14 Tuesday 26th May, 2009 Madrid loses Murray, Ivanovic 3-1 against Mallorca by Stephen Mackey MADRID (AP) - Runner-up Real advance at French Open Madrid continued it s disappointing end to the S p anish league season with a 3- by Chris Lehourites 1 loss against Mallorca on Sunday in it s final home game. P ARIS (AP) - A p art from some jit - Gonzalo Higuain opened the scor- ters in his first service game, Andy ing for the home team with his 21st Murray had little trouble beating Juan goal of the season, only for Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 Arango, Cleber Santana and on Sunday in his opening match at the Alhassane Keita to reply for Mallorca French Open. and inflict Madrid’s fourth straight Murray, who has reached only one defeat. clay-court semifinal in his career , was The match, played before a com- broken in the first game of the match, but p aratively sp arse crowd at Santiago he then dominated Chela with 55 win - Bernabeu Stadium, provided Madrid ners and 10 aces to advance to the sec - fans with the chance to bid farewell to ond round. coach Juande Ramos and defender "Af ter that, I was very happy with Fabio Cannavaro. Ramos is nearing the way I played," Murray said of the the end of his contract, while the It alian early break. "I wasn’t expecting to play is to rejoin Juventus in the offseason that well in the first match." af ter three years at Madrid. Defending champion Ana Ivanovic Af ter the final whistle, Cannavaro struggled on the import ant point s in the threw his Madrid shirt to supporters opening match on center court before behind one of the goals and then made beating Sara Errani of It aly 7-6 (3), 6-3 in a lap of honor while being applauded the women’s draw. by his teammates. The eighth-seeded Serb converted Higuain, making his 100th appear - only five of the 20 break point s she ance in all competitions for Madrid, earned against her opponent. Errani Serbia's Ana Ivanovic reacts as she Britain's Andy Murray serves the ball to Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela dur- headed powerfully home from Rafael broke three times and even served for plays Italy's Sara Errani at the ing their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the van der Vaart’s floated free kick from the first set at 5-4. Roland Garros stadium in Paris. Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday May 24, 2009. (Pix AP) the lef t in the 20th minute. "I knew I had to work hard for my Midfielder Arango scored point s today, and I’m very happy I did "To play him on any surface, he’s so Madrid Open with a knee injury, and her old Lauren Embree of the United States Mallorca’s equalizer, firing p ast goal - that," Ivanovic said. "And I kept my com - dangerous," Hewitt said of Karlovic. "(He right knee was t aped Sunday at Roland 6-1, 6-2. keeper Iker Casillas six minutes later posure." served) a lot of unreturnables with that Garros. She finished the match with Also, ninth-seeded Victoria Azarenka following a burst p ast the Madrid Murray looked rusty early in his as well." seven double-fault s and six aces, while of Belarus, No. 25 Li Na of China, No. 27 defense by striker Aritz Aduriz. match, but he soon began to hit some At W imbledon in 2003, Hewitt lost to the 44th-ranked Errani did a good job of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Three minutes after Cannavaro’s hard groundstrokes and move Chela Karlovic to become the first man in the moving the defending champion all over No. 32 Ivet a Benesova of the Czech 56th-minute replacement, midfielder around the court. While Murray only had Open era to lose in the first round as the court. Republic advanced. Santana scored a spectacular goal, four fewer unforced errors - 19 to defending champion at the All England "Even though I had some time off Amelie Mauresmo and Kaia Kanepi bursting p ast a series of Madrid players Chela’s 23 - the Briton had 41 more win - Club. during the Madrid tournament, I feel like of Estonia were the only seeded players before delivering a floated shot over ners. Marat Safin, another of the eight it t akes only a few days to get back in to lose in the women’s draw. The 16th- Casillas. "Chela is a tough player," Murray former Grand Slam singles champions in shape," Ivanovic said. "I feel very fit ." seeded Mauresmo lost to Anna-Lena Keita, who had replaced