Roddick, Coria and Moya seek titles; Clijsters takes on Capriati

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
Guillermo "El Mago" Coria continued his claycourt run at Kitzbuhel Saturday, pasting No. 13 seed Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the final. The No. 2-seeded El Mago will face unseeded Chilean Nicolas Massu, who beat down (9)Zabaleta 6-2, 6-1, and will try and make it two consecutive titles after Amersfoort last week. Coria will try to make it consecutive titles after his win in Stuttgart last week. "I'm happy to be in the final and I'm happy it went so quick since I have to play a five-set final tomorrow," Coria said. "I didn't expect it to be so fast but it's better for me to finish fast, I'm sure the final will be tough. I will use my physical strength in the final." Their only previous meeting was last year in Umag, when Coria won a tight match in the round of 16. The doubles final will be (2)Damm/Suk vs. (WC)Melzer/Peya, with Damm/Suk shooting for their third title of the year.
At Umag Saturday, top-seeded Carlos Moya employed what he learned earlier in the year in a loss to Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal, this time subduing the talented teen in straight sets. "This was a much different match than Hamburg," Nadal said. "In Hamburg, he didn't play well, I didn't play that well. I was nervous. I think we both played better tonight. At the beginning of the year my goal was to get into the Top 100, I did that less than halfway through the season and now I just want to improve my ranking more. I'll be playing in Segovia (Challenger), then a break for a few weeks, Long Island, the US Open and Palermo before the indoor season." In the final Moya will meet (7)Volandri, who beat unseeded Dominik Hrbary to advance to his career-first ATP final. Moya is 3-0 in Umag finals, and 1-0 against Volandri after a four-set win at Roland Garros this year. The doubles final will be Perry/Shimada vs. Lopez Moron/Nadal.
In Indianapolis the top two seeds advanced to the final when (1)Roddick beat (3)Schalken in straight sets, and (2)Srichaphan outlasted unseeded Nicolas Thomann after dropping the first set. A-Rod gained momentum in the match after a surprisingly successful number of net approaches. "I think he thought I'd only come to the net to shake hands, so I surprised him on those two points," Roddick said. "Brad's told me that there's more than one way to win or lose a match. He's taught me to try different things out there." Roddick leads the head-to-head 2-1, winning their last meeting this year at Wimbledon. The doubles final will be Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic/Andy Ram vs. Americans Diego Ayala/Robby Ginepri.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
The top two seeds (considering (1)Serena pulled) advanced to the final Saturday in Stanford when (2)Clijsters beat unseeded Francesca Schiavone, and (3)Capriati beat unseeded qualifier Maria Vento-Kabchi. "I'm not going to think that this is a final and my big chance and put pressure on myself," said a laughing Capriati, who is not laughing inside since she hasn't won a title since the Aussie Open in 2002. "And not that 'If I can't win this I can't win anything else the rest of my career.'" Capriati won despite six double faults and 30 unforced errors, serving only one ace and hitting only 61 percent of her first serves on the mark. "I didn't play my best tennis but good enough to win," Capriati said. "Hopefully for tomorrow I got out my mistakes. If I play like I did today, Kim's just too good of a player and she would take advantage of that." Capriati is 3-1 versus Clijsters.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
RCA will extend its title sponsorship of the RCA Championships at the Indianapolis Tennis Center for three years, through 2006...Nice RCA commercials on NBC featuring Todd Martin from last year, no budget for new ones?...Andy Roddick is 14-1 under new coach Brad Gilbert...In Davis Cup Loser Group play, Kuwait and Malaysia posted easy wins in the semifinals of the Asia-Oceania Zone Group Three to advance to the higher-ranked Group Two of the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania tournament in 2004...Robby Ginepri and Justin Gimelstob are featured in a new book entitled "Real Men Do Yoga" by SmartMoney Magazine editor John Capouya. The book, available in August, includes testimonials from 21 star athletes who reveal their secrets for strength, flexibility and performance. "Yoga saved my career," Gimelstob said. "I had back problems, two herniated disks. Everything was locked up and the pain was so bad I could barely move around on the court. You're 23 or 24 and looking at your career possibly being over." After consulting with then-doubles partner Alex O'Brien he decided to try yoga instead of surgery. "It just took a couple of weeks for me to see the difference. I haven't had back pain since."...Hicham Arazi is back with former coach Thierry Champion...Mandy Moore is on the cover of Seventeen magazine, talking about how her and boyfriend Andy Roddick make lists of what they want to accomplish before age 30 -- these kids are achievers. Moore and Roddick will also be featured on the Extra TV Magazine show Monday...YM Magazine features James Blake in their August 2003 issue as one of the "20 Hottest Guys." Of the Harvard-educated Blake the magazine says: "Be nice to nerds. You never know what they'll look like at the 10-year reunion."...Robby Ginepri, Taylor Dent, and Mardy Fish are featured in the August 2003 issue of Elle Magazine under the "Must See" department. Hard to see them when they're out by the second round each week...Andre Agassi is featured in the September 2003 issue of Muscle & Fitness Magazine which goes behind the scenes of his rigorous training regimen: "Brand Agassi was built on the premise of hard-driving tennis with a rock 'n roll attitude. And now at 33, the locks shorn away, he rules the sport otherwise dominated by youth." Nice ad exec-style writing.