The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Federer to meet Istomin in first round

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 14, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Federer to meet Istomin in first round

MELBOURNE: Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt were placed in the same half of the draw and could meet in the semifinals of the Australian Open.

Top-ranked Federer meets an Asian wild card entry, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, in the first round and Hewitt opens against Robin Vik of the Czech Republic.

Federer's quarter has Tommy Haas of Germany, who beat him in the Kooyong Classic exhibition this week, and fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko. Haas has a tricky first round against former world junior champion, 14th-seeded Richard Gasquet of France.

Second-seeded Andy Roddick and fourth-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina, both in the bottom half of the draw, have drawn qualifiers for their first-round matches.

Federer said he wasn't thinking as far ahead as a semifinal with Hewitt, ``because it's too far away in the draw.'' First of all, he wanted to know something about Istomin.

``I cannot tell you one thing about him,'' Federer said about his first round opponent. ``I have no clue how old he is, how he looks, if he is left or right-handed — it's definitely tricky.''

Istomin (19) received a wild card as winner of the 2005 Asian Championship at Tashkent. He's 2-1 in Davis Cup in his only Tour-level matches.

He's a right-hander who did not play much juniors, has one Challenger title and improved from a No. 931 ranking at the end of 2004 to No. 195 last week. And on his Grand Slam debut, he'll play against Federer on centre court.

In the women's section, top-seeded Lindsay Davenport plays Australian wild card entry Casey Dellacqua in the first round in a tough quarter of the women's draw that also features Venus Williams and 2004 champion Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova takes on Sandra Kloesel of Germany in the first round. while defending champion Serena Williams, also in Sharapova's quarter and Davenport's half, has a tough opener against China's Li Na.

Second-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium, bothered by a hip injury, faces Cho Yoon-jeong of South Korea. She's in the same quarter as Martina Hingis, a three-time Australian Open singles champion on a comeback after a three-year retirement, and 1995 champion Mary Pierce.

Hingis has drawn Vera Zvonareva in the first round, while Pierce plays Nicole Pratt of Australia.

Third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, who won the season-ending WTA Championship and was a finalist here in 1999, has No. 7 Patty Schnyder, No. 12 Anastasia Myskina, No. 16 Nicole Vaidisova and India's Sania Mirza in her quarter. — AP

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