Melzer suffers shock defeat

Second seed Jurgen Melzer suffered a shock defeat at the Winston-Salem Open when beaten by Russia's Igor Andreev.

The Russian troubled Melzer with his serve throughout as he won 7-5 6-3.

Australia's former world number Lleyton Hewitt was eliminated in the first round with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) loss to Slovenia's Blaz Kavcic.

"He's the biggest name player I've beaten. I just tried to attack a little bit with my forehand and I think I need to do that a little more."

Blaz Kavcic

Quotes of the week

"He's the biggest name player I've beaten. I just tried to attack a little bit with my forehand and I think I need to do that a little more," Kavcic said.

Hewitt, who has missed the last five weeks while recovering from a foot injury, said: "He doesn't have any obvious weaknesses out there. His serve is a little patchy at times but some of the break-point opportunities I did get he came up with some good first serves."

Baghdatis through

Eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis capitalised on all five of his break points as he claimed a 7-5 6-1 victory against Ryan Sweeting.

Victory brought to an end a three-match winless streak for the 26-year-old.

Luxembourg's Gilles Muller fired 26 aces in his first-round match against Kei Nishikori, but was still edged out by the Japanese qualifier 1-6 6-4 7-6 (7/5) after two hours and 12 minutes.

Israeli Dudi Sela earned a second-round meeting with American John Isner, the fourth seed, after dismissing Italian Filippo Volandri 6-3 6-2.

08.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Wenger defends Nasri sale

Arsene Wenger has defended his decision to sell Samir Nasri to Manchester City on the eve of Arsenal's crucial UEFA Champions League clash against Udinese.

The 24-year-old France international, who had just one year remaining on his present deal, has been allowed to join City for a fee of around £24million.

Had the playmaker played in the second leg qualifier against Serie A side Udinese, he would have become ineligible to play for City in the Champions League, thus jeopardising the deal.

And with Arsenal needing to win this game to progress into the group stages of the competition, Wenger felt it was better to field players who are totally focused on the cause.

"You cannot think about only one game in the season, and there was some logic in the decision and also some business interest," Wenger told Sky Sports News.

"You cannot think about only one game in the season, and there was some logic in the decision and also some business interest."

Arsene Wenger

Quotes of the week

"Overall, you want players who are not playing thinking that they are leaving the next morning - it's not ideal.

"So you want players who are completely committed to the long term to defend our chances."

The sale of Nasri comes quickly on the heels of captain Cesc Fabregas' move to Barcelona which has left the Gunners without two of their marquee players.

Wenger now has just over a week in which to replace both players and has left many wondering why the Nasri deal was not concluded sooner.

But Wenger insists it was out of his hands and that he would have preferred for it to have been finalised earlier in the summer.

He added: "It's not naive but what you forget is, it doesn't depend only on us.

"We wanted to sort these cases out very early after the summer, but it wasn't possible. The pace is not only dictated by us unfortunately."

08.08 | 0 komentar | Read More