Tuesday, August 18, 2009 OHIO: Gilles Simon of France advanced to the second round of the Cincinnati Masters with a 6-3 6-2 victory over American Wayne Odesnik. OhioSimon, the ninth seed, was the highest-ranked player in action on Monday as the top eight seeds all received byes. France's Gael Monfils, the 13th seed, lost 6-4 6-7 7-6 to Croat Ivo Karlovic. World number six Juan Martin del Potro has withdrawn because of fatigue having lost to Andy Murray on Sunday in the final of the Montreal Masters. After taking the first set thanks to one break, Karlovic led 5-4 in the second-set tiebreak, with two serves to come, but Monfils reeled off three superb points in a row to force a decider. The Frenchman saved three break points in the fourth game of the third set but Karlovic played a better tie-break to move through to a clash with another Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu, a 6-7 7-5 6-3 winner over German Mischa Zverev. Simon will now play Russian Igor Andreev, who beat Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 6-1 7-5. Croatia's 14th seed Marin Cilic beat former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3 6-4. He will play David Ferrer of Spain in the second round after he beat Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 7-5 6-2.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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