Ferrero, Roddick Continue Race for No. 1 Today at TMS-Paris; WTA Philly, Quebec City Sucking Wind

Posted on October 29, 2003

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
No seeds in action Monday at the TMS-Paris, but plenty of Frenchmen out and about to keep the interest of Parisians. The hometown boys posted a 4-2 record, with winners including qualifiers Mahut (d. Nieminen in three), Carraz (d. Stepanek 7-6 in the third), and Ascione (d. Chela), and wildcard Fabrice "El Mago Senior" Santoro (d. Mirnyi in three). The two losers were supposed-up-and-comers Mathieu (l. to (Q)Arazi, blew set points), and the biggest loser in Gasquet (l. to Gaudio, blowing six (6) match points). "From the beginning I didn't play very well and I completely missed my opportunity," said Mathieu, throwing in some statements-of-the-obvious. "When you play badly, it's very difficult then to win." Now that's enlightening. Overall, qualifiers were 6-0 on the day. Other winners of note were Henman (d. Davydenko), (Q)Beck (d. Ginepri), Pavel (d. Kucera), and American James Blake ending his slide (d. Gonzalez for his first win of indoor season). "As I said, there's nothing, I think, to lose," said Henman, whose abominable season has him missing the Masters Cup. "I've said before that it's definitely been the most sort of challenging year for me as a professional. I think I couldn't be more excited about 2004 already. And, normally at this time of year, you're so sort of tired after such a busy schedule and so much tennis and tournaments and traveling, this year is different. I feel very fresh." So go play some exos, make some dough. In doubles action, the Bryan brothers bombed out in the first round to the veteran team of W.Black/Ullyett, taking an 0-2 stretch record into the Masters Cup doubles in Houston.

On court Tuesday at the TMS-Paris are (Q)Beck vs. (8)Srichaphan, (12)El Aynaoui vs. (Q)Arazi in an all-Moroccan (Younes from Tunis leads 3-0), (16)Robredo vs. Gaudio (first meeting), Kuerten vs. Fish (Guga leads 1-0), (1)Ferrero vs. (Q)Mahut (first meeting), Hanescu vs. (2)Roddick (first meeting), (LL)Hrbaty vs. Spadea (Dominator leads 2-1, with Spadea winning last week), Youhzny vs. Lopez, Bjorkman vs. Calleri, and (10)Massu vs. Costa.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Not a lot of excitement in Philadelphia Monday, with the lone seed in action, No. 10 Tina Pisnik, advancing in straight sets over lucky loser Janet Lee of Taipei. Yawn, nice reward for Monday ticket-holders. Ashley "Anna 2.0" Harkleroad made a successful return from injury (d. Likhovtseva, who retired in the second set with a shoulder injury), while qualifiers posted a 2-1 record with winners (Q)Sucha (d. Black) and (Q)Jankovic (d. (WC)Perry). If a tournament occurs and the media doesn't cover it, does it make a sound?

No. 8 Klara "Kouky" Koukalova bombed out in one of her rare seeded appearances Monday at Quebec City, throwing in the second set tank to Italy's Antonella Serra Zanetti 6-4, 6-0. Nice effort, if you're getting bageled at the QC, where do you go from there? Other winners on the day were (9)Grande (d. other sis ADRIANA Serra Zanetti in three), Callens (d. Saeki in three), and Kurhajcova (d. Schruff). The final round of qualifying was also completed, with Gisela Dulko (ARG), Sofia Arvidsson (SWE), Mashona "Sister Of" Washington (USA), and Meilen Tu (USA) into the main draw. The Tennis Channel is even hesitant to touch this one, put on the badminton reruns.

Only four matches on today's schedule in Philly in Pratt vs. Ashley, Talaja vs. Alexandra "Dr. A" Stevenson, Shaughnessy vs. Groenefeld, and Vera "Warren" Zvonareva vs. Raymond. In Quebec City the Parade of Shame includes Craybas vs. Benesova, Cargill vs. Jidkova, Brandi vs. Granville, Drake vs. Reeves in a North American stand-off, Sequera vs. Tu, Taylor vs. Dulko, and Barna vs. Fislova.

