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 World number six Juan Martin del Potro has withdrawn because of fatigue having lost to Andy Murray on Sunday in the final of the Montreal Masters.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.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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