Goellner through to second round

STUTTGART, July 15: Germany's Marc Goellner advanced into the Mercedes Cup's second round yesterday when back problems forced American Rich...

STUTTGART, July 15: Germany’s Marc Goellner advanced into the Mercedes Cup’s second round yesterday when back problems forced American Richey Reneberg to drop out of their match during the third set.

Goellner led 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 when the veteran doubles player gave up at the $ 1.04 million tournament, which has drawn six of the world’s 10 top-ranked players.

Most of the big names first swing into action on Tuesday or Wednesday including Austria’s top-seeded Thomas Muster, Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov, French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten and Boris Becker.

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Czech Jiri Novak also struggled past Morocco’s Hicham Arazi, 6-7 (7-1), 6-4, 5-7, while his compatriot Slava Dosedel ousted Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

Becker, the German three-time Wimbledon champion winding up his career, again proved to be a magnet for the public when he plays in Germany. Over 3,000 people watched him practice yesterday. Becker has never won the event. Muster is the two-time defending champion.

Wheaton wins

WASHINGTON: David Wheaton, walking the comeback trail one step at a time, rallied from behind, to defeat Roberto Jabali of Brazil 2-6 6-3 6-3 in the opening round of the $ 675,000 Legg Mason tennis classic.

None of the top seeds saw action as the tournament awaited the return to tennis of third seed Andre Agassi, who has played just 12 matches in 1997 and has not participated in any of this year’s Grand Slam tournaments.

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Defending champion Michael Chang is the top seed and Czech Petr Korda is seeded second.

Wheaton, sidelined with injuries for eight months, took having to fight his way into the main draw of a tournament in stride, winning two matches over the weekend to qualify.

Another player recovering from injury, Patrick McEnroe, fell to Davide Scala of Italy 6-1 4-6 7-5 in his first tournament since shoulder surgery in February.

Connors comeback

MAHWAH: Jimmy Connors has always been tenacious on the tennis court and recent knee surgery hasn’t changed that.

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Connors, playing his first match since undergoing knee surgery in May, kicked off the 20th A-and-P Tennis Classic with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Guillermo Vilas in an exhibition match on Monday.

Egypt advance

LONDON: Egypt defeated Lithuania to secure a place in next year’s Euro/African Zone Group 2 of the Davis Cup while Georgia completed a 5-0 whitewash of Nigeria in Tbilisi. Bad light forced the final reverse singles to be abandoned. The teams were locked 2-2 before the deciding match and when the players resumed with Cariovas leading 3-2 in the final set. But the Egyptian triumphed 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7), 5-7, 11-9.