Dent, Philippoussis Power to Titles; Myskina Upsets Henin-Hardenne; Safin Returns in Moscow

No. 3 seed Mark Philippoussis showed his top form in the Shanghai final Sunday, steamrolling the top-seeded Jiri Novak 6-2, 6-1 to end a two-year title drought. "From the beginning I felt good on the court but Mark played excellent tennis," Novak said. "He was killing the shots and dominating the court. I had only one break point. It was a bad day at the office on the court. The court was so fast and it suited him." Novak is struggling in his attempt to qualify for the Masters Cup for a second year in a row. Top-seeded Arthurs/Hanley won the doubles title, ending the dream run of Chinese wildcards Zeng/Zhu 6-2, 6-4 for their third title of the year.

In Palermo, Top-seeded Nicolas Massu continued his red-hot dirt campaign in 2003, taking advantage of a choking Paul-Henri Mathieu to fight off three match points for his second title of the year. Mathieu was serving for the match at 6-5, 40-0 when his throat seized and he lost the last 12 points of the match. Another French choker in the mold of Henri Leconte, the French have to be pumped to see that. "I am happy with reaching the final but obviously I did not like losing having three match points," Mathieu said. "I did get nervous serving for the match but that is normal. This is the way it is in tennis. He played also good and did not make mistakes during the match points. I believe I had a good tournament because I always fought, but I know I can play better. Still it is a good thing I always kept on fighting." Yeah, that's a good spin. You had triple match point and then lost 12 straight points kid. Sleep that one off. In the doubles final, top-seeded Arnold/Hood of Argentina beat Czechs Cermak/Friedl 7-6(6), 6-7(3), 6-3 for their second title of the year. It was the second consecutive loss in the Palermo final for the Czechs.

This week in Moscow features the return of Marat Safin from a wrist injury, with top seeds Sjeng Schalken (2002 runner-up), Agustin Calleri, Felix Mantilla, Safin, Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, Nicolas Massu, "Fhil" Lopez, and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. First round matches of interest include (7)Lopez vs. the defending champion Mathieu, (3)Mantilla vs. Dent, (6)Massu vs. Kucera, and (5)Mirnyi vs. Davydenko. Kafelnikov and Rosset are also returning champions in the draw. On court Monday are (WC)Stoliarov vs. Spadea, (1)Schalken vs. (WC)Andreev, and O.Rochus vs. Bjorkman.

You'd think this week in Metz was a claycourt event rather than hardcourt stop with top seeds Tommy Robredo, Younes El Aynaoui, Fernando Gonzalez, Arnaud Clement, Hicham Arazi, Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, Anthony Dupuis, and Fabrice Santoro. Interesting first-round matches include (1)Robredo vs. Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, (6)Hrbaty vs. Pavel, and (4)Clement vs. Llodra. Wildcards went to Thomas Enqvist, Michel Llodra, and French wunderkind Richard Gasquet. The Open de Moselle in Metz is one of three new events on the ATP in 2003 together with Valencia (ESP) and Bangkok (THA). The cities of Metz and Nancy used to co-host the Open de Lorraine from 1979-89. On court Monday in Metz are Pavel vs. (6)Hrbaty (series tied 2-2), (WC)Enqvist vs. Sanguinetti, Mahut vs. (2)El Aynaoui, Beck vs. Ferrer, and Behrend vs. Puerta.

The seeds at the Japan Open in Tokyo this week (in no particular order) are Schuettler, Vahaly, Norman, the 1999 champion Kiefer, Novak, Burgsmuller, Ancic, Philippoussis, H.-T. Lee, the defending champion Carlsen, Moodie, Srichaphan, Gambill, van Lottum, Carraz, and Grosjean. Yup, 64 draw, lots of seeds, lots of byes, lots of early-round boredom. Possible second-round matches of interest are (13)Vahaly vs. Arthurs, (11)Norman vs. Draper, (8)Gambill vs. Ulihrach, and (2)Grosjean vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic. The weak Day One offerings in Tokyo include Eschauer vs. (Q)Iwami, Berdych vs. (Q)Kratochvil, (WC)Iwabuchi vs. Mamiit, Heuberger vs. Bogomolov, Vinciguerra vs. Van Scheppingen, (Q)Phau vs. Salzenstein, Miranda vs. Ulihrach, D.Norman vs. (Q)Bastl, (Q)Vacek vs. Draper, and (Q)Weiner vs. Verdasco.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Russian No. 3 seed Anastasia Myskina shocked No. 2-ranked Justine Henin Hardenne 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the Leipzig final Sunday for her third title of the year, snapping H-H's streak of 22 match wins. Myskina is the 14th woman in the history of the WTA Rankings to beat the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked players in the same tournament. "I'm so happy with this win, it's definitely the biggest of my career," the Russian said. "I knew I had a chance to beat Justine and my coach told me to be aggressive right from the start and that's what I tried to do. I made too many mistakes in the first set, and then Justine's level dropped a little in the second, and gave me a chance to get back into the match. This is a huge step for me and I hope I can continue this during the rest of the tournaments leading up to the championships." In the doubles final, (1)Kuznetsova/Navratilova came back to beat Russians (2)Likhovtseva/Petrova 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 for their fifth title of the year.

