www.ntnews.com.au Northern Territory News, Monday, January 11, 2010 — 35

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SPORT

Murray ready to winPERTH: World No. 4 AndyMurray has declared himselfready to win the AustralianOpen after receiving the‘‘perfect preparation’’ atPerth’s Hopman Cup.

Murray put in an impress-ive display at the $1 millionevent, winning all three ofhis singles matches beforesuffering a shock 1-6 6-4 6-3loss to Spain’s Tommy

Robredo in the final.

The 22-year-old Scot, whois yet to taste grand slamglory, said his defeat wasmerely a hiccup.

‘‘I’m sure if you askFederer how he’s feeling ...after losing to (Nikolay)Davydenko (in Qatar), I’mpretty sure it’s not going toput a whole lot of doubts intohis mind,’’ Murray said.

Molik the star in TassieHOBART: Alicia Molik is thestar attraction for today’sfirst-round matches at theHobart tennis internationalwith fellow AustraliansJ e l e n a D o k i c , O l i v i aRogowska and SophieFerguson also in action.

Molik headlines the tour-nament’s first night session,playing India’s out-of-formSania Mirza.

The 28-year-old Aussie is

returning to top-level tennis

after retiring in 2007 due to

persistent injury problems.

Dokic has drawn British

qualifier Elena Baltacha.

World No. 147 Ferguson,

coached by Tony Roche,

plays Belgian Kristen

Flipkens, ranked 81 in

the world.

ONCRICKETTo the bloke that reckonsmitch johnson has donenothing... He’s only the leadingwicket taker for the summer...Clear by about 15 of em...

BK, Gray— what do u thinkabout the Australian CricketTeam&Ricki Ponting’sdecision 2 bat first now!

ONTENNIS

Samstosur and alisamolik rhopeless.Womens tennis is ajoke. tennis fan parap

ABC advertising HopmanCupfrom 11.30. Still no coverageat 12.30. Clijsters v Henin.Brilliant tennis and not onegrunt to be heard.BCDarwin

Henin fightsto be fit forAussie OpenSYDNEY: Justine Henin willhave to forge new territory ifthe Belgian is to lift theAustralian Open trophy for thesecond time.

Battling a left gluteal strain,Henin will miss the SydneyInternational — her traditionalspringboard to MelbournePark glory.

But she still expects to be fit fornext Monday’s start to the Open.

Henin’s 2004 Australian Openwin was preceded by victory atthe Olympic Tennis Centre andher advance to the 2006 final alsocame after winning in Sydney.

It was a similar path two yearsago when she won her 40thcareer title in Sydney beforelosing in the quarter-finals inMelbourne to Maria Sharapova.

Henin’s effort to reach theBrisbane International final onSaturday after 20 months inretirement signalled the right-hander as an Open threat.

But she will have to rely onmatch practice — probably fromWednesday — to prepare.

‘‘I’m very disappointed that Ican’t play the Medibank Inter-national Sydney, which I like alot,’’ Henin said.

Henin will undergo constanttreatment this week.

MEANTIME, Roger Federeris confident he will shake of anarm niggle that troubled him inhis straight-sets semi-final lossto Nikolay Davydenko in theQatar Open at the weekend.

‘‘I will be fine,’’ he said.

Darwin’sDunser hitsquarter-final

ByPETERTIFFEN

D A R W I N t e n n i s p l a y e rKassandra Dunser has wonthrough to the quarter-finals ofthe WTC City of Salisbury AMTevent in Adelaide.

Sixth seed Dunser, 14, willplay second seed Bianca Tepperfor a spot in the women’ssingles semifinals at HappyHome Reserve.

The Territorian downed15-year-old Ashley Keir 6-4 6-0before ousting 17-year-oldEmma Gericke 6-1 6-3.

Fellow DTC Sports playerEmily Webb, 15, was beaten inthe first round of the tourna-ment by Nicole Collie 6-2 6-1.

Dunser reached the semi-finals of the same eventlast year.

Despite winning a doublesAMT tournament in Melbournelast month she finished the yearranked No. 68 in australia.

This was no change over theprevious month but an improve-ment of 28 places in the past12 months.

Webb rose eight places to103rd while the NT men’s No. 1fell one spot to 85th.

Hewitt’s feeling fineBy IANMcCULLOUGH

in Sydney

Hewitt

TWELVE months after hisignominious first-roundexit from the AustralianOpen, Lleyton Hewitt isfeeling in top shape goinginto this week’s SydneyInternational.

Despite an injury scare inPerth last Friday when herequired on-court treatmentafter suffering a back spasm,Hewitt said he feels he is inmuch better condition than

last year when he was makinghis way back from a career-threatening hip injury.

