Kuerten Ousted at TMS-Canada (by a Canadian!), Federer, Hewitt, Roddick in Action Today

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
One Tennis-X staff member laughed heartily when Canadian wildcard Simon Larose predicted a tight match against former No. 1 and 1997 TMS-Canada runner-up Gustavo Kuerten after the draw came out last weekend, but who's laughing now? With the biggest win for a Canuck since Daniel Nestor beat Stefan Edberg in Davis Cup play, Larose beat (13)Kuerten in straights on the opening day at Montreal, sending fans into a frenzy and little kids ditching the ice skates for tennis racquets (maybe a bit of an exaggeration). "It feels great but I don't look at the numbers," Larose said. "I see him as a great champion. The last time I looked at my ranking was two years ago, since I'm not happy with it. I know I can play against these guys. They know that I'm capable of playing well, since they've seen me playing Davis Cup." Yeah, and they've seen Canada not get a sniff of the World Group for years, what's your point? In the other upset of the day, Frenchman Arnaud Clement announced he is fully rehabilitated from injury with a three-set win over (4)Moya. "One of the reasons that I played so well is because this is a big event, a Masters Series event, and Montreal is a place we love," said the Frenchman Clement. "We want to win so that we can stay here as long as possible. I returned really well today. It's a very important part of my game. And I also think that he was physically tired towards the end of the match." Seeds advancing were (11)Srichaphan (d. A.Martin), (1)Agassi (d. (WC)Niemeyer, with The Boss down a break in the second), and (8)Schuettler (d. Youzhny). Three matches were suspended due to rain, with (16)Robredo leading Lee 6-4, 4-3, Nalbandian leading Nieminen 7-6, 5-3, and Ginepri tied with (WC)Nestor 6-3, 3-6. Two qualifiers also punched through in (Q)Delgado (d. Ljubicic) and (Q)Beck (d. (Q)Llodra in three).

Seeds on court today at the TMS-Canada are (Q)Saulnier vs. (2)Ferrero (first meeting, upset special), Gaudio vs. (3)Federer, (5)Hewitt vs. (Q)B.Bryan (first meeting), (6)Roddick vs. Malisse (A-Rod leads 6-0), Vicente vs. (9)Grosjean (Vicente leads 3-1), Henman vs. (14)Gonzalez in a rematch of last week's Washington final, F.Lopez vs. (7)Coria (Wizard leads 5-0), (15)Verkerk vs. Sargsian, (12)Schalken vs. Zabaleta, (10)Novak vs. Ancic (first meeting), and (16)Robredo vs. Lee to finish.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
No seeds were in action Monday at Carson with the WTA's ridiculous policy of all 16 seeds receiving first-round byes, so we're going to pretend yesterday never happened. Today on court in LA are Schett vs. Frazier, Snyder vs. Martinez, Obata vs. Sugiyama, Sharapova vs. Petrova, Maleeva vs. Likhovtseva, Kuznetsova vs. Serna, Ruano Pascual vs. Black, Kutuzova vs. Krasnoroutakaya, Farina Elia vs. Asagoe, Pisnik vs. Zuluaga, Sanchez Lorenzo vs. Pratt, and Suarez vs. Molik.

Two of three seeds in action on Day One in Helsinki advanced in (3)Chladkova (d. Leon Garcia) and (8)Sprem (d. Torrens Valero 6-0, 6-0, thanks for showing up), along with un-seeds Douchevina (d. Benesova in three) and Cervanova (d. (6)Barna in the only seeded upset). Lots of names ending in "a," not a good sign for an event. The final round of qualifying was also completed, with Jana Hlavackova (CZE), Sandra Kleinova (CZE), Rita Kuti Kis (HUN), and Jelena Kostanic (CRO) advancing into the main draw. Marta Marrero (ESP) also entered the main draw as a lucky loser following Maja Matevzic's withdrawal due to a viral illness. On court today in Helsinki are An.Serra Zanetti vs. Mandula, Arvidsson vs. Rittner, Hlavackova vs. Pistolesi, Schnyder vs. Talaja, Ondraskova vs. Laine, Nagyova vs. Koukalova, Medina Garrigues vs. Wartusch, Kleinova vs. Perebiynis, and Czink vs. Fernandez.

ATP LONGEST WINNING STREAKS OF 2003
Guillermo Coria attempts to set the longest winning streak of the 2003 ATP circuit Tuesday when he plays his first-round match against Feliciano Lopez. Coria has won 15 consecutive matches (and 32 consecutive sets) during the
past three weeks en route to titles in Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel and Sopot:

Player Matches Duration
1T. Guillermo Coria 15 Jul. 14 - current
1T. Roger Federer 15 Jun. 9 - Jul 7
3T. Lleyton Hewitt 12 Feb. 7 - Mar. 10
3T. Andre Agassi 12 Jan. 13 - Feb. 10
3T. Roger Federer 12 Apr. 4 - May 5
6. Guillermo Coria 11 May 12 - May 26
7T. Roger Federer 10 Feb. 7 - Feb. 17
7T. Juan Carlos Ferrero 10 Apr. 4 - Apr 21
7T. Andy Roddick 10 June 9 - June 23