ATP TOP 10 TMS-PARIS WINNING PERCENTAGE (ALL-TIME)
Marat Safin (who skipped this year's event with injury) beats out former No. 1s Agassi (who skipped to spend some quality dad-time with the kids), Sampras, and Edberg for the best all-time win-loss record at the TMS-Paris. Arnaud Boetsch? Ouch (minimum 15 matches):

1. Safin, Marat (RUS) 16-2 .889
2. Agassi, Andre (USA) 14-4 .778
3. Sampras, Pete (USA) 24-7 .774
4T. Edberg, Stefan (SWE) 14-5 .737
4T. Forget, Guy (FRA) 14-5 .737
6. Becker, Boris (GER) 19-7 .731
7. Philippoussis, Mark (AUS) 12-5 .706
8. Boetsch, Arnaud (FRA) 13-6 .684
9. Kafelnikov, Yevgeny (RUS) 17-8 .680
10. Enqvist, Thomas (SWE) 11-6 .647

2003 TMS WINNERS
Indian Wells -- Lleyton Hewitt d. Gustavo Kuerten
Miami -- Andre Agassi d. Carlos Moya
Monte Carlo -- Juan Carlos Ferrero d. Guillermo Coria
Rome -- Felix Mantilla d. Roger Federer
Hamburg -- Guillermo Coria d. Agustin Calleri
Canada -- Andy Roddick d. David Nalbandian
Cincinnati -- Andy Roddick d. Mardy Fish
Madrid -- Juan Carlos Ferrero d. Nicolas Massu
Paris -- ?

WTA PHILLY MULTIPLE TITLE WINNERS
3--Steffi Graf (1998,'95,'92)
2--Lindsay Davenport (2000-99)
2--Chris Evert (1978-77)

NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
The WTA Tour will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a week of festivities at the WTA Tour Championships, honoring WTA tour founder Billie Jean King, as well as the tour's 13 former No. 1 players and the nine founding members of the Virginia Slims Tour, which later became the WTA Tour...Canada does not have a male singles player ranked in the Top 200...Tim Henman is looking forward to playing Sebastien Grosjean at the TMS-Paris after losing their last two meetings on grass: "This is a good opportunity to get revenge on his home turf. There is a lot more at stake for him (Masters Cup qualifying) than me and I have got to take advantage."...Elena Dementieva has qualified for the WTA Championships, joining Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Jennifer Capriati and Amelie Mauresmo as the first five of the eight-woman field. Bet that has the city of LA pumped. Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport have qualified but withdrawn with injuries, leaving the last three spots up for grabs this week between six players in Anastasia Myskina (2,244 points), Venus Williams (2,211 points), Ai Sugiyama (2,124 points), Chanda Rubin (2,116 points), Nadia Petrova (1,862 points) and Vera Zvonareva (1,831 points)...Andy Roddick leads all players with 896 aces, ahead of No. 2 Mark Philippoussis with 731...Vince Spadea leads all players on tour in percent of break points converted (50%)...For the second time this year (after Scottsdale) Ai Sugiyama won both the singles and doubles titles at the same tournament last week in Linz...This week's WTA newsletter says Anastasia Myskina is not playing in Philly? The WTA then lists her in the draw, nice one...Hey WTA, what's with holding an event in Thailand the same week that you're putting on the WTA Championships? Nice again...The last player into the qualifying this week at the WTA Quebec City event had a ranking of No. 1048, nice quality...U.S. captain Billie Jean King is pumped to have Martina Navratilova on her Fed Cup team for the semifinals: "Martina with her experience, motivation and discipline will be so good for this team. She's hopping around, raring to go. The chemistry is going to be great. They're totally psyched, and they're going for it." The Americans will roll over a Belgian team without Kim Clijsters or Justine Henin-Hardenne...Lisa Raymond and Martina Navratilova are getting some Fed Cup practice on the court together this week in Philadelphia, winning their opening round match...Elke "Sister Of" Clijsters has been named to the Belgian Fed Cup team, with a ranking in the 400s...Hey Yevgeny, c'mon, we've got the party waiting in the back room, pull the trigger.