Grosjean Knocked Out of Masters Cup; Roddick Rolls in Basel; Patty Schnyder Knocks Out Top Seed in Linz

Posted on October 26, 2003

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
France's Sebastien Grosjean saw his chances of qualifying for the year-end Masters Cup evaporate Friday in St. Petersburg when the No. 2 seed was edged in a third set tiebreak by resurgent Spanish wildcard Alex Corretja. "I haven't been in the semifinals for a while, I believe I played pretty good," Corretja said. "Of course it's better to start better than I did. But if you cannot do it, you have to hang in there and wait for the opportunity. I think I played better in the second set. I realized I had good chances to win, even if it was tough at the end." Other quarterfinal winners were (1)Schuettler (d. (5)Youzhny), (3)Kuerten (d. (6)Spadea), and unseeded Sargis Sargsian (d. Burgsmuller).

The crazy-ass Stockholm wildcards just keep on winning, with Swedes (WC)Soderling (d. Bjorkman) and (WC)Enqvist (d. Ginepri) moving into the semifinals Friday. "This match was really important, it gets me closer to the Top 100 and into the main draw at the Australian Open," said Enqvist, fighting his way back after a long injury lay-off. "It's been a tough year to not have any good results." Also into the semis was the lone seed (5)Mardy Fish (d. Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, who fought off three match points in the second set before falling in three), and unseeded Italian David Sanguinetti (d. (WC)Joachim Johansson). "At the start of the third, I was thinking I really should have wrapped it up in two, but that's when you have to really get your head back into it and focus," The Fish said. "I just tried to take care of my service games in the last set. I had another match point on his serve and he played well to take it to a breaker. I really had to fight today. It feels really good to be in the semifinals for the first time during the fall season, more important is that I'm hitting the ball well." In doubles, the Aussie team of Arthurs/Hanley are waiting in the final to play the winner of the 3/4 Swedish Bjorkman/Woodbridge vs. J.Johansson/Vinciguerra semi.

No surprises in the Basel quarterfinals Friday, with (1)Roddick continuing his cake draw with a win over Ollie Rochus, (3)Coria housing the Spaniard Lopez 6-1, 6-2, (4)Nalbandian continuing his ownership of Tim Henman in straight sets, and unseeded Ivan "The Serve" Ljubicic edging Nico Lapentti in three. "He doesn't really have any weaknesses," said Henman on being Nalbandian's bitch. "He is probably one of the most underrated players." The doubles semis Saturday will be Novak/Pala vs. Knowles/Nestor, and Humphries/Merklein vs. Arnold/Hood.

Today's Semifinals:
St. Petersburg -- (3)Kuerten vs. (WC)Corretja (Guga leads the series 5-2, including the last five), and (1)Schuettler vs. Sargsian (German leads 3-1). "It's kind of a classic match," said Guga on playing Corretja "We've played each other many times. It brings back some good memories in great tournaments. For sure, it will be a great match." Yeah, good memories when you practically own the other guy.

Stockholm -- (5)Fish vs. (WC)Enqvist (Fish leads 1-0), and (WC)Soderling vs. Sanguinetti (first meeting). "I played Thomas [Enqvist] in Scottsdale a few years ago and beat him there," Fish said. "He'll obviously have the crowd on his side which would make for a great atmosphere."

Basel -- Ljubicic vs. (3)Coria (tied 1-1), and (4)Nalbandian vs. (1)Roddick in a rematch of their classic US Open confrontation (A-Rod leads the series 3-0). "I think it will be a huge match for me," says Ljubicic of playing Coria. "It would be only my second final. My serve has to help me otherwise it will be very difficult. He has had a fantastic year."

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Unseeded Marlene Weingartner of Germany powered her way into the Luxembourg semifinals Friday with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over No. 3 seed Eleni Daniilidou. Three seeds joined the German in (1)Clijsters (d. Loit), (2)Rubin (d. (7)Molik, who retired in the second with a foot injury), and (5)Maria "Orgasmo" Sharapova (d. Barna in three). Saturday's semi line up as (2)Rubin vs. Weingartner (who has never been in a tour final, with Rubin leading the head-to-head 3-1), and (1)Clijsters vs. (5)Sharapova in a measuring stick for the young Russian (Clijsters leads 1-0, with a three-set win earlier this year at LA). The doubles semis will be Barna/Medina Garrigues vs. Tatarkova/Weingartner, and Fokina/Koryttseva vs. Sharapova/Tanasugarn.

Patty "I'm Not Nuts" Schnyder is ramping it up in Linz, on Friday knocking out the top-seeded Anastasia Myskina 6-1, 6-1, and sending a message in the process. "It was a perfect match for me, everything I tried worked out," said Schnyder, who threw in a good number of serve-and-volley points. Others into the semis were Russians (3)Vera "Warren" Zvonareva (d. (6)Pistolesi, saving three match points) and (4)Petrova (d. (7)Suarez in three), and Japan's favorite (2)Sugiyama (d. Dokic in three). Saturday's order of play will be (3)Zvonareva vs. (2)Sugiyama (first meeting), and (8)Schnyder vs. (4)Petrova (Swiss leads 4-1), with the possibility of an all-Russian final. In the doubles, the unseeded Bartoli/Farina Elia are waiting in the final for the semifinal winner of Huber/Sugiyama vs. Benesova/Pastikova.

