PERTH, Australia, Jan 7, (Agencies): A stomach injury to Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic has gifted Belgium a place in the mixed-teams Hopman Cup final Saturday against the United States. The Serbian pairing of Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic were top seeds and led Group A after winning two of their three round-robin ties, with Belgian duo Justine Henin and Ruben Bemelmans second despite beating the Serbs on Thursday. However, Ivanovic hurt her stomach in a straight sets singles loss to Henin and the injury recurred at practice on Friday. The 23-year-old underwent scans on Friday afternoon and was ruled out of the final in a major disruption to her Australian Open preparations. Ivanovic was due to play at the Sydney International next week, but the world number 17 has withdrawn with a strained abdominal muscle, tournament organisers said, as she battles to be fit for the year’s first Grand Slam later this month.

Hopman Cup tournament director Paul McNamee confirmed that Belgium would replace Serbia in the final and play the US pairing of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and John Isner. “The rules are very clear. In the round robin if a player can’t play they can be substituted by another player, but if a player cannot play the final, the team that is second-placed in the group goes through to the final,” he said. The injury not only threw Ivanovic’s Australian Open preparations into disarray, it meant Henin and Bemelmans were gifted a place in the final. The American pairing of Mattek-Sands and Isner only needed to win one rubber against Great Britain in their Group B tie on Friday to reach the final, which they duly claimed when the former beat teenager Laura Robson in the women’s singles. The US is the most successful Hopman Cup nation and will be aiming for a sixth title, while Belgium will be playing in their first final.

Mattek-Sands warmed up for her clash with Henin by making it three-from-three in her singles matches with an easy 6-4, 6-2 win over Robson, who appeared to be hampered by an upper right leg problem.
Andy Murray then squared the tie with an impressive 6-4, 6-2 win over Isner, before the British forfeited the mixed doubles due to Robson’s injury. There was also drama in the clash between Italy and France, with reigning French Open champion Francesca Schiavone retiring from her singles match due to an upper leg injury. Schiavone conceded at 4-4 in the first set against teenager Kristina Mladenovic, but tournament director Paul McNamee said the Frenchwoman was certain to be fit for the Australian Open.
Nicolas Mahut then secured the tie for France with a comfortable 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) win over an out-of-sorts Potito Starace, with the Italians forfeiting the dead mixed doubles.

At that stage France were still a chance of making the final, but Mattek-Sands’ win over Robson ended French hopes. In Doha, Rafael Nadal, who wants to win the Australian Open this month to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously, will be travelling there a day earlier than expected after a shock defeat in the Qatar Open semi-finals. The world number one looked tired, withdrawn, and ill as he slumped to a 6-3, 6-2 defeat to Nikolay Davydenko, the Russian defending champion who will tackle Roger Federer in Saturday’s final. The result was all the more remarkable since Davydenko’s wrist injury has prevented him reaching a final in the 19 tournaments since he beat Nadal in an amazing climax here last year. But Nadal did not look fit enough to take the court.

The Spaniard, who has been suffering from a fever all week, was pale, slow, and sweating profusely, and unable to impose the heavy physical game with which he batters and bombards most of his opponents into submission. His expression became increasingly perplexed as Davydenko stepped in and launched comfortable winner after winner, but it was not until Nadal was 2-0 down in the second set that he appeared to reach a similar conclusion himself. “I don’t have anything. I don’t have my game. I feel much more tired than usual,” he said after calling the doctor to the courtside. The reply came: “For now we can do nothing.” Nor could Nadal, except lose with disappointment and good grace. He clearly had not expected to feel as bad he did after battling through three matches with relative success while taking anti-biotics. “I had a fever a few days ago, so every day I think I’m going to feel a little bit better,” he had earlier said.

Nadal had also admitted that a combination of his ailment and anti-biotics might cause his game to lose power but believed it was more important “to keep having the right rhythm for the next weeks.” Whether that opinion was a wise one remains to be seen. The manner of his loss also brought into question his decision to play doubles in Qatar, in which he had to play three more matches en route to a final with his compatriot Marc Lopez. Davydenko was certainly surprised by Nadal’s problems.
“When I played him last year he had good form,” he said. “Today he felt different. Normally he is tougher and he plays stronger. I don’t mean his tennis, I mean physically.”

Nadal now has nine days before the Australian Open starts, and the best that can be said is that the setback has given him a little longer to recover from the flight and to acclimatise to the Melbourne heat.
But it denies the Qatar Open the final it wanted between the two greatest players of the modern era.
It also makes it increasingly likely that Federer will win his fifth title since losing at Wimbledon and taking a new coach Paul Annacone. Federer reached his seventh final in nine tournaments with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in which he moved into a high gear for the first time this week.
His game also appeared to have a slightly more attacking emphasis and he answered the challenge well when Tsonga began to play close to his brilliant best in the second set.