Aduriz said. "I understood what I had to do the men’s field, also advanced. The Both players questioned calls on the Groenefeld 6-4, 6-3, and No. 19 Kanepi three minutes earlier, delivered a rising today. I didn’t t ake Chela lightly at all." Russian beat Alexandre Sidorenko of red clay, but Ivanovic was on the winning fell to Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan shot p ast Casillas for Mallorca’s third in Chela, who won all four of his sin - France 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. side of a crucial challenge in the tiebreak - 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-2. the 71st minute. The goal, the 15th gles titles on clay , missed eight months "Every round is a tough one," said er. At 1-1 with Errani serving, the It alian Vit alia Diatchenko of Russia saved Madrid has conceded in four games, of action because of a herniated disk. He Safin, who is planning to retire at the end hit a ball wide that Ivanovic returned. eight match point s before finally beating provoked an outburst of whistling from returned in February and is playing at of the season. "I’m trying but I’m really Errani then sent a winner to the other side Mathilde Johansson of France 2-6, 6-2, tsi annoyed supporters. Roland Garros with a protected ranking suf fering on the court right now. But I’ll of the court on her next shot and believed 10-8. Ramos’ last game in charge is at of No. 54. try to play better next match and I hope she had t aken the lead, but Ivanovic "For each match point, I was very lowly Osasuna next weekend, after "I played good but Andy’s too that I will get through." called for the chair umpire, who checked confident," Johansson said. "I thought I which Florentino Perez is expected to tough," Chela said. "I st arted playing Seventh-seeded Gilles Simon, No. 8 the previous mark and overruled the call. would win it, and I missed the first one, make his return to the presidency and well, but all the point s were very long Fernando Verdasco, No. 13 Marin Cilic of Errani stood at the net and com - and I was pretty nervous on the second, begin remodeling the club. Sporting and I st arted to feel tired." Croatia, No. 14 David Ferrer of Spain, plained, but the call stood and Ivanovic and it was more dif ficult for me to play ." director Predrag Mijatovic lef t Madrid Ivo Karlovic set a tour-level record No. 18 Radek Stepanek of the Czech won the next two point s on serve to t ake on Wednesday. for aces with 55 in his 6-7 (1), 6-7 (4), 7- Republic and No. 31 Nicolas Almagro of a 4-1 lead. Mallorca remain ninth with 51 6 (4), 6-4, 6-3 loss to Lleyton Hewitt. S pain also advanced. The 21-year-old Ivanovic also point s. The 26th-seeded Karlovic, who has S tepanek defeated 2004 French reached the final at Roland Garros in W ith one game remaining, cham- lost in the first round in 14 of his 24 Open champion Gaston Gaudio of 2007, and last year’s Australian Open pions Barcelona has a league record Grand Slam appearances, broke the Argentina 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, while Simon final. She was the world’s top-ranked tally of 86 point s. Madrid have 78, 11 previous record of 51, which he shared hung on to beat Wayne Odesnik of the player for 12 weeks in 2008 but has more than Sevilla. Atletico Madrid fol - with Joachim Johansson. The old mark United States 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. dropped to No. 8. lowed with 64, V illarreal 62 and for aces in a French Open match was Ivanovic, who beat Dinara Safina in No. 11 Nadia Petrova reached the V alencia 59. 37, held by Andy Roddick. last year’s final, pulled out of this month’s second round by easily beating 18-year- On Saturday, Barcelona lost 1-0 against lowly Osasuna, four days before it plays Manchester United in the Champions League final. Sevilla ensured a third-place finish Iftikhar by beating Deportivo La Coruna 1-0, Button shows Schumacher-style dominance at Monaco GP while Recreativo Huelva and Numancia became the first teams to be relegated replaces by Kevin Garside "This victory is massive for us, af ter each losing 1-0 to Racing the best of the season. The last Santander and Getafe respectively. two lap s were the best of my Af ter a radical rules shake-up to Other result s were: Athletic Bilbao Akhtar in slow the cars and improve overt ak - career, probably.