TOP 10 2003 LATE-SEASON PLUNGES
10. Jiri Novak -- Qualified for the Masters Cup last year, but couldn't get over the hump in his follow-up year, with a ranking consistently in the No. 10-20 range. Not bad, but not the stuff of champions.
9. Yevgeny Kafelnikov -- Y-Man again says he will retire by the end of the year, though this time it looks for real since he has stopped training, and trying.
8. Daniela Hantuchova -- Regularly hammered by the top players, The Walking Stick needs to use the off-season to see a counselor, stop crying after losses, hit the gym and eat some burgers.
7. Paradorn Srichaphan -- Crying after the Bangkok loss began the slide for the Thai, who couldn't come up with the goods in October to qualify for the Masters Cup.
6. Marat Safin -- Out most of the year with injury, back now but can't beat Vicente (see below), enough said.
5. Andre Agassi -- Firmly in the race for the year-end No. 1 until he chucks the indoor season after producing another kid with Steffi -- good-on the family man. Who wouldn't want to wake up next to Steffi at home rather than next to Gil in a hotel room?
4. Lleyton Hewitt -- Chucks indoor season to "concentrate on Davis Cup," doesn't qualify for Masters Cup which he has won two years running, nice effort Lleyton.
3. Fernando Vicente -- Breaks into Tennis-X Bottom 10 Rankings this week (see tomorrow); only gets press when accused of gambling on matches.
2. Ashley Harkleroad -- What happened to Anna 2.0? Injuries and high expectations.
1. James Blake -- Passed over for U.S. Davis Cup duty, then results and confidence took a dive.

BECK NEW No. 1 ON TENNIS-X.COM ATP BOTTOM 10 RANKINGS
(week of Oct. 20, 2003)
Slovak Karol upended long-time No. 1 Thomas Enqvist to claim the top spot for the first time on the Tennis-X Bottom 10 this week. The Swede, a wildcard this week at Stockholm, is still alive in the semifinals. Alex Corretja, also a wildcard this week at St. Pete, dropped to No. 8 after posting a couple wins in a desperate last-minute attempt to escape the Bottom 10, and is also alive in the semis.
The Bottom 8 players at the end of the year qualify for the Tennis-X Masters-of-Disaster Cup at the Jarboe Park public courts in Nepune Beach, FL (minimum 30 matches):

Player/W-L/Pct.
1. Beck, Karol (SVK) 9-23 .281
2. Enqvist, Thomas (SWE) 12-26 .316
3. Portas, Albert (ESP) 10-20 .333
4. Vahaly, Brian (USA) 12-23 .343
5. Rochus, Christophe (BEL) 12-21 .364
6. Acasuso, Jose (ARG) 11-19 .367
7. Arthurs, Wayne (AUS) 14-24 .368
8. Corretja, Alex (ESP) 13-22 .371
9. Kratochvil, Michel (SUI) 13-21 .382
10. Vicente, Fernando (ESP) 19-29 .396

TOP 10 TIME-TO-HANG-IT-UP
1. Yevgeny Kafelnikov
2. Marcelo Rios
3. Wayne Arthurs
4. Amanda Coetzer
5. Todd Martin
6. Mary Pierce
7. Magnus Norman
8. Jan-Michael Gambill
9. Justin Gimelstob
10. Arvind Parmar

NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Carlos Moya officially became the seventh player to qualify for the eight-man Masters Cup field Friday, joining fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Guillermo Coria, and Rainer Schuettler. The final qualifying spot is still up for grabs between David Nalbandian and Mark Philippoussis (who may pull from the TMS-Paris with a chest infection)...The Swedes are in danger this year of not winning a singles title for the first time since 1973...So far the pulls from next week's final regular-season tour event, the TMS-Paris, include Carlos Moya (shoulder), Greg Rusedski (back), defending champ Marat Safin, (foot blisters), and Yevgeny Kafelnikov (retirement hopefully)...Amelie Mauresmo has become the fourth player to qualify for the eight-woman WTA Championships field, joining Justine Henin-Hardenne, Kim Clijsters and Jennifer Capriati. There are seven players -- Elena Dementieva, Venus Williams, Anastasia Myskina, Chanda Rubin, Ai Sugiyama, Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova -- competing for the last four spots...Andy Roddick is super-excited about being in the race for No. 1: "I'm super excited for No. 1. I still have a lot of work to do. I'm not unfortunately not going to seal the deal here in Basel. My goal was to make the Masters Cup this year, I've accomplished more than that." Super...For the first time since 1974 in Melbourne, Australian, the Masters Cup will be played outdoors...The reviews are coming in for Serena's TV role on "Street Time," and they essentially say "Don't quit your day job."