Tennis: Bates beaten from the baseline

Jeremy Bates made a dreadful start, dropping his first three service games, and lost the final of the Irish Open 6-3, 7-5 to Italy's Paolo Cane in Dublin yesterday. His previous opponents this week had all attempted to take him on from the net, but this time he was outplayed from the baseline. After dropping the first set in 35 minutes, Bates had three break points in the third game of the second but Cane took the game after seven deuces. At 6-5 the Italian broke to 15 to lift the title after 84 minutes. In Sydney the unseeded Peruvian Jaime Yzaga added Goran Ivanisevic to his list of victims at the Australian Indoor Championships when he beat the defending champion 6-3, 6-4 in 54 minutes to reach the final. Petr Korda, of the Czech Republic, beat the unseeded South African Wayne Ferreira 6-3, 6-2 in his semi-final.

(Photograph omitted)