Up-and-Comers Net Wins at Indy, Kitzbuhel; WTA Stanford Left a Mess Without Williams Sisters

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
Indianapolis Monday was a day of breakthroughs: NCAA champion and wildcard Amer Delic won his first ATP match versus Ricardo Mello in three sets; qualifier Prakash "Son Of" Amritraj beat Sergio Roitman in three; wildcard Rajeev Ram of Indiana beat Levine, Aussie wildcard Chris Guccione beat the American Mamiit, and American journeyman Eric Taino sent Michael Chang out in three sets. "I knew I had a good chance," said the reigning NCAA champion Delic from Jacksonville, Florida. "I started out nervous but I settled down after a while. I had a tough first set which I lost 7-6. Won the second set and the third set I was down 5-2 and then I reeled off five straight games to win the match." No seeds were in action Monday at Kitzbuhel, but the qualifiers had their day with (Q)Cermak beating Melzer, and (Q)Etlis upsetting Squillari in three sets. Romanian teenager Florin Mergea made a solid start to his ATP career with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Czech qualifier Robin Vik. Mergea, the 18-year-old who won the junior Wimbledon singles and doubles titles, received a wildcard.
In Umag a hot, humid night led to both seeds in action bombing out first round in (4)O.Rochus (l. to A.Martin) and (5)Vicente (l. to Hrbary), while two wildcards posted wins in the Croatian Radic (d. Galimberti) and the Croatian Ivo "I Beat Lleyton at Wimbledon" Karlovic (d. C.Rochus). Not a good day for the Roach Family.

Seeds in action Tuesday in Kitzbuhel are the homeboy Eschauer vs. (12)Corretja, Mathieu vs. (3)Schuettler, and (7)Gaudio vs. the resurgent Behrend. Seeds in action in Umag are Voinea vs. (6)Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal, (Q)Zovko vs. (2)Gonzalez, (1)Moya vs. Vanek, (7)Volandri vs. Savolt, Kratochvil vs. (5)El Aynaoui, (9)Zabaleta vs. Hanescu, and (13)F.Lopez vs. (WC)Mergea. Seeds on court at Indy Tuesday are (12)Brian "I'm Seeded!" Vahaly vs. Moodie, (3)Schalken vs. Miranda, (5)Gambill vs. Enqvist in a popcorn match (Jan-Mike leads the head-to-head series 3-2), (1)Roddick vs. the underrated Frenchman Saulnier, (6)Fish vs. (WC)Guccione, and (14)Kiefer vs. (Q)P.Amritraj.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Only two matches were played Monday on the hardcourts at Stanford, with Amy Frazier (d. Black) and Marion Bartoli (d. Granville) both winning three setters. Nice opening day, wouldn't want to have been working the customer service/complaint booth yesterday at Stanford. As if tournament officials weren't happy enough with defending champion Venus a no-show, and Serena and Lindsay pulling with injuries at the last minute. Time to get the Amy Frazier PR Machine cranking! The qualifying was also completed with a decidedly American flavor, with the four spots going to Haynes (USA), Ashley (USA), Snyder (USA), and Vento-Kabchi (VEN). On court today in Stanford are Craybas vs. Schiavone, Vento-Kabchi vs. Petrova, Snyder vs. Liu, Stevenson vs. Ashley, Vakulenko vs. Mikaelian, and An.Barna vs. Taylor.

WTA STANFORD CONSECUTIVE TITLE WINNERS
1999-98 Lindsay Davenport
1997-96 Martina Hingis
1985-84 Hana Mandlikova
1982-81 Andrea Jaeger
1980-79 Martina Navratilova
1976-75 Chris Evert
1974-73 Billie Jean King

FED CUP QUALIFYING RESULTS
Countries that qualified for a World group spot in 2004:
Argentina d. Hungary 3-2
Australia d. Colombia 3-2
(Aussies Molik/Stubbs win the deciding doubles)
Austria d. Canada 4-1
Croatia d. Brazil 4-1
Czech Republic d. South Africa 4-1
Germany d. Indonesia 3-2
Japan d. Sweden 4-1
Switzerland d. Israel 4-1

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
You've got to think SI.com's Jon Wertheim is a Tennis-X reader, stealing for his weekly column "In Amersfoort, Chile's Nicolas Massu won the Dutch Open, beating hometown favorite (Everybody Loves) Raemon Sluiter 6-4, 7-6, 6-2 in the final."...Pete Sampras says he will not play the US Open, and that it's probably over: "Not being at the Open this year, which I'm going to pull out of, and not playing Wimbledon hasn't made me miss it enough to really start training, start practicing, doing everything I have to do to be where I want to be. This tells me it's a sign to say, 'It's probably time.' I miss it, but it's time probably to give up."...The U.S. vs. Belgium Fed Cup semifinal could feature the Top 4 players in the world...Andrew Ilie lost first round at the Seascape Challenger last week, while unseeded American Jeff Salzenstein won it. Ilie, by the way, is ranked No. 421. Ouch...Stanford is the oldest women's-only tournament (older than the year-end championships)...Injury withdrawals from Stanford included Lindsay Davenport, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Silvia Farina Elia, Conchita Martinez, Ashley Harkleroad, Marlene Weingärtner, Joannette Kruger, and Serena Williams...Serena and Venus will also skip San Diego next week...There have been seven double bagels thus far this year on the WTA Tour...Seven of the 16 doubles teams in Stanford are all-American...Last week the Octagon management group signed Justine Henin-Hardenne...Also suspectedly appearing on Tennis-X, then rerunning on SI.com: "As long as we're here, a quick question about Brad (Master of Puppets) Gilbert. The guy demands that Roddick lose the campy visors because they don't project an image of professionalism. But Gilbert is allowed out in public with that ridiculous floppy Metallica lid? Where's the "Justice for All" in that?"...NCAA champion Amer Delic, who made his ATP debut yesterday with a win at Indianapolis, on where to go from here: "Right now I can go and play Futures next week or I have a guaranteed spot in the qualies on Washington. I'm just waiting to see how I go this week to decide."...Only two players have achieved the consecutive Stanford/San Diego/LA California hardcourt title sweep in one summer: Billie Jean King in 1971 and Lindsay Davenport in 1998...26-year-old Jennifer Capriati has been shut out of the winner's circle by the Williams sisters and the Belgian waffles, not winning a title since the 2002 Australian Open...Michael Chang, a first-round loser at Indianapolis this week, now has three stops left on his 2003 Farewell Tour, culminating at the US Open...The lack of depth on the WTA Tour was also reflected in last week's Fed Cup quarterfinals, with the winning nations posting a combined 19-1 win-loss record in singles and doubles matches.