Schalken Repeats Dutch Win, Hewitt Kicks Off Wimbledon Defense



Posted on June 24, 2003

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
In a repeat of last year's 's-Hertogenbosch final, No. 3 seed Sjeng Schalken successfully defended his title with a 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 7 Aranud Clement in front of the homecountry fans for his first title of the year. "It couldn't be better," Schalken said. "I was very happy with the semifinals and I'm very happy with the final. Arnaud is a very good grasscourt player. I'm happy to beat him in two sets. It's also a big confidence boost not having lost a set all week." In the doubles final, (2)Damm/Suk upended (1)Johnson/Paes for their second title of 2003 in their fourth consecutive 's-Hertogenbosch final. In Nottingham Saturday, unseeded Greg Rusedski captured his first title of the year, beating No. 8 Mardy Fish, while (1)Bryan/Bryan beat (3)Eagle/Palmer for their third title of the year.

Seeds in action on Day One at Wimbledon are (1)Hewitt vs. Karlovic, (17)Kuerten vs. van Lottum, (5)Roddick vs. Sanguinetti, (12)Srichaphan vs. Hrbaty, (4)Federer vs. H.-T. Lee, (9)Schuettler vs. Kratochvil, (25)Robredo vs. Acasuso, (31)Spadea vs. Mirnyi, (32)Chela vs. Behrend, (29)Gaudio vs. Fish, (33)Davydenko vs. Childs, (8)Schalken vs. Parmar, (16)Youzhny vs. Beck, (23)Calleri vs. Voinea, (15)Clement vs. Ginepri, and (19)Gonzalez vs. Melzer.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
In 's-Hertogenbosch Saturday, top-seeded Kim Clijsters caught a break and avoided another inevitable choke when countrywoman Justine Henin-Hardenne was forced to retire in the second set of the 's-Hertogenbosch final after falling on her hand. In the doubles final, (3)Dementieva/Krasnoroutskaya outlasted Petrova/Pierce in three sets for their first doubles title together. In Eastbourne Saturday, (2)Chanda Rubin outlasted Conchita Martinez in three sets for her first career title defense.

Seeds in action on Day One at Wimbledon are (2)Clijsters vs. Neffa-de los Rios, (5)Davenport vs. Stosur, (4)Venus vs. Hrozenska, (9)Hantuchova vs. Bartoli, (17)Coetzer vs. Randriantefy, (12)Maleeva vs. Barna, (25)Pistolesi vs. Reeves, (20)Schnyder vs. Mandula, (22)Dechy vs. Husarova, (27)Farina Elia vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, (29)Petrova vs. Garbin, (31)Sugiyama vs. Ahl, (16)Zvonareva vs. Dominikovic, (24)Serna vs. Ruano Pascual, (30)Denisa "Hanging" Chladkova vs. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova, and (7)Rubin vs. Majoli.

2003 SINGLES TITLE LEADERS (through June 22)
4--Andre Agassi (USA)
4--Kim Clijsters (BEL)
4--Roger Federer (SUI)
4--Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL)
3--Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)
3--Serena Williams (USA)
2--Guillermo Coria (ARG)
2--Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
2--Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)
2--Carlos Moya (ESP)
2--Anastacia Myskina (RUS)
2--Andy Roddick (USA)
2--Chanda Rubin (USA)
2--Magui Serna (ESP)
(43 players tied with one title)

TOUR NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
The WTA Tour announced the launch of a marketing campaign, "Get In Touch With Your Feminine Side," featuring 30-second television commercials and print ads...More than 80 ATP players have agreed to play alternative tournaments to the grand slams in the event that the ATP and the Grand Slam Committee cannot agree in the future on how much more money the slams should fork over...Pete Sampras told the Sunday Times the racquets are almost certainly in the bag: "It's time for other guys to hold up the trophies. I'm 95 percent sure I'm stopping. I'd been putting off the decision and putting off the decision in the hope that something would come back."...In a move toward more media accessibility, WTA Tour players will be available each Monday of a tournament for a "media roundtable"...Daniela "The Waling Stick" Hantuchova's weight loss and emaciated appearance is the talk of Wimbledon, but the Slovak is shrugging it off: "The attention I'm getting doesn't distract me at all. I think I've handled it quite well and I'll go on doing that. I don't take much notice of what people say about my weight. I'm lucky that I can eat what I want and not put on weight. Every woman would like to swap places and be in my position because most of them want to lose weight."...English bookmaker William Hill has Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick as 7-2 joint men's favorites for the tournament starting Monday, with defending champion Lleyton Hewitt at 9-2, Roger Federer at 11-2, Tim Henman at 9-1 and Mark Philippoussis at 16-1.