The Frenchman then struck the ball with real flair and had a brief glimpse of turning the match his way when he got to deuce on Federer’s serve in the sixth game. But that just raised the Grand Slam record holder to new heights, and he won his last 18 service points without reply. “It was a good match,” said Federer, who now has a good chance to win back the title he won in 2005 and 2006. “I played well.
“It became a high quality match in the second set and it was right that it went to a tie-break because Tsonga played well too.” For a man who spent much of 2010 with knee injury problems, defeat therefore had its compensations for the former Australian Open finalist who is looking forward to returning to the scene of his greatest success so far.

In Brisbane, Australia, top-seeded Robin Soderling beat Australian qualifier Matt Ebden 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals of the Brisbane International. The big-serving Swede will face Radek Stepanek, the 2009 Brisbane champion and last year’s runner-up, on Saturday. Stepanek beat Florian Mayer of Germany 6-3, 6-3. Defending champion Andy Roddick will face Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the other semifinal match. In the women’s tournament, Andrea Petkovic of Germany beat fourth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France 6-4, 6-2 to advance to Saturday’s final. She will face Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, who defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Stepanek said he felt he was in control against Mayer.

“I was facing a break point, so that was a little bit of an up-and-down game, but I was able to hold my serve and then I had 100 percent control of the whole match,” Stepanek said. “I didn’t let him come back.” The Czech’s strong run of results in Brisbane illustrates how much he enjoys the Australian Open warmup. “Everything suits me here,” Stepanek said. “Since the first tournament in 2009 I’ve felt on the court here very well. It’s always an honor, and when you win a tournament it’s obviously a favorite place (and somewhere) you want to go back.” In Chennai, India, top-seeded Tomas Berdych registered a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Slovenian Blaz Kavcic to advance to the semifinals of the Chennai Open.

Belgian Xavier Malisse also advanced to the last four, with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Bjorn Phau of Germany.
Sixth-ranked Berdych broke his 112th-ranked opponent in the fourth game and held on to take the first set. But the Czech had to battle in the second, which featured six breaks. Berdych, who beat Swiss Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic of Serbia on his way to the Wimbledon final last year, broke his opponent in the opening game and then held serve for a 2-0 lead. Kavcic managed a break of his own before evening the set at 2-2 but his serve let him down again, eventually allowing Berdych to wrap up the match. “In the beginning I was a little surprised at how he was playing. I had never played him before so it was a little tough to know what to expect,” Berdych said. “Still, I started pretty solid but then some mistakes crept into my game at the beginning of the second set. Maybe I was forcing my shots a little too much, especially from the side playing with the wind. I needed to be a little bit more patient,” he added. Seventh-seeded Malisse won his match in 72 minutes.

“I played really well from the start of the match. We had a long game at 2-0 in the first set which I managed to win and after that it was tough for him to come back,” the 60th-ranked Belgian said.
In Hong Kong, injury-stricken Venus Williams crashed to a second defeat in as many days in Hong Kong as her preparation for the Australian Open was overshadowed by questions over her fitness. The seven-time Grand Slam winner was seen clutching her stomach as she was dismissed in straight sets by the Chinese ace Li Na in the World Team Challenge Friday. Williams played her cards close to her chest after the match as she was quizzed about her physical condition ahead of the year’s first Grand Slam starting Jan 17.

Asked about the apparent stomach problem in a post-match press conference she appeared to avoid the question, saying: “I just tried my best and just pushed myself to play my best tennis.” Williams, 30, suffered a nagging left knee injury last year, being forced into a long lay-off after losing to eventual champion Kim Clijsters in the US Open semi-finals in September. She had not played before that since falling in the Wimbledon quarter-finals in June. Asked how her knee was bearing up, she replied, without elaborating: “I’m okay, thanks.” On court Williams had the balance in the baseline battle early on, despite playing well below her best, but her opponent was more consistent, hitting more winners and aggressively attacking the American’s second serve.

“I enjoy playing here, I love the fans here supporting me. I’m looking forward to coming back next year,” Li said after the match. Li, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open and quarter-finalist at Wimbledon, looked the more composed for much of the match, taking the ball cleanly and stepping into every shot. Li, who led China to the Asian Games women’s tennis team gold in November, vowed Friday to improve her game in the Australian Open by presenting a “poker face” to her opponents and showing no emotion on court.

The Hong Kong exhibition, which ends Saturday, features four three-player teams representing Europe, Russia, the Americas and Asia Pacific. The consolation silver group final, between the Americas and Asia Pacific, consists of three singles matches, and one doubles match being played Saturday. Earlier US world number 61 Melanie Oudin made up for a disappointing defeat Thursday by dismissing Hong Kong’s top woman Zhang Ling in straight sets.

Oudin broke Zhang twice in the first set and three times in the second for a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 victory.
But Team Asia Pacific nudged ahead through Mark Philippoussis of Australia who beat seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe of the United States 6-4, 6-4 in the “legends” rubber. In the final clash of the evening, world number 20 Maria Kirilenko beat France’s Aravane Rezai 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to give second-seeded Russia the edge over top seeds Europe in the gold group final with two singles rubbers and a mixed doubles to come on Saturday.