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No Monte Carlo return for Tsonga

PARIS: France's surprise Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is set to miss next week's Monte Carlo Masters Series event after failing to recover from a right-knee injury that forced him out of last weekend's Davis Cup tie.

However, Tsonga, who turned 23 on Thursday, said he was confident of being able to play part of the clay-court season and avoid having an operation.

"I underwent a scanner at the beginning of the week," said Tsonga, who on his way to the Australian Open final claimed the scalp of Rafael Nadal.

"The doctors are more optimistic in comparison to the first diagnosis carried out by the national federation who said they were sure that I would have to be operated on.

"I will need 10 days to know after I had the knee drained to know how it has reacted. I will do a test on it in the middle of next week.

"If it is still painful, I will make a decision on the next steps," added Tsonga, who is ranked 15th in the world.

Tsonga said he had not ruled out competing at the French Open, which starts on May 26.

Kitajima wins Olympic berth

TOKYO: Athens dual gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima on Wednesday easily won his ticket for the Beijing Olympics with a win in the men's 100m breaststroke at Japan's National Swimming Championships.

Also qualifying for the Summer Games in August were Olympic bronze medalists Tomomi Morita, Yuta Suenaga, Junichi Miyashita on the men's side, and Olympic bronze medalist Yuko Nakanishi and Yuka Kato on the women's side.

"I was under heavy pressure to set a new national record. If I can, I want to race it again," Kitajima said after finishing in 59.67 seconds, narrowly missing his previous national record of 53.85.

Suenaga also made the Beijing cut in 1:00.72, ahead of Makoto Yamashita in third at 1:01.16.

"It was not a bad race. I must accept this time and then I'm going to concentrate on the 200m to swim my own race," Kitajima. said.

Teen aims to extend dream debut

HOUSTON: Fifteen-year-old Ryan Harrison has set his sights on an upset victory over fellow American James Blake to keep his dream run alive at this week's US Clay Court Championships.

The qualifier is scheduled to face the world No 9 in today's second round, three days after joining Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Frenchman Richard Gasquet as the only players since 1990 to win ATP matches under the age of 16.

"I feel like I have a good chance," Harrison said of his prospects against Blake, a winner of 10 ATP career titles.

"If I play at the level that I played two days ago, then I have a chance for a win."

Texan resident Harrison stunned Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 6-3 in Monday's first round, having lost just eight games in qualifying wins over Phillip King and Alex Reichel.

"The pressure is on them (the top players) to win against me I guess," added Harrison.

Boycott would not benefit anyone

FRANKFURT, Germany: FIFA president Sepp Blatter opposes a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in the belief nobody would benefit from such a move, the German Football Federation (DFB) on Monday reported the head of world football's governing body as saying.

"A boycott has never benefited anybody - athletes in particular," the DFB quoted Blatter as saying in an interview published on its website.

"If one wants to help the Chinese people - then the athletes should be there.

"And football will make an extraordinary contribution, as the preliminary-round matches will not only take place in Beijing," said Blatter.

"We will bring along the Olympic spirit, the Olympic ideal. That is good for the (host) country and for its population," Blatter concluded.

Also in his interview, Blatter said he believed it was time for the Olympic football tournament to be restricted to young players.

Last month International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge had expressed the hope that "all the stars of football participate (one day) in the Olympic Games".

Under current rules professional players per team aged over 23 can feature.

(China Daily 04/18/2008 page22)