ATP 2003 HARDCOURT WINS LEADERS (updated)
1. Roger Federer 24-6
2. Andre Agassi 22-2
3. Andy Roddick 22-7
4. Paradorn Srichaphan 21-9
5. Lleyton Hewitt 19-3
6. Rainer Schuettler 19-7
7. Mark Philippoussis 17-8
8. James Blake 16-8

NHL vs. ATP at TMS-Canada
On the eve of the Tennis Masters Montreal, the traditional NHL vs. ATP ball hockey game took place on Court 1 at the Jarry Park Tennis Centre. The event, which was part of the Tennis Masters Montreal Family Day, featured six NHL pros in Martin Brodeur, Jason Ward, Sylvain Lefebvre, Martin Lapointe and Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau. The tennis players were represented by reigning Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, Jiri Novak, Radek Stepanek, Don Johnson and Frank Dancevic. Like last year's encounter in Toronto, the hockey players were victorious, pulling off a 5-1 victory over the ATP pros and their coaches. Canada's Dancevic was the lone tennis player to score a goal in the match, while Brodeur, Parenteau and Ward scored for the NHL. "I don't have much time to play hockey, and I can't really skate," said Federer when asked if he had a lot of experience. "It's always a pleasure to meet other athletes." Novak, who acted as the goalie during the match, said: "I think they've improved their game. When we played against them here in Montreal two years ago we beat them, and I was the goalie that year too." Towards the end of the match Johnson and Lapointe decided to liven up the match by starting a mock fight, much to the delight of the many fans that attended.

ATP TOP 10 WINNING PERCENTAGE
Guillermo Coria rises to No. 4 and Rainer Schuttler drops out of the Top 10 winning percentages on tour, with all players competing at Montreal (minimum 24 matches, through Aug. 3, 2003):

# Player W-L Pct.
1. Agassi, Andre (USA) 36-6 .857
2. Federer, Roger (SUI) 53-10 .842
3. Ferrero, Juan Carlos (ESP) 47-10 .825
4. Coria, Guillermo (ARG) 47-11 .810
5. Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) 29-7 .806
6. Roddick, Andy (USA) 43-13 .768
7. Moya, Carlos (ESP) 44-14 .759
8. Philippoussis, Mark (AUS) 28-13 .683
9. Kuerten, Gustavo (BRA) 28-13 .683
10. Gonzalez, Fernando (CHI) 29-14 .674

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Four different players have a chance to top the leader board this week on the ATP Champions Race depending on results at the TMS-Canada...Tim Henman's win at Washington last week was his first title on U.S. soil...Roger Federer and Rainer Schuettler both had 0-2 career records entering the TMS-Canada...Last year Andy Roddick reached his only career TMS final at the TMS-Canada...Former University of Georgia NCAA doubles champion Travis Parrott, 23, had never played on the ATP circuit before last week, winning the LA doubles title with Jan-Michael Gambill...Jarkko Nieminen has begun working with Swedish coach Fredrik Rosengren in Montreal...Andre Agassi went through seven shirts and 12 wristbands in his Washington semifinal loss to Fernando Gonzalez in the summer humidity...Were the ATP Masters Cup held tomorrow, two-time defending champion Lleyton Hewitt would not qualify...Next year Sopot is held during the opening week of the Olympics, Washington is held during the tennis week, and Long Island is held during the post-tennis week, then the US Open begins the next week...Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. Zib) won the Segovia Challenger last week, and Britain's Arvind Parmar (d. Salzenstein) won the Denver Challenger...The last thing we need to see when turning on ESPN's coverage of the TMS-Canada is Brad Gilbert in the booth with a Raider's lid, that is a reach-for-the-channel-changer moment...Todd Martin lost in the qualifying this week at the TMS-Canada...Mary Pierce injured herself again yesterday at LA: "The thing that concerned me most was that it's in the same spot where I strained my abdomen pretty bad in Melbourne two years ago. I could feel it in my back when I was serving."...The German tax authorities have opened a new case against Boris Becker...The last two wildcards at Cincinnati have gone to Thomas Enqvist and Octagon client Robby Ginepri, with two already going to Michael Chang and Todd Martin...From SI's Jon Wertheim: "We'll say it again: If the Masters Series events are really of paramount importance, is it fair to award wildcards, which forces more deserving players to qualify? We say no." Thankfully, we didn't ask you. Wildcards may not be "fair" when they all go to crappy Canadians as they did this week at the TMS-Canada, but they normally come in handy in getting "deserving" players who have been out with injury and marquee names (would you deny Pete Sampras? Marcelo Rios? Thomas Muster?) into the draw. It's a business...The USTA announced that the US Open Women's Singles Championship -- with a record $1 million awarded to the winner -- will be broadcast live in prime time Saturday, September 6 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS Sports, an hour earlier than last year...Carlos Moya is now 0-3 career at the TMS-Canada, good effort...Andre Agassi on requesting the Monday start in Canada: "I prefer to play a seven day tournament as opposed to a six day tournament if I can. I'd rather play six matches in seven days that six matches in six days."