Roddick Quits French Open With Injury; Hingis Wins

Fifth-seeded Andy Roddick quit his first-round match at the French Open tennis tournament early in the third set because of pain in his injured ankle.
Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion, trailed Alberto Martin 6-4, 7-5, 1-0 when he told trainer Michael Novotny that the pain from strained ligaments was intensifying. He asked to have the ankle retaped, then quit the match when Novotny said rules didn't allow retaping until the end of a set. Roddick was hurt at a warm-up event in Germany last week.
``It was starting to affect the way I landed on my serve,'' Roddick, who led the tour in aces last season, said in the post- match news conference. ``And not much else was working besides my serve, so it was a lost cause.''
Defending women's champion Justine Henin-Hardenne joined Martina Hingis in the second round on a cool, windy, overcast day in Paris, while third-seeded Nadia Petrova was upset in straight sets. Petrova said she was hampered by a leg injury.
Roddick's loss continued woes for U.S. men at the circuit's lone clay-court major. Roddick was knocked out in the second round last year, when no American man reached the third round, and he never has advanced past Round 3. Robby Ginepri, the 17th seed, also lost today.
``I just want to get healthy,'' said Roddick, who also had a shoulder injury this season. ``It's been an extremely annoying last month or so.''
Double Fault
Roddick was broken once in the first set, when both players hit more winners than unforced errors. Roddick rallied from an early break down to tie the second at 3-3 before losing serve on a double fault to give Martin a 6-5 lead.
``I didn't think it was going to be 100 percent,'' Roddick said. ``Maybe I was stupidly optimistic last week. I was definitely tentative sliding around out there.''
Martin, ranked 68th in the world, beat Roddick for the first time in five tries and snapped a five-match losing streak in Grand Slams.
Henin-Hardenne, trying to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1996 to repeat as champion, defeated Maret Ani 6- 3, 6-0.
Hingis, seeking the only Grand Slam title to elude her, beat Lisa Raymond 6-2, 6-2 as she opened play on center court. Hingis has climbed to 15th in the rankings since ending a four- year retirement in January. The five-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 won the Italian Open on May 21 for her first title in her comeback.
Confidence Boost
``Coming from a victory like in Rome, my confidence is higher than it previously was going into Grand Slams,'' Hingis said at a news conference.
Petrova had her 15-match winning streak ended by Akiko Morigami, 6-2, 6-2. Petrova has won four titles and more matches than anyone else on the women's circuit this season. She reached the semifinals in Paris last year.
Ginepri was beaten 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-1, 6-4 by another clay-court specialist, Albert Montanes, in a match suspended in the fourth set yesterday because of rain. Ginepri is 4-13 this year after reaching the U.S. Open semifinals in September.
Anastasia Myskina, the 2004 champion who exited in the first round last year, 19th-seeded Ana Ivanovic and 15th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova also advanced. Jie Zheng, who won a clay- court title this month in Portugal, downed 23rd-seeded Tatiana Golovin.
Fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic beat Argentina's Carlos Berlocq 6-2, 6-0, 6-3. Ljubicic, second in aces to Ivo Karlovic this season, saved the only break point he faced.
Other men's seeds to advance included No. 9 Fernando Gonzalez, who beat former Australian and U.S. Open winner Marat Safin; No. 14 Lleyton Hewitt; No. 19 Marcos Baghdatis, the Australian Open runner-up; No. 22 Dominik Hrbaty; No. 23 Tommy Haas; No. 27 Olivier Rochus; and No. 28 Fernando Verdasco.

John McEnroe Gets Last Laugh At Tennis Umps

LONDON (AP) - Tennis umpires will use instant replay at a tournament for the first time next month when the recently approved Hawk-Eye technology is tested at a seniors event.
"I'm all for it. It's about time it was introduced,'' said John McEnroe, among the players entered in the Champions Tour's season-ending championship at Royal Albert Hall from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4.
Hawk-Eye uses cameras to track a tennis ball's trajectory to help check disputed line calls. It's been used in television broadcasts but not as an umpiring aid.
The International Tennis Federation approved the latest version of Hawk-Eye after testing this month, and the ATP and WTA tours are looking into which tournaments might use electronic line-calling and the specifics of what the rules will be.
The Champions Tour is for retired ATP players who were ranked No. 1, were a singles finalist at a Grand Slam tournament or a singles player on a Davis Cup champion.

Pro Tennis Series serves summer’s hottest tickets

THE US OPEN SERIES
The US Open Series is the six-week summer tennis season of 10 major North American tournaments linked to the US Open. The US Open Series launched in 2004, and resulted in record attendance, TV viewership and live broadcast hours for the sport. Television viewership was up over 50%, with regularly scheduled broadcasts on ESPN, CBS, NBC Sports, and The Tennis Channel. In total, the US Open Series events - - including the US Open - - generated a record 1.5 million attendees, 126 million TV viewers and over 15 million website visits, making it the strongest summertime property in sports. Lindsay Davenport and Lleyton Hewitt won the inaugural US Open Series.

US Tennis Prospect

Birthdate: Feb. 11, 1995Birthplace: Toledo, OhioResidence: Perrysburg, OhioHeight: 4’ 8"Weight: 80 lbs.Plays: Left-handed; two-handed backhand
He’s only 10 years old, but it may be worth it to keep an eye on Jeffrey Schorsch. The Ohio native has shown great promise early on in his career, performing well in a number of tournaments, including earlier this week, when he took home his second straight singles title at the "Little Mo" Nationals, held Oct. 21-24 in Austin, Texas.
Schorsch, the top seed in the boys’ 10s draw, dominated his opponents in all four of the matches he played. The talented lefty dropped only one game total in the first two rounds against Nicholas Izzard and Samuel Lampman, then defeated Jose Gracia, 6-2, 6-2, in the semifinals, before posting a 6-3, 6-2, win over No. 2 Strong Kirchheimer in the final – a loss of just 10 games combined throughout the tournament.
With the victory, the fifth-grader picked up his second "Little Mo" Nationals trophy. He also won last year in the boys’ 9s event.Schorsch, who was inspired to take up tennis at age five after watching Pete Sampras win Wimbledon in 2000, also took home his first national title at a USTA Level 3 event this summer. Playing up in the boys’ 12s division at the Midwest Open in Cincinnati in August, he defeated six seeded players in the 128-player draw, including No. 2 Billy Weldon, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, in the round of 16, No. 3 Nolan Paige, 6-3, 7-5, in the semifinals, and No. 4 Patrick Elliott, 6-4, 6-1, in the final. He also finished runner-up in doubles with partner and fellow 10-year-old Yale Goldberg.