HOUSTON - Lleyton Hewitt let the first set slip away after an overnight rain delay. He wasn't about to allow a trend.
By Compiled from Times wires
Published November 17, 2004
Hewitt came back from a first set lag to beat Carlos Moya 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4 in a first-round match at the ATP Masters Cup Championships on Tuesday.
In a later match, Marat Safin of Russia needed just one hour to beat Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 6-1, 6-4. Coria played his first match in over three months after surgery on his right shoulder. Second-seeded Andy Roddick was to meet Tim Henman in the night's featured match.
"Obviously I had a set point in that first set and things just didn't go my way," Hewitt said. "I tried at the start of the second set to get myself back in the match and in the third set I was having a lot of chances out there again but I was always playing behind."
WTA CHAMPIONSHIPS: Seventeen-year-old Russian Maria Sharapova is headed off to a "super-fantastic" vacation knowing she beat the world's top players over five consecutive days in Los Angeles to earn one of the sport's richest paychecks - $1-million. Sharapova, who lives and trains in Bradenton, rose to a career-high fourth in the year-end WTA rankings after starting the year at No. 32. She finished with her fifth title after defeating an injured Serena Williams 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 Monday night. Lindsay Davenport claimed the year-end No. 1 ranking for the third time in her career.
ANTI-DOPING: GlaxoSmithKline will supply men's players with nutritional supplements tested for drugs as part of the ATP's drive to avoid repeating a spate of positive tests last year. Glaxo will produce and distribute supplements tested in World Anti-Doping Agency-approved laboratories from next season.
BOXING
Holyfield fighting mad: After the New York State Athletic Commission placed him on indefinite suspension Monday, Evander Holyfield remained firm in his resolve to continue fighting in spite of a recent ugly body of work. "I will do everything within me to have my rights to fight," said Holyfield, a four-time heavyweight champion. "They are not going to take away any of my rights and think I'm not going to fight back. I have the right to say how I'm going to end my career."
AUTO RACING
NASCAR, CASCAR team: NASCAR and the Canadian Association for Stock Car Auto Racing have agreed on a multiyear operational and marketing agreement aimed at increasing fan interest and visibility for the sport north of the border. NEW RIDES: Former Trans-Am champion Boris Said will race next year in a minimum of 10 NASCAR Nextel Cup events for a newly formed team. MB/Sutton Motorsports will field a Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Said, beginning in February with the season-opening Daytona 500. ... Jon Wood will drive a Ford Taurus next year in the NASCAR Busch series, joining Stacy Compton and Robert Pressley on the ST Motorsports
ET CETERA
DOPING: Nina Kraft was disqualified as winner of the 2004 Ironman Triathlon World Championship because of drug use, giving Natascha Badmann her fifth title. ... Cyclist David Fuentes was suspended from competition for two years after testing positive for steroids.
POWERBOATS: For the first time in nine years, offshore powerboat racers from different U.S. sanctioning bodies have gathered for a unified world championship that begins today in the Florida Keys. More than 100 boats are registered for the Key West World Championship.
SOCCER: U.S. midfielder Claudio Reyna is expected to be sidelined for up to two more months after aggravating a thigh injury, and has gone to Germany to see a medical expert.
HORSES: Harness racing's second winningest driver, Walter Case Jr., was sentenced to five years in prison for stabbing his estranged wife in the back with a steak knife.
