Tennis: Dent loses in third round at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia - Newport Beach’s Taylor Dent, who received a

wild card in the main draw of the Australian Open, reached the third

round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his professional tennis

career, but was defeated today in five sets by Romania’s Adrian Voinea,

3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

The match, which ended at 10:25 p.m. local time Thursday night,

featured one of only four Americans still alive in the men’s singles

draw.

In the second round Wednesday, Dent won on center court, defeating No.

31-seeded Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in 1:22.

Prior to the Australian Open, Dent was ranked 106th in the world.

Dent, 20, was the 1996 CIF Southern Section singles champion as a

Corona del Mar High freshman, his only year of high school tennis. He

turned pro two years later.

Dent’s father, Phil, was an Australian Open finalist in 1974, losing

to Jimmy Connors.

In his third-round match, Dent, who is competing without a coach this

year on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour, had his serve

broken by Voinea in the sixth game of the fifth set, as Voinea went up,

4-2, before closing out the match. Dent finished with 35 unforced errors;

Voinea had 25.