Agassi Plays, Wins 1,000th Career Match; Kafelnikov Dumped on Grass at Halle

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
No. 2-seeded Andre Agassi celebrated his 1,000th career match with a win Tuesday at Queen's, beating Aussie Peter Luczak on the lawns in straights. "When I first started, I wouldn't have thought any of my 1,000 matches would have been on grass," said Agassi, who avoided Wimbledon early in his career. "It's amazing to look back on everything. There's not a lot that can go on that I haven't seen before. But it always feels fresh and new." Other seeds advancing were (3)Roddick (d. (Q)De Voest in first win under "Coach Beeg"), (7)Henman (d. Sanguinetti in a shaky third set breaker, saving a match point), (8)Malisse (d. (Q)Karlovic), (11)Dent (d. Kendrick), and (12)Mirnyi (d. (Q)Bastl); the only upset on the day was No. 4 seed Paradorn Srichaphan (l. to Ancic), who continues to demonstrate he is clueless on anything but a hardcourt. Brazilian Andre Sa also ended his 16-match losing streak with a win over qualifier Gilles Elseneer, bet he hit the pub after that one. Seeds in action today are (6)Schalken vs. T.Martin, (1)Hewitt vs. Sluiter, Kratochvil vs. (8)Grosjean, (10)Gambill vs. qualifier and former Wimbledon junior winner Todd Reid, the semi-retired Rosset vs. (9)Nieminen, (12)Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. Saulnier, Cecil "No. 3 on the Tennis-X Bottom 10" Mamiit vs. (11)Dent, with un-seeds Krajicek and Rusedski also on court.
In Halle, top-seeded Roger Federer fought off a set point before subduing Sargis Sargsian in straight sets, with the Armenian lending a choking hand with a few key double faults. "I think he helped me get back into the match. He should have won that first set," said Federer, coming off his first round exit at Roland Garros. "After that I got into my rhythm." Other seeds advancing were (6)Youzhny (d. Mathieu, who retired in the third set with the flu), and (8)Clement (d. (Q)Niemeyer), while three-time Halle champion and No. 4 seed Yevgeny "Can't the ATP Force Me to Retire?" Kafelnikov went down in a third set tiebreak (where he led 4-1) to career nemesis Karol "The Little Cat" Kucera, who himself ended a six-match losing streak. Kafelnikov and Kucera put on a three-hour woman-like backcourt display on the grass, demonstrating why the Russian never won at Wimbledon. Hey Yevgeny, you're a former No. 1 and one of the best doubles players in the game, perhaps think about getting to the net? On court today in singles are Lopez vs. Kiefer, Stepanek vs. (2)Schuettler, (3)Novak vs. Koubek, Bjorkman vs. (6)Youzhny, and Santoro vs. Vahaly to finish (rained out yesterday).

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Play was abandoned at 5 p.m. yesterday in Birmingham due to rain, after a flurry of qualifiers won main draw matches, including (Q)Sharapova (d. Koulikovskaya), (Q)Lee (d. Weingartner), (Q)Snyder (d. Morariu), (Q)Tu (d. (Q)Yoshida), and (Q)Vento-Kabchi (d. (12)Bedanova). Another seeded casualty was (4)Bovina (l. to Asagoe), while (6)Raymond (d. Rodionova) moved into the third round. Highlights in singles today in Birmingham are O'Donoghue vs. Maleeva, Tu vs. Daniilidou, Dementieva vs. Snyder, Likhovtseva vs. Foretz, Razzano vs. Stevenson, Dechy vs. Sharapova, Perebiynis vs. Granville, and Pisnik vs. Ad. Serra Zanetti.
On the dirt in Vienna the seeds and the qualifiers had their way Tuesday, with winners including (3)Pistolesi, (4)Farina Elia, (5)Suarez, (Q)Fislova (d. Majoli 6-0, 6-1), (Q)Ani, and (Q)Sprem. On court today are more scintillating dirt matches during the grasscourt season in Sprem vs. Pistolesi, Ani vs. Zvonareva, Wartusch vs. Suarez, Dokic vs. Grant, Husarova vs. Chladkova, Farina Elia vs. Koukalova, Matevzic vs. Fislova, and Barna vs. Fernandez.