Having not played for mostof 2008, Hewitt’s rankingspiralled to 108 at one stage.He was unseeded for theMelbourne Park showpieceand then handed a toughopening round draw againstb i g - s e r v i n g C h i l e a nFernando Gonzalez where helost in five sets.

But after an excellentsecond half to 2009 which sawhim reach the quarter-finals

of Wimble-

d o n a n d

m a k e t h e

third round

at the French

O p e n ,

H e w i t t ’ s

world rank-

ing has risento 22 and he’s confident he’sedging closer to his best form.

‘‘The back feels prettygood. It has been gettingtreatment and I am doing allthe right things since arriv-

ing back from Perth,’’ Hewittsaid. ‘‘Having a bye into thesecond round here gives me acouple of days up my sleeveswhich is good.’’

After missing a hugechunk of 2008 due to hisinjury, Hewitt said he wasunderdone going into lastyear’s Australian Open.

‘‘Even though I hit a lot ofballs in practice last year Ididn’t have too much prep-aration going into theHopman Cup, Sydney and theAussie Open and the hip was

always in the back of mymind,’’ he said.

The second-seeded Hewitthas a bye into the secondround and will face eitherItaly’s Andreas Seppi orA u s t r a l i a n q u a l i f i e rMarinko Matosevic.

Matosevic, who yesterdayqualified for his first evermain tour event after a 6-4 6-1win over world No. 72 DanielGimeno Traver from Spain,was drawn against Seppi inthe revised first-round.

TOUGH TIME: Andy Roddick seemed headed for a quick kill in Brisbane yesterday. Picture: DAVID KAPERNICK

Roddick passes hismarathon fitness testBRISBANE: As far as fitness tests go,recovering top seed Andy Roddickcould not have wished for a betterhit-out than his marathon BrisbaneInternational championship victoryover defending champion RadekStepanek yesterday.

But that didn’t make it anyless annoying.

In the end, world No. 7 Roddickfinally converted his sixth match pointto oust second seeded Stepanek 7-6 (7-2)7-6 (9-7) in a final lasting more thantwo hours.

It was a great workout for Roddick

ahead of the Australian Open, but theformer world No. 1 would surely havepreferred to have pulled off the quickkill that initially presented itself at PatRafter Arena.

In his first tournament since Octob-er due to a troublesome knee, Roddickappeared set for an early showerafter being a set and 5-1 up against theworld No. 12.

But Stepanek was at his nigglingbest, changing the tempo of the matchto dismantle Roddick’s power gameand claw his way back before forcing asecond set tiebreak.

The 31-year-old was at it again in thetiebreak, saving five match pointsfrom 6-1 down to hold a set point beforeRoddick claimed his 28th career title.

Roddick’s gutsy victory endedStepanek’s nine-game winning run atthe Brisbane International.

‘‘Radek, I know you won here lastyear and you were undefeated on thiscourt and for a while I thought it mightbe your destiny,’’ Roddick said.

Roddick has had a frustrating timeof it in Australia’s grand slam, makingthe semi-final four times in the lastseven years.

Kuznetsovaafter answers

Kuznetsova

Kleybanova

SYDNEY: Svetlana Kuznetsovahas called on the WTA to giveplayers some guidance afterRussian player EkaterinaBychkova was handed a 30-dayban for failing to report an offerto influence the outcome ofa match.

Kuznetsova, who edged herway into the second round of theSydney International yesterdayafter a 6-4 6-7 (7-3) 7-5 victory overfellow Russian Alisa Kleybanova,said she was surprised by thenews of the ban and $US5000 finefor Bychkova.

‘‘When they told me I wasreally surprised because I havenot heard about it,’’ Kuznetsovasaid. ‘‘I don’t know exactly whathas happenedwith her and Iwill ask and findout more.

‘‘I think it isvery importantto find out. Idon’t know if Ihave to go andsee someone ifsomeone comesand asks mesomething be-c a u s e n o - o n ehas told me whatto do.’’

Asked if shehad ever been of-fered the oppor-tunity to influ-ence a game, Kuznetsova laughedabout being put on a plane backto Moscow if she did admit to it,but said the issue is a seriousconcern for all players.

‘‘If you have been approachedbefore and now come forwardand tell them will they ban you?,’’she said. ‘‘And if you don’t comeforward will they ban you? Weneed to be clear.

‘‘How do you know if someoneapproaches me and it is a joke?

‘‘Do I have to tell the WTAevery time I get told a joke?

‘‘They can send you a letter, fanmail, Facebook and you may notpay much attention to it andmaybe it is people trying to catchyou and doing it on purpose.

‘‘It could happen and you couldbe not guilty.’’

Kuznetsova was given a stiffworkout by Kleybanova.