Gambale's U.S. Open foe revealed

If Billerica's young tennis ace, Mary Gambale, makes it to the second round of the U.S. Open next week, she's likely to have a match to remember.

Her second-round opponent, barring a monumental
upset, would be the top-seeded and top-ranked Russian champion, Maria Sharapova.

First, however, Gambale has to get past her first-round opponent, the lesser-known Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar, which will be no easy task.

Randriantefy, 28, is ranked 48th in the world in singles. She turned pro in 1994 and has earned $608,849 in prize money, including $119,363 in singles play this year.

She has played in 19 Grand Slam events, advancing to the third round of the U.S. Open once and the second round once in four tries.

Gambale, 16, is ranked 245th in singles. She turned pro last year and has made $18,619 in prize money, including $11,898 in singles this year.

This will be Gambale's first foray into the main draw of a Grand Slam event. She qualified by winning the USTA 18-under championship in California earlier this month.

Solo rower in Indian Ocean attempt

A UKRAINIAN rower plans to set off today on a solo crossing of the Indian Ocean from Western Australia to Madagascar.

Theodore Rezvoy, 37, is due to leave Carnarvon today in his boat, Ukraine, for the 6882km journey to Diego Suarez.

If he succeeds, he will become only the third person to have completed that route.

Mr Rezvoy is dedicating his bid to fellow ocean rower Paul McCarthy, an Australian air force medical officer who was killed in the Sea King helicopter crash on the Indonesian Island of Nias this year.

The 30-year-old was one of nine Australians who died while attempting to deliver aid to the earthquake devastated region on April 2.

Mr Rezvoy crossed the Atlantic in 2001 at the same time as Squadron Leader McCarthy, who was the senior medical officer at RAAF Base Pearce in WA prior to his death.

Recent attempts to row across the Indian Ocean have ended with rescue missions.

In May, Russian twins Sergey and Alexander Sinelnik, 31, were rescued as they struggled to row 7400km from WA to Tanzania in a wooden boat.

They aborted their mission after losing two of three anchors and after their water desalinator failed.

In June 2003, Rob Abernethy, 31, and Mike Noel-Smith, 45, were rescued after their seven-metre boat, Transventure, was damaged in heavy seas, more than 2400km off the West Australian coast.

Mr Noel-Smith suffered concussion, a broken nose and eye damage when he was knocked out while adjusting the boat's rudder.

In 2003, Mr Rezvoy undertook an attempt to row from New York to Europe but had an encounter with the US navy missile-carrier USS Doyle that left his boat damaged and ended that journey.