Rios booed off court after second round loss

ST POELTEN (AUSTRIA), May 22: Defending champion Marcelo Rios was booed off the court when he was beaten in straight sets in the second rou...

ST POELTEN (AUSTRIA), May 22: Defending champion Marcelo Rios was booed off the court when he was beaten in straight sets in the second round of the St Poelten men’s tennis tournament.

Third seed Rios, ranked seventh in the world, was beaten 6-4 6-2 by Sweden’s Tomas Nydahl, yesterday. It interrupted an impressive run on clay this season by the Chilean who won the Monte Carlo Open and finished runner-up in the Italian Open last weekend.

“I tried to practise serve and volley today,” he said after the unfriendly reaction to his defeat. “I always want to win. I was just a bit tired today.”

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Olympic champion Marc Rosset of Switzerland pulled out with a thigh strain in his right leg when trailing 4-0 against Marcelo Fillipini of Uruguay, who will be Nydahl’s next opponent.

World number five Thomas Muster boosted his confidence for next week’s French Open by making the quarter-finals of a clay-court tournament for the first time this season.

Top seed Muster, `95 French Open champion, scored a 5-7 6-1 6-1 win over Argentine Hernan Gumy.

Victory came as a relief for the Austrian, who was hailed as the `King of Clay’ after winning 111 matches on the surface in 1995 and 1996 but has been anything nothing like the same force this season.

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“This was the best (clay-court) tennis I have played in a long time. This victory is very important for next week,” said Muster, who won a hard-court tournament in Key Biscayne earlier in the year.

Muster next meets seventh-seeded Australian Patrick Rafter, who defeated American Jeff Tarango 6-7 6-2 6-1.

US beat Croatia 2-1

DUESSELDORF: Alex O’Brien stepped in for world number one Pete Sampras to lead the United States to a 2-1 win over Croatia in the World Team Cup yesterday.

When Sampras was forced to pull out of the tournament with a strained thigh muscle in the morning, O’Brien, a doubles specialist, was called up to face Sasa Hirszon in a vital singles clash.

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O’Brien deputised well, crushing the Croatian 6-1 6-2 to level the tie at 1-1.

World number four Goran Ivanisevic had given Croatia a 1-0 lead with a workmanlike 6-2 2-6 6-3 win over Michael Chang.

O’Brien then joined Jonathan Stark to cap a successful day with 6-3 7-6 victory over Ivanisevic and Hirszon in the deciding doubles to keep alive US hopes of a fifth title.

Sampras, who injured his thigh in his opening match against Australia’s Mark Philippoussis on Monday, said he would leave for Paris on Thursday and would play in the French Open, the only Grand Slam title to elude him.

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“I don’t feel the injury when I walk but doctors advised me not to come back too soon or I could make it worse,” he said. “I’m planning on playing in Paris.”

Australia kept their unbeaten record intact by romping to a 3-0 win over the Czech Republic.

Philippoussis beat Bodhan Ulihrach 6-4 4-6 6-3 while Mark Woodforde defeated Petr Korda 3-6 7-5 6-1.

Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, the world’s top ranked doubles team, completed the sweep with a 6-4 6-3 win over Martin Damm and Daniel Vacek.