Borg and Connors still calling the shots
Jimmy Connors, now 42, beat his old Swedish rival Bjorn Borg, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 to win the final of the Mentadent Champions 35 and over event in Dearborn, Michigan, on Monday.
Connors (above right), who has been given a wild card for this week's Los Angeles ATP event, has won 13 of the 15 events since the Champions Tour began in 1993. In the semi-finals Connors beat his American compatriot Johan Kriek while the 39-year-old Borg (left) defeated Andres Gomez, the 1990 French Open champion from Ecuador.
Connors will be hoping to last longer than Greg Rusedski did in Los Angeles. Britain's new No 1 went down 7-5, 6-4 to the seventh-seeded Russian, Alexander Volkov. Rusedski, who will be 22 next Sunday, was also beaten in the first round at the Canadian Open last week. Croatia's Goran Ivanisevic, the top seed, opens against the Dane Kenneth Carlsen.
India is to host its first ATP Tour men's tournament. It will replace the Nice Open which has traditionally started the clay-court season in Europe but has now lost its main sponsor.
"They decided they could no longer go on," a Tour spokesman said yesterday. "The tournament in New Delhi will be the first ATP Tour event to take place in India," he added. It will be played on a quick surface.
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