Tennis Fans Suffer Week-After US Open Withdrawal; Bucharest Open Tries Desperately to Fill Void

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
All four seeds in action at Bucharest advanced easily on the dirt Monday in (3)Sargsian (d. Squillari), (4)Sanchez (d. Corretja), (5)Mathieu (d. Koubek), and (8)A.Martin (d. Mutis). "He played solid and he didn't do too many mistakes," said Corretja, with the former No. 2 rapidly sliding toward retirement, or at least out of the Top 100. "I think that I played too fast and I was doing too many unforced errors. At least I can take something positive away from the match. I was fighting until the end and I tried my best. However, it didn't work out too well today." That's loser talk, time to prepare that Barcelona retirement speech for next year. The last round of qualifying was also completed, with four advancing to the main draw in Seppi (ITA), Andreev (RUS), Waske (GER), and Cermak (CZE). Probably more information than you want or need to know. On the hardcourts in Brazil, rain washed out most of the day, with two unseeded Monday matches completed in Goldstein d. Browne, and Moodie d. Miranda, not exactly Day-One-at-the-Open style entertainment. Just be amazed they're playing a hardcourt tournament in Brazil.

On court Tuesday in Bucharest are Portas vs. (WC)Moraru, (1)Davydenko vs. (Q)Andreev, Hanescu vs. (Q)Waske, (WC)Moldovan vs. Behrend, Ramirez Hidalgo vs. (WC)Sabau, Blanco vs. (6)Ferrer, Horna vs. (2)Massu, Burgsmuller vs. (Q)Cermak, (Q)Seppi vs. Acasuso, and Vicente vs. C.Rochus. Seeds in action at Brazil today are (8)Carlsen vs. (WC)Ferreiro, Daniel vs. (7)Saretta in an all-Brazilian match-up, the U.S. journeyman Taino vs. (4)Gonzalez, (1)Schuettler vs. Sa, (3)Kuerten vs. former No. 2 Norman, (5)Spadea vs. the returning-from-injury Canas, Saulnier vs. (2)Schalken, and Larkman vs. (6)Chela.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Ashley "The New Anna" Harkleroad showed that the road back from the wrist injury is going to be a long one Monday in Bali, with the No. 9 seed losing first round to Japan's Saori Obata. The other seed in action, No. 8 Yoon Jeong Cho of Korea, advanced with a three-set win over American Jill Craybas. Barna (d. Prakusya) and Barbara "Don't Give a" Schett also advanced into the second round. The final round of qualifying was also completed, with those advancing into the main draw including Ivana "Qualify" Abramovic (CRO), Tian Tian Sun (CHN), Rossana Neffa-de los "No Relation to" Rios (PAR), and Jie Zheng (CHN).

On court today in Bali are Gagliardi vs. Morariu, Dokic vs. Garbin, Tanasugarn vs. Pratt, Loit vs. Abramovic, Pennetta vs. Zheng, Taylor vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, and Groenefeld vs. Sun.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Receiving wildcards this week at the ATP Brazil were Andre "Longest 2003 Losing Streak" Sa, Marcos Daniel, and Franco "Not That" Ferreiro...Guillermo Canas makes his return to the ATP circuit this week in Brazil after undergoing wrist surgery on March 14...Andy Roddick gives props to former coach Tarik Benhabiles, who he dumped after losing first round at the French Open: "I definitely thought about Tarik (after winning the Open). I was definitely going to thank Tarik if I did have a speech. Brad's getting a lot of credit right now, as he should. But Tarik was with me for four years. He knows me about as well as anybody. He took me from a kid who was content to maybe get a college scholarship somewhere to (being) maybe the first one with a serious face to say, 'You can be a professional tennis player. You can be really good at this game'."...Andy Roddick coach Brad Gilbert on comparing his charge to Pete Sampras: "He's like a young MTV version -— hip. He's into skydiving. Into bungee jumping, burning CDs. He's into all the modern extremist stuff." Next on ESPN, Extreme CD Burning...During the US Open, Andy Roddick had a few episodes that harkened back to his explosive junior days: "I want to apologize to all the umpires for the way I acted this week. My mom told me that if I did it one more time she was going to throw me off the bridge to the island."...Apparently Andy Roddick may not be the magic bullet to elevate tennis in the U.S., with the 2003 US Open final drawing the worst audience (3.5% of TV homes) in the U.S. on CBS in five years, a 44% drop from last year's Agassi-Sampras final...With Leander Paes still out with the tapeworm, 20-year-old Prakash Amritraj will make his debut for India this month in the Davis Cup qualifying tie against the Netherlands...Tim Henman has split with his coach Larry Stefanki after two years, the Brit said on his website Monday: "It's been a fantastic experience working with Larry, who has been a good friend as well as my coach over the last two years. We've worked together on some effective technical and tactical changes, which have given my game an extra dimension. I feel now that I simply need to concentrate on competing and winning matches, which is something I think I can do on my own. I have already had the experience of travelling without a coach and enjoyed the freedom of that very much." For some extra insight we asked a former player on the Tennis-X staff: "Not having a coach can be key, you can sleep until noon every day."...Roger Federer and Andre Agassi have joined Andy Roddick and Juan Carlos Ferrero in securing the first four spots in the eight-man year-end Masters Cup in Houston: "It's great, Shanghai was a wonderful experience last year," said Federer, who last year lost to the eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt 7-5 in the third in the semifinals. "I'm looking forward to Houston where we'll all fight for the year-end No. 1 position." An ugly foursome promotions-wise brings up the rear for the last four positions in Guillermo Coria, Rainer Schuettler, Carlos Moya, and David Nalbandian, good luck Houston with that marketing effort in the U.S...The ATP also "clinched" four doubles teams to qualify for the eight-team field in Bob and Mike Bryan, Mark Knowles-Daniel Nestor, US Open champions Jonas Bjorkman-Todd Woodbridge, and Mahesh Bhupathi-Max Mirnyi. We're personally pulling for blank Czechs Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl -- those two are a Houston marketing explosion waiting to happen.