ATP TOP 10 WINNING PERCENTAGE
Felix Mantilla bumps Marcelo Rios out of the Top 10 winning percentages on the year, while Juan Carlos Fererro (with almost twice as many matches) advances on the leaders (minimum 18 matches, through Sunday, June 8, 2003):
1. Agassi, Andre (USA) 27-3 .900
2. Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) 23-4 .852
3. Ferrero, Juan Carlos (ESP) 40-7 .851
4. Federer, Roger (SUI) 38-9 .809
5. Moya, Carlos (ESP) 36-11 .766
6. Coria, Guillermo (ARG) 32-10 .762
7. Kuerten, Gustavo (BRA) 25-11 .694
8. Roddick, Andy (USA) 25-11 .694
9. Gaudio, Gaston (ARG) 30-14 .682
10. Mantilla, Felix (ESP) 25-12 .676

MEN'S OPEN ERA MATCH WIN LEADERS
(through Sunday, June 8, 2003):
1. Jimmy Connors (USA) 1155-270
2. Ivan Lendl (USA) 1068-242
3. Guillermo Vilas (ARG) 940-286
4. John McEnroe (USA) 881-198
5. Stefan Edberg (SWE) 806-270
6. Andre Agassi (USA) 766-234
7. Ilie Nastase (ROM) 722-287

TOUR NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Queen's top seed Lleyton Hewitt is attempting to join John McEnroe and Boris Becker as the only four-time winners of the Stella Artois Championship, and the only player to win four consecutive Queen's Club titles...Grasscourt choker Tim Henman has been runner-up three times at Queen's without winning the title...Fernando Meligeni, who won three career ATP singles titles (Bastad, Pinehurst and Prague) and seven career ATP doubles titles, has officially announced his retirement from the ATP circuit. Meligeni reached a career-high Singles ATP Entry Ranking of No. 25 on Oct. 11, 1999...Sweden’s Magnus Norman and coach Fredrik Rosengren have gone their separate ways after almost five years together...Schuettler, Mantilla and Verkerk are currently in the Top 8 on the ATP Champions Race, probably not the ideal field the ATP Masters-Houston organizers are hoping for...Former Wimbledon champ Pat Cash is putting his money this year on Tim Henman, who he had scoffed at last year: "I will be putting some money on him because he is looking good for another challenge."...The perennial bridesmaid Henman has lost four times in the Wimbledon semifinals...Aussie Peter Luczak, who played Andre Agassi yesterday at Queen's, says he will keep to his usual routine, including listening to AC/DC for 20 minutes before heading on to the court, despite countryman Scott Draper's urging to drop some of his superstitions: "I'm a pretty superstitious guy but Scotty's been saying it's crap," Luczak told the West Australian newspaper....Pat Cash says world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt has "lost that special edge"; yeah, like anyone would put bank down on Henman over Hewitt at Wimbledon?...Aussie Wayne Arthurs is talking about possibly hanging it up after Wimbledon, after battling a number of injuries recently and saying he has lost the desire...Hewitt is sporting a freshly-shaved head this week at Queen's...Sky Sports will be taping the WTA Birmingham singles final for delayed coverage on Monday, June 16 -- weak...Andre Agassi is playing at Queen's for only the second time in his career after 2000, and was convinced by Aussie coach Darren Cahill to play this year: "It didn't take much convincing to come here. I've gotten in a lot of grass time."...Look for a potential Agassi vs. Krajicek match-up coming up this week at Queen's, and a potential Roddick vs. Rusedski...Mark Woodforde will join Australia's coaching panel for the Fed Cup relegation tie against Colombia next month, assisting captain Evonne Goolagong Cawley in trying to get the Aussie women out of the gutter: "Playing for my country and being part of a team was especially important to me during my career, so I'm really excited to be working with Evonne to help our current Fed Cup players achieve their own goals." Nice canned statement...There are currently eight Russians in the Top 40 on the WTA Tour, and Russian girls won two of the four junior slams last year, fear them...20-year-old Daniela "Rice Cakes for Lunch" Hantuchova will attempt to revive her flagging play by dissing the Slovak Fed Cup team to concentrate on singles tournaments, nice move considering the next round is against Belgium, nice timing Walking Stick...The French Open attracted a record attendance of 392,932 spectators during two weeks at Roland Garros, French tennis federation president Christian Bimes said on Monday...Bimes continues to hammer the ATP after the slams turned down a request for more player prize money and fund contributions, and went on to say that the Grand Slam Committee should liberate U.S. military-style control of the game: "Before the end of the year, I'm confident I can announce the creation of a committee which will unite the main executives of tennis with a real professional managing the whole thing...The calendar must be revised as soon as possible...I'm not at war with anybody, but we will let nobody tell us what to do...The ATP is in a wrong role. They should remain a players' union and not deal with marketing and television rights." Wow, Lleyton Hewitt and the IMTA firing from one side, the slams from the other, way to unify the sport.