Marat Safin overcame a shaky start to beat 15th-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 Sunday in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters. The two-time Grand Slam champion led 4-1 before losing the first set, but recovered to break Nieminen in the sixth game of the second set, and save break points in the fourth and sixth games of the third.

Sweden will play the United States in the Davis Cup semifinals at the Scandinavium Arena on Sept. 21-23. The surface has not yet been selected, but the Swedish Tennis Federation said Thursday it is likely to pick a similar fast surface to the one used last weekend in a 4-1 quarterfinal win over Argentina.

Only three women ranked in the top 10 will compete in the first round of the Fed Cup — and they’ll all be playing for Russia. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze officially were chosen Wednesday to represent Russia against Spain on indoor clay in Moscow, the International Tennis Federation announced.

Former U.S. Davis Cup player Taylor Dent had back surgery for the second time in a year and hopes to return to the tennis tour by the end of the summer hard-court circuit. Dent was ranked as high as 21st in 2005, but he hurt his back in early 2006 and had surgery last May, then again March 19. “I hope to be back on the court in the next four or five months,” Dent said in a statement released Tuesday…

Second-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero advanced Tuesday to the second round of the Valencia Open after defeating Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-3, 6-1. Ferrero broke his opponent four times and saved all seven break points he faced. Defending champion Nicolas Almagro defeated Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1.

France’s Marion Bartoli advanced to the second round of the Family Circle Cup on Monday, beating Shenay Perry 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. The 13th-seeded Bartoli set up a match against Spain’s Lourdes Dominguez Lino, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Vania King. In other first-round matches, ninth-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia beat France’s Nathalie Dechy, 6-4, 6-4, and Ashley Harkleroad edged Laura Granville 2-6, 7-5,…

Unseeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia used his big serve to upset German Benjamin Becker 7-5, 7-6 (3) on Monday in the first round of the U.S. Clay Court Tennis Championships. The tournament also lost its top seed Monday when Andy Roddick withdrew because of a hamstring injury that he “tweaked” again in Davis Cup play last week.

Top-seeded Andy Roddick withdrew from the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships on Monday because of a hamstring injury that he aggravated in Davis Cup play last week. Roddick, ranked No. 3, injured his left hamstring while lunging for a shot in a quarterfinal match at the Sony Ericsson Open in Florida late last month and was forced to retire.

The Monte Carlo clay-court tennis tournament sued the ATP Tour in federal court Monday, arguing that dropping the event from the Masters Series would violate antitrust laws. The German Tennis Federation filed a similar suit in the same court last month, trying to block the ATP from downgrading the Hamburg Masters tournament.

Martina Hingis withdrew from the Family Circle Cup on Saturday because of a hip injury, the latest star to pull out of the tournament. Hingis, ranked No. 6, said she hurt her left hip this past week. The clay-court tournament begins next week. “I have been working as hard as possible to be in competitive shape for the tournament but unfortunately have not recovered enough,” the Swiss star said in a…

Former U.S. Open finalist Greg Rusedski retired Saturday after winning a Davis Cup doubles match to give Britain a 3-0 lead and move into the World Group playoffs. “It was a proud moment as it’s going to be my last match,” said the 33-year-old Rusedski, who teamed with Jamie Murray to beat Robin Haase and Rogier Wassen of the Netherlands 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Germany beat Belgium in doubles Saturday and qualified for the Davis Cup semifinals with an insurmountable 3-0 lead. Alexander Waske and Michael Kohlmann beat Olivier and Christophe Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, to lead Germany to its first Davis Cup semifinal in 12 years. Because of Saturday’s victory, the reverse singles Sunday won’t alter the overall result.

Tommy Haas and Davis Cup rookie Philipp Kohlschreiber gave Germany a 2-0 lead Friday against Belgium in the competition’s quarterfinals. Haas rallied to beat Kristof Vliegen 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 to give Germany a 1-0 lead. Kohlschreiber, ranked 60th in the world, then defeated Olivier Rochus 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (4).

Russia and France were even at 1-1 Friday after the opening singles matches in the Davis Cup quarterfinals. Paul-Henri Mathieu rallied to beat Nikolay Davydenko 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 7-5, but an ailing Mikhail Youzhny then downed Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (8), 5-7, 8-6 in a nearly five-hour marathon to tie the best-of-five series.

Thomas Johansson beat David Nalbandian 6-7 (3), 7-6 (2), 6-2, 7-6 (0) on Friday to give Sweden a 1-0 lead over 2006 finalist Argentina in the Davis Cup quarterfinals. Robin Soderling of Sweden faced Juan Martin del Potro in the second singles match later Friday. Johansson relied on his big first serve to win the fourth-set tiebreaker and end the match after 3 hours, 43 minutes on fast carpet at the…