ATP
REVIEW/PREVIEW
Andy Roddick won the cannon-serve match of the
day over Greg Rusedski in three tight sets, with
the highlight a meltdown by the Canadian-Brit
when a fan shouted "Out!" during a key
point in the third set, with the point and the
momentum going back to Roddick. "I can't
play the point if the crowd f***ing calls it!"
yelled Rusedski at the chair umpire. "The
wanker in the crowd has changed the whole match!"
Rusedski led 3-0, then 4-1, and even served for
the third set at 5-3 before imploding on his own
serve for an eventual 7-6(4), 7-6(1), 7-5 final
tally. Rusedski's stream of obscenities went out
live to millions of Brits via BBC prior to 9:30pm
local title (the witching hour), further enhancing
their love affair with the Canadian import, with
the end result most likely the maximum $10K fine
from officials. Five seeds total went down on
the day, including (15)Clement (l. to Gimelstob
in five), (16)Youzhny (l. to Lopez), (17)Kuerten
(l. to former semifinalist T.Martin), (23)Calleri
(l. to Saretta 10-8 in the fifth), and (32)Chela
(l. to Hanescu). In unseeded action, Mardy Fish
turned around a losing streak against Jan-Michael
Gambill, Spanish teen Rafael "The Prodigy"
Nadal easily dismissed Brit Lee Childs, and gentle
giants Max Mirnyi (d. Ljubicic) and Ivo "The
Lleyton Killer" Karlovic (d. fellow qualifier
Baccanello) advanced.
Seeds on court today are (10)"Timbledon"
Henman vs. Llodra, (3)Ferrero vs. Escude (upset
special), (6)Nalbandian vs. Andre "Tennis-X
Bottom 10 Leader" Sa, (2)Agassi vs. Lars
"Tennis-X Bottom 10" Burgsmuller, (26)Blake
vs. Sargsian, (11)Novak vs. Ferrer, (27)El Aynaoui
vs. Massu, (13)Grosjean vs. Arthurs, (35)Stepanek
vs. Draper, and (30)Nieminen vs. Galvani.
WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
The violently-thin Daniela Hantuchova needed a
PowerBar or something during her match with Shinobu
Asagoe, winning the first set 6-0 before crumbling
4-6, 10-12 as the highest seed sent off Wednesday
at Wimbledon. The No. 9 seed's meltdown included
a blown 5-2 lead in the final set, failing to
convert three match points, and crying between
points and changeovers. "This tournament
means a lot to me, and I really wanted to do well,"
said Hantuchova, who had match points at 5-3 serving
and at 5-4. "I just didn't take my chances."
Four other seeds were sent packing in (12)Maleeva
(l. to Suarez in three), (17)Coetzer (l. to Schiavone
in three), (24)Serna (l. to Matevzic in three),
and (30)Denisa "Hanging" Chladkova (l.
to Black). There was only one close shave among
the seeded wins, with (13)Sugiyama edging Fislova
in three sets. Only two all-unseeded matches were
played, with Samantha Reeves beating Fabiola Zuluaga,
and Iroda Tulyaganova topping Petra Mandula.
Seeds on court today are (3)Henin-Hardenne vs.
Pennetta, (1)Serena vs. Callens, (14)Daniilidou
vs. Pierce, (8)Capriati vs. Mikaelian, (10)Myskina
vs. Krasnoroutskaya, (15)Dementieva vs. Parra,
(11)Dokic vs. Emmanuelle "I Hope I Don't"
Gagliardi, (33)Kuznetsova vs. Cho, (28)Granville
vs. Perebiynis, (23)Raymond vs. Weingartner, (31)Likhovtseva
vs. Molik, (18)Martinez vs. Barbara "Holy"
Schett, and (21)Bovina vs. Maria "The Shrieker"
Sharapova. The No. 3-seeded Williams sisters also
make their doubles debut against the experienced
squad of Morariu/Stubbs.
TOUR NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Nice webmastering by Sports Illustrated
(SI.com), abandoning their regular tennis site
for two weeks during the slams and creating alternate
sites, leaving the regular site with day one results...Maria
Sharapova is back to her orgasmic shrieking
style at Wimbledon, causing many a male onlooker
to adjust his nappies...Wimbledon is allowing
the men to wear sleeveless shirts for the
first time, which is not too-well accepted by
the London press: "The rules have been hugely
relaxed for women, so we decided that it would
be a bit hypocritical if we didn't do the same
for men," a Wimbledon spokesman said...Flavio
Saretta's win over Agustin Calleri took 4:28
minutes, the longest match of the event thus far...Serena
is 66-5 since the start of her FRench Open last
year...Andre Agassi attended the players'
meeting, but prefers not to talk about the potential
boycott: "The specifics of it, to be quite
honest for me, aren't something that I would prefer
to talk about in Wimbledon's back yard. I mean,
I have too much respect for these championships.
I can see the game of tennis benefiting from a
lot of changes, to be quite honest."...Rafael
Nadal reached the Wimbledon semifinals in
the juniors last year...Tim Henman is warming
up to begin the shift into choke mode, already
worrying about exiting in his first round match
against the unheralded Tomas Zib: "After
a couple of (missed) forehand volleys it crossed
my mind. I started pretty well, but at end of
the second and third sets it was a dogfight. He
was making life very difficult for me but I was
pleased with the way I finished it off."...Ashley
Harkleroad at one point mocked the grunting
of Maria Sharapova during her loss, screaming
even louder grunts back at her in the middle of
a point...Maria Sharapova explained the
media training she has gotten from the WTA: "None."
But for someone who has a love affair with her
home country, she speaks incredibly good English
and exudes a pleasent demeanor. Good job IMG...Andre
Agassi doesn't mind the changing conditions
at Wimbledon: "It used to be that you could
just come in, get your racquet on the ball, hit
it anywhere, and the guy on the baseline was going
to have the problems. But it's a bit different
now. But you can still come forward, and you can
still play the typical grasscourt tennis. But
it does allow for the opportunity of a baseliner
to make it through."...On the top half of
the draw, only two players - Rainer Schuettler
and Todd Martin - have ever reached a Slam...The
Kirsten Dunst film "Two weeks in love"
will begin shooting this afternoon at Wimbledon
(hence the 1:30pm late Center start). Murphy
Jensen is also in the flick...Juan Carlos
Ferrero did not touch a racquet for 10 days
after his French Open win...Ashley Hot-kleroad
is now ready to get back to the U.S. and prepare
for the summer hardcourt season: "You know,
I'm not really big on playing on grass."...Anna
Kournikova, who withdrew from Wimbledon with
a back problem, expects to play World Team Tennis
in three weeks: "I know (the back problem)
is not going to go away because it's something
that's structurally wrong with my back from all
the playing."...Tim Henman thinks
the Brits ought to be thankful for his success:
"If you'd have said 10 years ago that a British
player was going to be Top 10 in the world four
out of the last five years," Henman said
recently to ESPN, "reach four Wimbledon semis
and help Britain into the World Group in the Davis
Cup, you'd have been accused of smoking something.
Now people turn around and go, 'That Henman. Well,
he's never won it, has he?'"...In each of
Tim Henman's four Wimbledon semifinal appearances,
he has lost to the eventual champion...Henman's
opponent today, Nicolas Escude, has never
played on Center Court...WEATHER: Hit and
miss rain expected...STAT OF THE DAY: In
win over Mutis, Srichaphan overcomes an 0-2 set
deficit for first time in career.
