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Magnus mows down Draper Norman, Stoltenberg, Sekulov win openers at AATP
Posted: Monday January 03, 2000 02:43 PM
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- Third-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden beat crowd favorite Scott Draper of Australia 6-4, 6-4 Monday in an opening match at the $350,000 AAPT tennis championships at Memorial Drive. After bowing out of the first round, Draper said his mental toughness on court had not improved since he lost his first match at the U.S. Open last August, weeks after his wife Kellie's death from cystic fibrosis. While he described his loss as "not too bad" after a four-month layoff, he said he had no idea how to rev up his motivation. "It's a question of getting out there and feeling the hunger and the motivation, the discipline to play tough matches," Draper said. "I still haven't found it and I'm still trying to find it, I don't know how long it's going to take." Norman said he was pleased with his first outing this year after a strong 1999 in which he rose to world No. 15 with an ATP Tour-high five titles. "I haven't felt this good mentally and physically in a few years ... I feel pretty confident," Norman said. While Draper dropped out, fellow Australians Jason Stoltenberg and James Sekulov advanced to the second round. In the tournament's first upset, Stoltenberg knocked out fourth seed Slovak Dominik Hrbaty with a 6-3, 6-1 win. Ranked No. 80 and unseeded, Stoltenberg outclassed his competitor with a sleek display of perfectly-placed shots and a inning match strategy of keeping points short and moving in from the baseline. Sekulov defeated Italian veteran Gianluca Pozzi 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Other winners Monday were Spaniard Alberto Marin, Switzerland's Roger Federer and Czech Slava Dosedel.
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