Top Seeds Keep Rolling Without Upsets; Federer, Roddick, Clijsters, Davenport Up Today

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
Mardy Fish's hopes of representing the U.S. in Davis Cup team in play against Slovakia next month were likely quashed Thursday when the No. 24 seed was ousted in straight sets by Slovak Karol Kucera. "You know, I had to come up with the goods on almost every point," said Fish, who showed only one gear during the match, while the Slovak deflected the American's power to the advantage. "But I knew that going in. I knew I had to be smart, which I wasn't today, as smart as I can be...Apart from the stupidity on some of the shots that I hit, I mean, I missed volleys that I don't normally miss, I double-faulted more than I normally do." In other words, choke. Should have got mom to pay more people in the crowd to wear fish heads.

The Fish was joined on the sidelines by French Open runner-up (16)Verkerk, who was hit off the court by unseeded American Todd Martin; (23)Ferreira (l. to Ginepri), and (31)Clement, who lost 6-1 in the fifth to Gregory "I beat Rusedski earlier" Carraz. Seeds advancing were (1)Agassi (d. Vinciguerra), (3)Ferrero (d. Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer in four), (5)Coria (d. Bohdan "Out-Of-Court Settlement" Ulihrach easily), (6)Hewitt (who looked shaky in coming from a set down to beat Hyung-Taik Lee), (11)Srichaphan (d. Hrbaty), (15)Gonzalez (d. Koubek), (28)Yevgeny "Still Here" Kafelnikov (d. Carlson, coming back from set down), and (33)Chela (d. Berdych in four). Among the unseeded standouts were American Taylor Dent dominating Nikolay Davydenko, and Radek Stepanek beating Fabrice "I'll Cut Ya" Santoro in four. In doubles, Croats Ancic/Ljubicic ousted former slam winners (7)Kafelnikov/Rikl, and Koenig/Pala beat (11)Etlis/Rodriguez.

Seeds on court Friday are (4)Roddick vs. Ljubicic in a serving contest, (13)Nalbandian vs. Nieminen, (2)Federer vs. Lisnard, (10)Novak vs. Gambill, (20)Philippoussis vs. Dupuis, (22)El Aynaoui vs. Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal, (7)Moya vs. Moodie, (12)Schalken vs. Burgsmuller, (8)Schuettler vs. Kiefer in a new-German vs. old-German affair, (19)Calleri vs. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, and (25)Costa vs. A.Martin in an all-Spanish meeting.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
A whole slew of bad seeds were uprooted on the women's side at the Open Thursday, including (20)Farina Elia (l. to Pratt 6-1 in the third), (22)Dokic (l. to Pierce in a third set breaker), (23)Dechy (l. to Frazier in an injury walkover), (30)Serna (l. to Sanchez Lorenzo), (32)Mikaelian (l. to Obata), and (33)Srebotnik (l. to Pisnik). Nice clean-up-type day, out with the chaff, in with the wheat. "You know, it's disappointing, for sure," said Dokic, who has at this point learned how to lose. "But that's tennis. You know, it's just not my year, it looks like (smiling). I have to go on, you know, learn from this." Seeds advancing were (2)Henin-Hardenne (d. Talaja, losing three games), (6)Capriati (d. Sucha, losing two games), (7)Myskina (d. Serra Zanetti), (11)Dementieva (d. Perebiynis), (15)Sugiyama (d. Razzano in three), and (29)Schiavone (d. Parra). Also out was Maria "Grunt-o-licious" Sharapova, losing to Emilie Loit. In doubles, Bartoli/Casanova upset (11)Gagifardi/Shaughnessy.

Friday the seeds finally meet in the women's draw, with top girls in action including (3)Davenport vs. Czink, (1)Clijsters vs. (27)Kuznetsova, (9)Hantuchova vs. Tanasugarn, (13)Zvonareva vs. (17)Shaughnessy, (14)Coetzer vs. (19)Petrova, (5)Mauresmo vs. Kirilinko, and (24)Suarez vs. Molik.

