Guga Out, Record Four Spaniards in Men's Quarterfinals at Roland Garros



Posted on June 4, 2003

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
T-Rob. must have been pissed off when, after beating No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, the Aussie said Robredo wouldn't get out of the next round. So on Monday the No. 28-seeded Robredo took it a step further, beating No. 15 seed and three-time champion Gustavo Kuerten. "I've beaten the ace, I've beaten the king," Robredo said, referring to Hewitt and Guga, and looking forward to playing the defending champion Costa. "Now I need to beat the jack, don't I? If I beat Costa, I'll have beaten the entire deck of cards." Guga looked to be feeling the effects of his long match with Gaston Gaudio earlier in the tournament, and was run ragged by the Robredo drop shot. "At the end of the match, it was easier for me to make a drop shot than to hit the ball hard," Robredo said. "When I was trying to hit, the ball was going two meters out, so that was a good tactic at the end." Robredo was one of a slam-record four Spaniards into the quarters, with (3)Ferrero rolling over countryman Felix Mantilla 6-2, 6-1, 6-1, (9)Costa efficient in dispatching of (32)Clement 6-2, 7-5, 7-5, and Carlos Moya also in the quarters. (7)Coria won the all-Argentinean match-up with Mariano Zabaleta 6-3 in the fifth in a resumed match, and Chile's (19)Gonzalez punished Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Only two men's singles matches on Tuesday, with (2)Agassi vs. (7)Coria (Agassi leads the head-to-head 2-0, punishing The Wizard twice on hardcourt, including earlier this year at the Aussie Open) and (4)Moya vs. the unseeded Verkerk (first meeting). Indian doubles greats (and great enemies) Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will be on court, albeit with other partners, with (2)Bhupathi/Mirnyi vs. (5)Paes/Rikl.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
The women had the day off in singles, but many of the top players were involved in doubles upsets, with (11)Husarova/Schett ousting (5)Dokic/Petrova, (9)Hantuchova/Rubin beating (6)Kuznetsova/Navratilova, (12)Dechy/Loit upending (7)Mandula/Wartusch, and Bovina/Molik advancing over (3)Davenport/Raymond with a walkover (foot injury for Lindsey).
Singles today on the women's side includes all four quarterfinals in (1)Serena vs. (5)Mauresmo, (2)Clijsters vs. (24)Martinez, (4)Henin-Hardenne vs. (8)Rubin, and (22)Zvonareva vs. Petrova in an all-Russian match-up.

X-MAIL
From "G" in Austin, Texas, USA:
"Hey there, I love your site and the daily commentary from Roland Garros. I just recently encountered it in the last month. I just wanted to let you know that here in Austin, Texas, we DO get the Tennis Channel. It started here on Memorial Day. It is hysterical beyond belief. It is like watching cable back in the late '70s, early '80s, where it can be a bit grainy and dark at times and they run this HUGE ticker at the bottom that they must've bought off of eBay....The Dennis Van der Meer Tennis lesson are a riot too, especially the one-minute ones they show because they haven't sold enough commercial time. Well, at least they are finally up and running..."

X-Editors: Hey G, thanks for the update. That's like hearing someone spotted a UFO, proof positive the Tennis Channel exists. We're taking up a staff collection to run a grainy '70s-style Tennis-X commercial on their feed, the way they're progressing we figure it should only cost $25-30 bucks.

TOUR NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Big news of course is that based on the results of our Tennis-X poll, Andy Roddick has decided to bag Tarik Benhabiles. Roddick, who has had trouble beating anyone ranked above or below him of late, has joined up with tennis super-mind Brad Gilbert for a trail basis. Gilbert is already with Roddick in England preparing for the grass season...Fernando Gonzalez will be appearing in his second career slam quarterfinal, having reached the round of eight at last year's US Open; he next faces Juan Carlos Ferrero in a re-match of the 1998 Roland Garros boy's singles final (Gonzalez defeated Ferrero for the title)...Jarkko Nieminen paid the price for his week #1 marathons, spending more than nine hours on court in his three previous matches before losing to Fernando Gonzalez...Coria did not serve an ace in his five-set win over countryman Mariano "Still Not a New Ball" Zabaleta on Monday; Coria has won 18 of his last 21 matches...Vera "Warren" Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova meet today in a rivalry that began a decade ago when Petrova, then a 10-year-old, beat 8-year-old Zvonareva 6-0, 6-0...Petrova's mother, Nadejda Llina, was a bronze medallist in the 1976 Montreal Olympics in the 400-meter relay, while her father, Victor Petrov, was a top-level hammer thrower...A transport strike in France is set to paralyze Paris in the coming days, according to Reuters...Brother Al Costa has spent approximately 15 hours on court thus far at Roland Garros, the tank has to be running low...Coria's trainer, Alberto Mancini, beat an 18-year-old Andre Agassi in Rome, so he should be able to toss a couple pearls to Coria...The last American to win the boy's singles at the French was John McEnroe in 1977...The United States leads all nations with nine players ranked in the Top 50 of this week's ITF World Junior boys' singles rankings, the most Americans ever listed in the Top 50 at one time...Spain has four men in the quarterfinals of a slam for the first time since the Open era began in 1968...Martin Verkerk is playing in his first career Roland Garros...Andre Agassi will play in his 999th career match today…Agassi has won 9 consecutive sets since going down 0-2 to Ancic…Agassi will return to No. 1 by reaching the final…Coria has won 18 of his last 21 matches, and has won 10 straight…Martina Navaratilova and Kuznetsova fell in doubles yesterday to Stick Girl and Rubin…We don't get it, why were nearly 1,500 fans packed in Court 7 to watch a cheesy Kim Clijsters doubles match. Guess that's grounds pass land…John McEnroe and Michael Stich are teaming in the senior doubles, and they won their first round match Monday…For the first time in Slam history, four Spaniards have advanced to a Slam quarterfinals…Russia has never had a women's slam winner, and only Olga Morozova has ever reached a final ('74 Roland Garros, '74 Wimbledon)…Serena has won 32 straight slam matches, but she's still 13 short of Martina's record of 45…The players are complaining the balls are heavy…STAT DU JOUR: Fernando Gonzalez has won 20 of his last 21 sets…WEATHER: Rain early, rain late, just lots of rain…TV TIME: ESPN comes on a 8am live with women's quarters then the men.