Three time French Open winner Gustavo Kuerten, of Brazil, serves the ball to France's Paul-Henri Mathieu during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, Sunday May 25, 2008 at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris. Kuerten bids farewell to tennis at the site of his biggest triumphs.
Photo: AP
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Kuerten Bid Farewell
Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won the first Grand Slam match in her career. The 16-year old surprised much more experienced Maria Emilia Salerni at Roland Garros yesterday. The best player in Roland Garros history, Gustavo Kuerten ended his career by the loss to Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova triumphed three times at Grand Slam tournaments. The Russian prevailed at Australian Open and U.S. Open in 2006 and defended the Australian Open title past year. But those were the junior victories and she had no luck amid the grown-ups until this Roland Garros.
Her yesterday’s performance ended all speculations about too lengthy transition to another age group. Although Salerni isn’t of great fame, but she is in the first hundred and the easiness with which Pavlyuchenkova saw her off inspires optimism. The young Russian next faces the winner of Perebiynis-Pennetta match.
First seed Roger Federer advanced into the second round of the French Open after defeating 6-4 6-4 6-3 American Sam Querrey. Federer said he needs a couple of days to play with greater confidence and hopes to be more successful than in 2007. The Swiss yielded to Rafael Nadal in past year’s final.
The current Roland Garros was the last in career of one of the world best clay players. Former world number one Gustavo Kuerten suffered the straight three-set loss to Paul-Henri Mathieu. But his actual withdrawal had happened much earlier. The Brazilian played only sparingly after his third victory at Roland Garros in 2001. He was overwhelmed by injuries and underwent hip surgery in 2004, to no avail though. Kuerten needed six years to resign himself. In late past year, he finally decided that he would play his last tournament in the city of his glory, Paris, and the arrangers granted the wild-card to him.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 27, 2008
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