Leandro De Itaquera

Being given the run-around, 7-6, 6-3, by the American Paul Goldstein in the first round of the Samsung Open here seemed a fitting conclusion. This time last year, Rusedski had two things on his mind: his wedding to his fiancée, Lucy, and a new start to his career after surgery to remove bone spurs and a cyst from his right foot. Unfortunately, his game never really got off the ground after further injury setbacks. "Everybody has a really tough year in their career, but I've tried to battle through, and next year I've got nothing to defend," the British No 2 said.Encouraged by his improved fitness - "I feel really good" - Rusedski has decided to cut his losses during the clay court season next year by only entering the Italian Open and the French Open. "I want to have a good Wimbledon," he said, recalling with a shudder his first-round defeat last June, which enabled the American Vince Spadea to end a losing streak of 21 matches.Having finished the year placed No 69 in the ATP Tour entry system for tournaments and seedings, Rusedski draws inspiration from Andre Agassi's climb from No 141 in November 1997 to No 1 at the end of last year.

"I can't compare my ability to Andre's, " Rusedski acknowledged, "but he showed what can be done."Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion, will begin working with Rusedski at London's Queen's Club next Monday, and they will travel to Cash's tennis academy at Surfers Paradise, near Brisbane, before Christmas to prepare for the Australian Open."Working with Pat is not going to be an every-week thing, but he'll be with me at all the majors," Rusedski said. "I don't think I need a coach on a weekly basis, but somebody who can set things up."You just need someone who knows what it's like to win a major. I've been on the Tour for nearly 10 years now, and every player wants to win a major I think Pat's pretty relaxed And he's a serve and volleyer, and that helps as well.

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He worked well with Mark Philippoussis, getting him to the US Open final."John McEnroe's criticism of the Davis Cup scheduling and format when announcing his resignation as the United States captain has prompted a response from the president of the International Tennis Federation, Francesco Ricci Bitti."I was sorry to read that John McEnroe has resigned as US Davis Cup captain citing the difficulties that he experienced in motivating the top American players to represent the United States during the 2000 competition," Ricci Bitti said in a statement."The ITF, as the owner and the guardian of the century-old Davis Cup, has always been open to consider any legitimate suggestion that can improve the competition. As part of the review process, the Davis Cup Committee weighs the pros and cons of any proposal and, to date, any suggested change has been thought by the Davis Cup Committee to have many more negatives than positives."Let me point out that, while the Davis Cup has a four-week schedule, only the two finalists made a four-week commitment to the competition, while most nations have only a two-week commitment during any given year This should be looked at in its proper context. The four Grand Slams take only eight weeks of the calendar while there are over 30 weeks of tournaments on the ATP Tour."In Adelaide, Australian officials say the strength of the US dollar could force smaller ATP Tour events to fold and players forced to accept less prize- money.

Colin Stubs, who runs the hard-court championships in Adelaide in January - the first fixture on the men's calendar - said ATP events in countries with weaker currencies were finding it difficult to come up with enticing prize-money pools.Stubs said an alternative way of calculating prize-money, the basis of a five-year average of a number of currencies - including the French franc, British pound, German mark, and Australian dollar - against the U.S dollar, would be put to tour organisers at the Tennis Masters Cup in Lisbon next week.. Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) stepped up checks yesterday to ensure that beef contaminated with "mad cow" disease does not enter the food chain from France. Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) stepped up checks yesterday to ensure that beef contaminated with "mad cow" disease does not enter the food chain from France. Last night the FSA ordered local authorities to make spot checks on documentation relating to imported beef to ensure it conformed to the anti-BSE measures aimed at protecting the British consumer. The agency also confirmed that it would press the European Commission to introduce compulsory labelling of all meat products so that consumers were told which country the beef came from.Sir John Krebs, the chairman of the FSA, said that the British Government had accepted the need to tighten up regulations designed to stop French beef from cattle over 30 months of age from being sold in Britain."The most significant measures for consumer protection in relation to imports are the over-30-month rule and the specified risk material rules that reduce the risk of BSEinfected beef from entering the food chain," he said. "We have made it clear in our review of the BSE controls that the over-30-month rules are difficult to police on imports, especially in relation to meat products."Local authorities bear the main responsibility for enforcing regulations governing the sale of imported beef.

"These new measures will require them to step up their activities and report monthly," Sir John said.The FSA said it would conduct a "vigorous audit" of the way local authorities carried out their enforcement, particularly in relation to identifying beef from cattle over 30 months.The agency has written to the French authorities to ask how they ensure that beefbanned for sale in France does not end up in Britain. In its draft report the FSA called for better country of origin labelling, which the Government now accepts. However, this needs European agreement before it can be enforced.. The owner of a dental clinic where a 10-year-old boy suffered a cardiac arrest during a tooth extraction and later died was struck off the dentists' register yesterday.

The owner of a dental clinic where a 10-year-old boy suffered a cardiac arrest during a tooth extraction and later died was struck off the dentists' register yesterday. Maurice Beckett, from Blackpool, ran the Peffermill Clinic in Edinburgh where Darren Denholm underwent surgery on 9 October, 1998.The General Dental Council committee chairman, Trevor Griffiths, told him: "Both the profession and the public expect high standards of conduct from dentists. The committee is very concerned about the facts that have been submitted and proved against you in this case."In particular, the committee is concerned about arrangements made to obtain informed consent, failure to ensure that the systems you put into place in your practice were sufficient to protect your patients, and failure to conform to the standards of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for those who worked at the Peffermill Clinic as were appropriate in 1998."Hallgier Pedersen, 41, of Linlithgow, West Lothian - who performed the extraction - was found not guilty of serious professional misconduct.Paul Shields, who was Darren's local dentist and referred him for treatment to the clinic, was also found not guilty of serious professional misconduct.The anaesthetist in the case, Dr John Evans-Appiah, was recently struck off at a General Medical Council hearing.Darren's mother, Isla Denholm, 46, of Armadale, West Lothian, said she was very happy with the outcome. "After Darren died I began to learn the facts and my goals were for Dr Evans-Appiah and Maurice Beckett to be erased [from the register], and I believe justice has been done."I believe that Mr Shields was just caught up in this and Mr Pedersen was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said."A lot of things have changed since Darren died and it's very sad that Darren had to die for this to happen.". Oscar Wilde, author, raconteur and wit, died not as is widely thought of syphilis but of ear ache he contracted as an Oxford undergraduate, two doctors suggest. Oscar Wilde, author, raconteur and wit, died not as is widely thought of syphilis but of ear ache he contracted as an Oxford undergraduate, two doctors suggest. For the centenary of the 19th-century writer's death, marked next week, the doctors are proposing a new theory about his final illness. Writing in The Lancet, Dr Ashley Robins and Professor Sean Sellars of the University of Cape Town say that a medical certificate detailing Wilde's treatment during his last days shows that he died of meningoencephalitis, a brain disease similar to meningitis caused by a chronic middle-ear infection.