The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Larsson defeats Krajicek

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Monday, May 21, 2007
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Larsson defeats Krajicek

Athens: Magnus Larsson defeated Richard Krajicek 6-3, 7-5 in the Champions Cup senior's tennis tournament.

The Swede, who secured the runner-up spot in Group `B', moves on to play Wayne Ferreira in the third-place match. Ferreira easily defeated Pat Cash 6-2, 6-1 to take the second place in Group `A.'

With the second set tied at 5-5, Larsson broke Krajicek's serve and then served out for the match, ending it with an ace.

Larsson wasn't bothered by the bad weather, which caused several delays. ``Did it rain? It brought back old memories from Wimbledon,'' Larsson joked.

Pete Sampras, making the first-ever visit to his ancestral homeland, can't have bargained for the rain. The weather postponed his Group `A' match against Jim Courier, Sampras' former U.S. Davis Cup teammate.

Sampras is still likely to advance to the final against Todd Martin after the Greek-American won his first two matches against Ferreira and Cash.

Martin beat doubles specialist Anders Jarryd 8-6 in a match the organisers shortened to a single set because of the rain. Martin, who topped Group `B' with a 3-0 record, is already guaranteed a spot in the final while Jarryd had no chance of advancing after losing his first two matches.

Sampras is undefeated so far in his senior's tour debut. He retired from the regular ATP Tour after winning his 14th major, the 2002 US Open.

Cash, bothered by the repeated delays, indulged in little of the good-humoured bantering with the crowd that marked his match with Sampras on Friday.

Though Ferreira and Courier finished the round-robin part of the competition with 2-1 records, Ferreira took the second spot in Group `A' because he had defeated Courier in Friday's second-round match.

This is the first international stop for the fledgling Outback Champions Series. — AP

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