ATP YEAR-END RACE FOR NO. 1
Top-ranked Andre Agassi will have to put in some Euro-miles if he is going to attempt a year-end No. 1 ranking steal, after the Open defending a title at the TMS-Madrid, and a QF at the TMS-Paris, with two round robin losses at last year's Masters Cup...No. 2-ranked Roger Federer has a ton of points to defend after the Open, including in order a QF at Moscow, a title at Vienna, a QF at the TMS-Madrid, a SF at Basel, a QF at the TMS-Paris, and a SF at the Masters Cup...No. 3-ranked Juan Carlos Ferrero has a chunk to defend after the Open, including the title at Hong Kong, the QF at the TMS-Madrid, a SF at Basel, and his runner-up effort (l. to Hewitt) at the Masters Cup...If No. 4-ranked Andy Roddick doesn't claim the No. 1 spot at the US Open, he'll have a real good shot post-Open, defending only a first-round loss at the TMS-Madrid, and two QF at Basel and the TMS-Paris -- or maybe his best shot will come when he qualifies for his first year-end championship...Last year's year-end No. 1, Lleyton Hewitt, is out of the No. 1 running, and will have to struggle to simply qualify among the top eight at the Masters Cup, a title he has won two years running.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Haven't we already talked about JenCap wearing the midriff-bearing tops? Yikes. As one staffer put it, "When your gut hangs further out than your breasts, that is not a good look."...Without Lindsay Davenport at the WTA year-end championships, that drops the number of fans that will show up at the Staples Center to about 37...Ashley "Tennis Barbie" Harkleroad can apparently now pick her own chair umpires, in her last match yelling at the chair: "You can never be my chair umpire again. That's horrible."...We like how USTA marketing = put all the American hotties on the show courts this year...Last year Spaniard Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal became the second 16-year-old player to break into the Top 100 after Michael Chang did it in 1988; he next plays Younes El Aynaoui, who he beat in their previous meeting -- this kid is Top 10 by this time next year...Venus is entered in the Moscow tournament at the end of September...Props to Serena for giving props to new No. 1 Kim Clijsters (in a roundabout way): "She's playing every week, and she's winning almost every week she plays. It's hard not to be No. 1 when you play that much." When she comes back, Serena says she will dial into the Iron Mike psyche: "I'm just going to take a different attitude: take the Mike Tyson approach."...Aussie Mark Philippoussis on countrymate Lleyton Hewitt, who he has sparred with in the media in the past: "Maybe Lleyton is a guy who needs something happening to pump himself up for his matches. For myself, if I'm happy off the court, I play great tennis on the court. You know, if that's the case, maybe I could walk past him and give him a quick elbow in the head, pump him up." Now that's good java, that's about the best stuff thus far during a bland Week One. "Lleyton and I get on really well. I invited him to my house for five days. We trained really hard. We played golf, relaxed."...Hey USTA, how is the afterthought planning for the Michael Chang retirement ceremony coming?...Good to see some psycho dads back in the news after a brief respite, with Angela Haynes dad Fred accusing Richard Williams of cutting off their friendship and failing to help them out of Compton after the Williams clan moved to Florida...When teen tennis Barbie Ashley Harkleroad was asked what she remembered most about her debut at the Open two years ago, H-Road replied "My nice little outfit."...16-year-old, 105 pound qualifier Maria Kirilenko, the 2002 US Open Junior Girls' Champion, is into the third round of the main draw...According to Tom Tebbutt of The Globe and Mail (Canuck paper), Pierre-Yves Hardenne has to get wife Justine Henin-Hardenne's permission when he wants to buy a car (cough, whuss, cough)...John McEnroe said Lleyton's dad said one of the reasons Hewitt hasn't performed well is he's too happy and complacent...This is going to sounds really chauvinistic, and probably is, but with USA Network commentator Tracy Austin going on about how much work Mary "Thunder Thighs" Pierce has been putting into her fitness, and how Jennifer "Bust a Gut" Capriati is one of the fittest players on tour, is fat the new fit?...Nice Minnie Driver interview catch USA Network, how did Robby Ginepri score that?...Not even going to talk about the Maria Sharapova shopping feature, walking around NY, all 6-feet-0 in heels sending men scurrying in all directions...Jeff Tarango announced his retirement last night; the American will be best remembered for his on-court antics, winning two career singles titles...US Open wilcards went 0-16 this year. Nice effort...Mardy Fish loses then gets told (via ESPN's PTI) about the fish heads who were paid. Yikes. The Fish also ended his relationship with IMG and Tony Godsick, to join-up with trendy Ken Meyersohn's SFX bunch, which already includes Andy Roddick, Paradorn Srichaphan, Brian Baker and Jan-Michael Gambill...US Open wilcards went a combined 0-16. Nice effort...Robby Ginepri may move from Atlanta to Tampa to join with buds James Blake, Jeff Morrison and Mardy Fish and to train at Saddlebrook...Venus and Serena were at the MTV's VMAs...Robbie Ginepri's girl Minnie Driver had to fly back to London Thursday night to start filming of "Phantom of the Opera" this marking the end of this "summer fling".