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Off-Court |
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PAVEL RETIRES
"I have no regrets
and am very proud of my career,” said 35-year-old Pavel, after losing to Pablo
Cuevas of Uruguay. “I was surprised at my performance, having been
Davis Cup captain indoors in Sweden last week. I didn’t practise as
much as I would have liked beforehand, but I enjoyed it. It will be
nice not to chase rankings points anymore.” Pavel won three ATP World
Tour singles titles (3-6 overall), including one ATP World Tour Masters 1000
title at the 2001 Rogers Cup, when he beat Andy Roddick, Tommy Haas and Patrick
Rafter. He also captured six doubles trophies from 11 finals. "I had two beautiful
moments in my career,” he said. “I enjoyed Davis Cup and also clinching
the Masters [1000] title at Montreal in 2001, beating the top guys there [d.
Rafter in final]. When I played Davis Cup in France, I carried
the flag and received a five-minute standing ovation.” Pavel made his Davis Cup
debut for Romania in 1991 and went on to amass a 40-22 record (32-15 in
singles) in 27 ties. He was appointed the nation’s Davis Cup captain in
2009. He also represented
Romania at the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens summer Olympic Games
and finished in the Top 100 on nine occasions in 10 years, until a back
injury hindered his career in the past couple of years. “I have moved my family
[wife Simone, daughter Caroline Elena and son Marius] over to the United
States and I will try to open a tennis academy with a very good friend of
mine,” he said. “At the same time I will also help to develop Romanian
tennis, which is not an easy job, but there is a lot of talent and hopefully
we can manage it and give them experience at an earlier age.” As a junior competitor in
1992, he captured the Roland Garros title (d. Mose Navarra) and reached
the Wimbledon semi-finals. Picture
Fotosports International |
Mr DOKIC TO FACE RETRIAL
September 23 - Damir Dokic, the
50 year-old the father of Jelena Dokic, is to face a retrial ordered because
the Australian ambassador Claire
Birgin was unavailable for his original trial regarding threats he made
against in Serbia, Last June, having been found guilty of ‘endangering the
security’ of the ambassador in Belgrade as well as unlawful possession of
weapons, including a hand grenade, was sentenced to 15 months in jail but
because Birgin didn’t testify and was only represented by her lawyer , a
retrial has been called in Ruma, a town 30 miles northwest of |Bucharest. "We expect justice from the court and that Damir
will be a free man," Bosiljka Djukic, his lawyer said before the court
proceedings started. Mr Dokic was arrested in May after reportedly saying he
would blow up Birgin's car with a rocket launcher if she didn't stop negative
articles about him from being published in Australia where his daughter
Jelena had given interviews to the Australian media, saying her father had
beaten her. Jelena, who burst on to the tennis scene in 1999 aged
16 when she beat the then World No 1 Martina Hingis at Wimbledon, has been
shadowed for years by rumours of her father's abuse. Coaches and team-mates
told of hearing her being hit in her hotel room and of seeing bruises on her.
Picture
Fotosports International. |
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