The shaky Japan Open (no Top 10 players) in Tokyo kicks off today, featuring top seeds Ai Sugiyama of Japan, Tamarine Tanasugarn, Katarina Srebontnik, Shinobu Asagoe, Maria "Grunt-o-licious" Sharapova, Ashley "The New Anna" Harkleroad, Japan's own Saori Obata, and Emmanuelle Gagliardi. Ansley Cargill is the defending champion, if that gives you any idea where this event is headed. On court today are Cargill vs. Fujiwara, Serra-Zanetti vs. Parra, and Sucha vs. Schaul -- we'd ask for a refund on Day One.

The Kremlin Cup in Moscow is where the money is this week on the WTA Tour, with top seeds Capriati (last-minute wildcard), Mauresmo, Dementieva, Myskina, Maleeva, Petrova, Zvonareva, and Shaughnessy. JenCap, who gets a bye first round, could face Patty "Nutty" Schnyder second round, with (8)Schaughnessy vs. Daniilidou in her opener, (5)Maleeva vs. Dinara "Little Sis" Safina, (7)Zvonareva vs. Coetzer, and (2)Mauresmo to play the winner of Jelena "Yugo-Aussie" Dokic and Alexandra "Dr. A" Stevenson. In last year's final, Maleeva beat Lindsey Davenport, who is currently sidelined with a foot injury. Returning champions are Maleeva (2003, 1995-94), and Dokic (2001). On court today in Moscow is Serna vs. Farina Elia, Raymond vs. Douchevina, and Zvonareva vs. Coetzer.

2003 SINGLES TITLE LEADERS (through Sept. 28)
7--Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL)
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6--Kim Clijsters (BEL)
6--Andy Roddick (USA)
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5--Roger Federer (SUI)
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4--Andre Agassi (USA)
4--Guillermo Coria (ARG)
4--Serena Williams (USA)

2003 DOUBLES TEAM TITLE LEADERS (through Sept. 28)
6--K.Clijsters/A.Sugiyama (BEL/JPN)
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5--M.Knowles/D.Nestor (BAH/CAN)
5--S.Kuznetsova/M.Navratilova (RUS/USA)
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4--B.Bryan/M.Bryan (USA)

NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Althea Gibson, the first black to play at and win Wimbledon, died Sunday at 76...Venus Williams has committed to playing in Philadelphia before the WTA Championships...Marcelo Rios, who has not played a tour event in several months due to a back injury, was detained by police in Santiago Sunday after he and a friend engaged several other men in a "bar brawl." Good to see he's keeping busy...Here's the clueless ESPN tennis website today: "...but the match may mean more for (Juan Carlos) Ferrero, who was trying to pull away from Andre Agassi in the fight to be the No. 1 player overall." Not really ESPN, since you previously reported that Agassi has pulled out of his remaining tournaments due to the impending birth of his child, and Andy Roddick is Ferrero's main threat in the race for No. 1. Hey ESPN, get a full-time tennis person on the website rather than having the golf writer update it each week...Can Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski (both must play for the Brit team to win) be persuaded to play the Euro-crap zonal Davis Cup ties in 2004 to get Britain out of the dregs?...Althea Gibson played professional golf on the LPGA Tour after her tennis career ended (she won all four tennis slams), but in a disgrace for the tennis community, died almost broke in a New Jersey hospital...While Andre Agassi hasn't announced his intentions after pulling out of his remaining tournaments in Europe, you'd think he would play the year-ending Masters Cup since it is in the U.S. (Houston)...Juan Carlos Ferrero dropped the hint that with his hectic 2003 schedule, he may end up skipping the 2004 Australian Open: "I don't know (if I'll play). If I finish the year number one and we win the Davis Cup at the end of November, I will have done everything. Then I would find it very difficult to practise again straight away to be ready for the Australian Open." JC has never been past the quarterfinals at the Aussie Open...Chile's Nicolas Massu, who won the Palermo title last week, has beaten Peru's Luis Horna three weeks in a row...Andy Roddick says Sir Elton John called him right before his US Open final, commenting on his semifinal against David Nalbandian: "You asshole, you had me so nervous yesterday, you had me crapping in my pants," Sir Elton eloquently said...Rolling Stone gleefully reported Andy Roddick telling an umpire "This guy's issues have issues," not realizing he stole that line from Pete Sampras, who was describing Greg Rusedski en route to his 2002 US Open win...Andy Roddick revels in being a jerk on the court, as told to Rolling Stone: "Actually, I've had some umpires come up to me and be like, 'Man, on the court, you're the biggest asshole to us, but off the court you always say hello. You're a totally different person. You're just weird, man.'".