Keothavong suffers early Fed Cup defeat

THE pressure was on Elena Baltacha to haul Great Britain back into contention in their Fed Cup group last night after Anne Keothavong lost to Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands in the opening singles rubber in Eilat, Israel.

Judy Murray’s team had emphatically beaten Portugal in their opening Group C match on Wednesday, but they suffered an early setback against the Dutch as British No 2 Keothavong surprisingly lost 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to a player ranked 66 places below her in the world rankings.

In a nervy first set, Keothavong was broken in the sixth game, which proved enough for Schoofs to go ahead, but the Briton battled back in the second to claim it on a tie-break, despite going an early break behind. However, Schoofs quickly opened a 2-0 lead in the decider and never looked back to put her country 1-0 up.

Murray was now hoping that her fellow Scot Baltacha could beat the No 1 Netherlands player Michaella Krajicek in the second singles to level the tie.

The Dutch had lost their opening tie to hosts Israel, and defeat for Britain would leave their hopes of progressing to the weekend’s play-offs hanging in the balance.

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal says his fiscal requirements are up to date after a Spanish website reported the Australian Open finalist had set up several companies to trim his tax bill. Spanish website Primeran says Nadal created companies in the Basque region to take advantage of a local tax rule to drop the amount of income tax he would have to pay from image rights. Spanish media reported yesterday that Basque tax authorities were investigating.

Nadal issued a statement acknowledging the existence of the companies, which had been transferred to his home residence of the Balearic Islands. Nadal says he gained “no benefit,” while the companies mentioned “are up to date with the payment of all tax obligations”.

Elsewhere, defending champion Gael Monfils finished off Michael Russell of the United States with his 17th ace in winning 6-3, 6-3 to reach the Open Sud de France quarter- finals.

Russell double-faulted to drop serve at 3-3 and lost the opening set on a forehand error. The third-seeded Monfils capitalised on a backhand error from Russell to break for a 3-1 lead in the second set.

The top-seeded Tomas Berdych cruised past French qualifier Florent Serra 6-0, 6-2 in another second-round match.

Berdych broke Serra five times to set up a match against Nicolas Mahut of France, who beat sixth-seeded Florian Mayer 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Mahut jumped out to 4-1 in the tiebreaker and took the first set when Mayer double-faulted. He broke the German twice in the final set to clinch victory.