first final when top-seed Nadia Petrova retired from their semifinal showdown on Friday with a leg injury.

Bartoli was leading 2-1 on serve in the deciding third set when Petrova called it quits.

Zvonareva won her third WTA title in Memphis last season but was unable to keep pace with Bartoli as the Frenchwoman ran her ragged on the Auckland hardcourt.

Bartoli broke Zvonareva for the first time in the third game then broke her again for a 5-2 lead before serving out the opening set.

She raced to a 5-1 lead in the second set and although the Russian fought off three match-points on her serve, Bartoli sealed the match on her own serve in the next game.

Clijsters downs Davenport

U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters downed world number one Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-5 in a hard-fought Champions Challenge final here on Saturday to win the exhibition tournament featuring four of the top 10 women players in a boost for her Australian Open campaign.

Clijsters said she found it tough to pull away from the 29-year-old American as both players made plenty of errors and struggled to hold serve.

"It was a matter of the person who was making less errors was going to win today," said Clijsters who beat China National Games champion Zheng Jie and Russian Elena Dementieva to reach the final in the eight-player event.

Clijsters fought back from 3-1 down in the first set to break twice for 5-3 before serving out the set. There were seven breaks of serve in the second set before Davenport broke for 5-3 when Clijsters found the net after a lengthy rally. But the 22-year-old Belgian recovered to break twice and won with an overhead smash on her own serve after 75 minutes.

The results: At Doha (Qatar ExxonMobil Open): Semifinals: Roger Federer bt Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-3; Gael Monfils bt Filippo Volandri 6-3, 6-4.

At Adelaide (Australian men's hardcourt championships): Semifinals: Florent Serra bt Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 6-3; Xavier Malisse bt Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-0.

At Gold Coast (Australian women's hardcourt championships): Final: Lucie Safarova bt Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 6-4.

At Auckland Auckland Open): Final: Marion Bartoli of France bt Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-2.

At Hong Kong (women's exhibition): Final: Kim Clijsters bt Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-5.

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