Seed Schalken Ousted by Russian at Kremlin Cup; Ivanisevic to Play Exhibition Against Henman

Russian wildcard Igor Andreev thrilled the home crowd in Moscow by shocking 2002 finalist and No. 1 seed Sjeng Schalken 6-3, 6-1 in front of a capacity 7,000, including former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who reportedly was not hammered. "I started well," Andreev said. "I was nervous at the start, but then I got the break and things were going well and I got more and more confident. That helped me control my nerves. I was surprised that he was missing so much, but I think it was also because I was hitting so hard, and playing at a fast tempo. This is a dream for me to be in the second round of my hometown tournament, I'm so happy, but now I am thinking about my next match." Schalken for his part wasn't impressed. "Consistency is normally the best part of my game, but I was missing every other ball," said the Dutch No. 1. "I didn't get to see his game all that much, because I was making so many mistakes. I think with the way I played that anybody would have beaten me tonight." Other winners on the day were American Vince Spadea (d. (WC)Stoliarov in three) and Ollie Rochus (d. Bjorkman).

Two seeds fell Monday in Metz, with Andrei Pavel showing he is back from injury (breaking an eight-match losing streak) with a 7-6 in the third win over (6)Hrbaty (Pavel saved one match point), and 21-year-old Frenchman Nicolas Mahut surprising (2)El Aynaoui 7-6 in the third. "It's unbelievable, my first match win of the year," Pavel said. "It feels like I've already won the tournament. I was playing good in practice but a match it is different. Last week, in my comeback in Palermo, I had a tough draw against [Luis] Horna. I was up 5-4 and serving in the first set and 5-2 in the second but lost in two sets. This week I looked at the draw and saw Hrbaty, so I thought another tough one. I was lucky, he was up 4-1 in the third and had a match point with me serving at 4-5."

Matches of interest today:

Tokyo: (1)Schuettler vs. (WC)Iwabuchi, (10)Ancic vs. (Q)Iwami, (8)Gambill vs. Ulihrach, Bogomolov vs. (6)Kiefer, (7)Lee vs. Verdasco, and (16)Carraz vs. van Scheppingen.

Metz: (Q)Caratti vs. Lisnard, (1)Robredo vs. Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, (5)Santoro vs. Veronelli, Ramirez Hidalgo vs. (8)Arazi, (Q)Snobel vs. Hanescu, Vincente vs. Popp, and (Q)Ascione vs. Voltchkov.

Moscow: (8)Kafelnikov vs. Kunitsyn in an all-Russian showdown (first meeting), (5)Mirnyi vs. (WC)Davydenko (Russian leads 2-0), (WC)Golovanov (Safin's coach) vs. (2)Calleri, Youhzny vs. Koubek, (Q)Ketola vs. Chela, (Q)Zib vs. Ljubicic, Rosset vs. (Q)Prinosil (Rosset leads 8-1), and Sargsian vs. Volandri.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Japan's Rika Fujiwara (Remember that name! Sorry! Just kidding!) thrilled fans at Tokyo Monday by ousting defending champion Ansley Cargill of the U.S. in the first round of the Japan Open. Two other matches were played on Day One with Spain's Parra defeating Zanetti, and Schaul beating Sucha. Exciting stuff. The final round of qualifying was also completed, with four advancing into the main draw in Miho Saeki (JPN), Tin Li (CHN), Tian Tian Sun (CHN), and Abigail "Oops I Did It Again" Spears (USA).

In Moscow Monday, both Russians in action came through for the home crowd in (7)Zvonareva (d. Coetzer in three) and (WC)Douchevina (d. Raymond). The final round of qualifying was also completed with Marlene Weingartner (GER), Tatiana Perebiynis (UKR), Jelena Kostanic (CRO), and Tina Pisnik (SLO) moving into the main draw.

On court today:

Moscow: Schiavone vs. Krasnoroutskaya, Maleeva vs. (WC)Safina (first meeting), Bovina vs. Schnyder, Dokic vs. Stevenson, and Daniilidou vs. Shaughnessy.

Tokyo: Asagoe vs. Li, Craybas vs. Obata, Ashley "The New Anna" Harkleroad vs. Ozaki, Maria "Grunt-o-licious" Sharpova vs. Kim, Morigami vs. Kirilenko, Widjaja vs. Yoshida, Dominikovic vs. Srebotnik, Spears vs. Gagliardi, Sun vs. Kapros, Yan vs. Saeki, and Zheng vs. Talaja.

NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Nice generic quote from WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott: "Althea (Gibson) was one of the true pioneers of our sport. Her remarkable career should be an inspiration to all of us. She's going to be deeply missed." The old "(insert name here) was a pioneer of our sport"...Guillermo Coria has become the first non-slam winner to clinch a spot at the eight-man year-end Masters Cup-Houston, the fifth player to clinch after Andy Roddick (US Open winner), Juan Carlos Ferrero (French), Roger Federer (Wimbledon) and Andre Agassi (Australian Open): "It is a great feeling to have qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston. When I was a little kid I also had this as one of my dreams." Of course we at Tennis-X clinched him like a month ago. Too bad no one gave him the message...David Nalbandian withdrew from Moscow this week with a wrist and abdominal injury, hurting his chances to qualify for his first year-ending Masters Cup...How unstoppable would Taylor Dent be if he didn't get injured every other week?...Raise the roof for Anastasia Myskina, a Russian who actually wins titles...Kim Clijsters said on her website that she will play the rest of the season with a taped ankle due to last week's ankle sprain, and hopes to play Filderstadt next week. If not, the No. 1 ranking will be Justine Henin-Hardenne's for the taking...Venus Williams has officially pulled from Filderstadt...Australia has officially chosen grass as the surface for the Davis Cup final against Spain...Nikolai and Max Mirnyi introduced Nikolai's book "Peaceful Tennis" Monday at the Kremlin Cup. The book, written by Nikolai, details Max's life and tennis stories. The two took part in a book signing before posing for photos: "We first made it available in Belarus a few weeks ago and it was really popular with the fans," said the older Mirnyi. "It's a book of the life stories we've had from being involved in tennis." The book's title "Peaceful Tennis" is pronounced "Mirnyi Tennis" in Russian, playing on the meaning of the family's last name...Fabrice Santoro is pumped to have qualified for the Masters Cup doubles: "It's going to be great, it's my second Masters and Michael's (Llodra) first. The ATP made the right decision to reunite the singles and doubles [at the Masters]. It will be tough with the top eight teams but we have beaten everyone apart from Bjorkman-Woodbridge."...SI's Jon Wertheim goes out on a limb this week by saying 'Keep an eye on Taylor Dent,' whoooo, you think?...The WTA will try and guarantee that no one will watch the WTA Championships this year by airing it opposite Monday Night Football in the U.S...Goran Ivanisevic, who is reportedly fit after months of training (then why isn't he playing tour events?), will face Tim Henman in an exhibition in December...Apparently the Brits will retain Roger Taylor as Davis Cup captain, but can they retain Greg Rusedski?