The 19-year-old squandered a match point and was then broken for the first time in the match but made no mistake in his next service game.

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Another two sessions would take place in Chennai but there is no time for a warm-up match before facing world cricket's in-form nation.

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Nadal, the tournament's last second seed to lose his opening match in 2006, had no such problems this time as he beat another U.S. player, Taylor Dent, 6-4 6-3.

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"We will be going all out to win this match not just for the sake of our veterans nor to give match time to the eight players who played no part in the quarterfinals and semifinals, " added Laporte.

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Safina lost her No. 1 ranking for the second time after retiring hurt during her first match at the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Qatar in October, and revealed then that she had been struggling with the problem for three months.

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"I don't usually do this for former Malone players, " said Ballymena man Syd, no doubt remembering the time I took a swing at him during an Ulster League match back in the Seventies.

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He struggled on India's recent tour to Australia but said that had no bearing on his decision to call time on an international career that began in Singapore with a match against Sri Lanka in April 1996.

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But the talented right-hander would have no time for such antics on this occasion as he top-edged the second delivery of the match, off Boyd Rankin, to wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien.

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After several lengthy ties, Nadal and Lopez did not begin their match on Arthur Ashe Stadium until after 11pm local time, but the world number one was in no mood to hang around.

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