Injury-hit Agassi and Kuerten make Paris exits

ANDRE AGASSI, the oldest player at the French Open, felt his age yesterday.

Hobbled by an inflamed nerve in his back, Agassi lost in the opening round for the second year in a row. He rarely ran after shots in the final two sets and lost to Finnish qualifier Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 4-6, 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-0.

The 35-year-old Agassi said the injury flared up in the third set.

“The nerve in my back started getting inflamed and sending pain down my leg, and it was getting worse by the minute,” he said.

He said he might need a cortisone injection to play at Wimbledon.

But he added: “I have every intention of playing.”

Coincidentally, Agassi set an Open era record for men by playing in his 58th major event. He has lost in the opening round nine times. At Roland Garros, he failed to reach the third round for the seventh time in 16 appearances, but he won the tournament in 1999 to complete a career grand slam.

Also eliminated was Gustavo Kuerten, a three-time French Open champion who has battled hip trouble for years. The unseeded Kuerten, who has won just two matches in 2005, lost to David Sanchez 6-3, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1.

Second seed Andy Roddick improved his Roland Garros record to 4-4 by beating French wildcard Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. No 3 Marat Safin also won.

Two top contenders among the women survived close calls.

Dominant at the start and shaky at the finish, Justine Henin-Hardenne extended her winning streak to 18 matches, all on clay, by beating Conchita Martinez 6-0, 4-6, 6-4.

In a match-up of 18-year-old Russians, No 2-seeded Maria Sharapova overcame 59 unforced errors, including 11 double faults, and a third-set deficit to beat Evgenia Linetskaya 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4.

Henin-Hardenne, the women’s favourite and 2003 champion, won a lopsided first set and a 36-point game to start the second set. But she double-faulted nine times, and in the final set she nearly blew a 5-1 lead before closing out her first match in a grand slam event since September.

“A very strange match,” Henin-Hardenne said.

“I knew I would be nervous. This is why a grand slam is so different. You have to be able to manage your nervousness.”

Sharapova was one point from trailing 4-1 in the third set before she rallied against Linetskaya, playing in just her third grand slam event. Sharapova smacked three winners in the final game for the victory.

“These are the sorts of matches I play for,” she said.

“You feel like you were losing the whole match, and all of a sudden you pulled it out.”

Three other seeded Russians won: No 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No 7 Nadia Petrova and No 12 Elena Bovina. Third seed Amelie Mauresmo of France beat Evie Dominikovic 6-2, 6-1.

Safin, the Australian Open champion, opened his bid for a first French Open title by beating Raemon Sluiter 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, No 8 Guillermo Coria, No 9 Guillermo Canas, No 12 Nikolay Davydenko and No 15 Tommy Robredo also advanced.

Greg Rusedski failed to win his first match at the Open for four years when he lost to Flavio Saretta in straight sets. The Briton cancelled out an early break of serve by the Brazilian at 2-2, but then struggled.

Qualifier Saretta swept through the first set and saved two Rusedski set points in the second-set tie-break. He eventually came through 6-2 7-6 (9-7) 6-3.