Top-Seeded Suarez Carries the Load at WTA Auckland

She's not exactly Britney Spears (or the elusive Anna K.), but doubles specialist Paola Suarez has been capturing hearts at the WTA stop in Auckland with her everpresent smile, broken English and tenacious play as the stand-in No. 1 seed in singles. The vertically-challenged Argentine replaced Jelena Dokic as the top seed when the sometimes-Aussie pulled from the event after being dumped by her race car-driving boyfriend, and validated her standing by moving into the second round Tuesday with a straight-set win over American quaifier Tara Schnyder. Two other seeds advanced in (2)Anna "Not That Anna" Smashnova-Pistolesi (d. Vakulenko in three sets) and (7)Marlene Weingartner (d. Parra), while failing to uphold her seeding was American Laura Granville, beaten convincingly by Italian qualifier Tathiana Garbin. Other un-seeds advancing were American qualifiers Shenay Perry (d.Ruano Pascual) and Meilen Tu (d. Morigami), Swiss Playboy fantasy Emmanuelle Gagliardi (d. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova), and France's Marion Bartoli (d. Medina Garrigues). "I played three good matches to qualify and now beating a great player like Ruano Pascual is fantastic," the qualifier Perry said. "This is the best win of my career."
Wednesday's full slate at Auckland is Bartoli vs. Black, Suarez vs. Lee-Waters, Barna vs. E.Marama, Daniilidou vs. Gagliardi, Amy "Down Goes" Frazier vs. Brandi, Ashley "Anna 2.0" Harkleroad vs. Smashnova-Pistolesi, Garbin vs. Perry, and Tu vs. Weingartner.

Unseeded Aussie Nicole Pratt let the smack fly Tuesday after winning a tough three-setter at her homecountry event in Gold Coast. Pratt outlasted Russian Lina Krasnoroutskaya in three sets, said her opponent gave up, then insinuated that Aussies have the biggest nutsacks to beat the heat. "Nothing really prepares you for the humidity unless you are here in Queensland," Pratt said. "The mentality to fight it out in those conditions was there for me. I knew she was struggling in the second set. She pretty much didn't fight." Pratt said she hopes for even hotter conditions next round when she faces another Russian, Nadia Petrova, who received a first round bye. "The hotter the better," Pratt said. "Nadia hasn't played and she doesn't know what it feels like." Letting their racquets do the talking in moving into the third round were seeds (1)Ai Sugiyama (d. Loit) and (7)Magui "Don't Call Me Maggie" Serna (d. Kapros in three). Russian comer Dinara "Little Sis" Safina showed she is ready to elevate in 2004, toughing out a three-set win over the French qualifier Cohen-Aloro.
Five matches are on tap Wednesday in Gold Coast in Kuznetsova vs. Zvonareva in an all-Russian affair, Martinez vs. Safina, Schnyder vs. Dechy, the smack-talking Pratt vs. Petrova, and Stosur vs. Sprem.


ATP REVIEWS/PREVIEWS
Three seeds were jettisoned Tuesday at the Exxon Mobil Oil Open in Doha, with the fatalities including (3)Mark Philippoussis (l. to defending champ Koubek in three), (5)Nicolas Massu (l. to Ivan "A-Rod Fan Club President" Ljubicic), and the leg-injured (6)Younes El Aynaoui (l. to (WC)Escude). (1)Andy Roddick won in his 2004 debut with a workman-like effort over Russian Nikolay Davydenko, with two other seeded winners in (4)Sebastien Grosjean (d. (Q)Hantschk), and (8)Agustin Calleri (d. Volandri in three). "It wasn't spectacular but I did what I had to do," said Roddick after the 6-3, 6-3 win. "That's what you are looking for. It was nice to get a nice ovation from the crowd. It's nice to see they appreciate my tennis. I'm here to experience a new culture and I'm definitely excited." Experience culture and wads of appearance money that is. Other un-seeds into the second round were Swedish comer Robin Soderling (d. 2003 runner-up Jan-Mike "Time to Go Full-Time Modeling" Gambill), another Swede in Jonas Bjorkman (d. Stepanek who retired with a hip injury), Korean net-rusher Hyung-Taik Lee (d. (Q)Voltchkov who retired with bronchitis), and Juan Ignacio "Just Say No" Chela (d. O.Rochus in three).
Today in Doha features tournament organizers throwing wads of money at (Q)Ulihrach vs. (4)Grosjean, (1)Roddick vs. Bjorkman, (7)Henman vs. Chela (Argentinean leads head-to-head 2-1), (Q)Heuberger vs. (WC)Escude, Arazi vs. (8)Calleri, Sargsian vs. Youzhny, Koubek vs. H-T.Lee, and Ljubicic vs. Soderling.

Rain was the big winner at Adelaide Tuesday, with two seeds advancing but four matches washed out. Moving on in straight sets were (3)Arnaud Clement (d. Hanescu) and (8)Nicolas Lapentti (d. Labadze), while (1)Wayne Ferreira and (4)Robby Ginepri's matches were pushed back to Wednesday. Unseeds advancing before the rains fell were David Sanguinetti (d. (Q)Elsner), Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty (d. (Q)Benneteau), and French qualifier Michael Llodra (d. Lars "Already Gunning for the Tennis-X Bottom 10 Rankings" Burgsmuller).
Today's schedule in Adelaide is (4)Ginepri vs. Saulnier, Rusedski vs. (Q)Wawrinka, (1)Ferreira vs. (WC)Reid (watch out for the local boy), (WC)T.Johansson vs. (3)Clement, (WC)Arthurs vs. (2)Spadea, (5)Dent vs. Beck, Canas vs. "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter, and (8)N.Lapentti vs. (Q)Llodra.

Chennai organizers breathed a collective sigh of relief Tuesday (even though the stands were virtually empty) when all five top seeds advanced into the second round, including (1)Carlos Moya (d. (Q)Okun), (2)Paradorn "The Asian Gigolo" Srichaphan (d. Montanes), (3)Sjeng Schalken (d. (Q)Udomchoke), (4)Tommy Robredo (d. Tursunov in three), and (5)Felix "The Dirt Cat" Mantilla (d. (Q)Vacek). "It's never easy to play the first match of the year," Moya said. "It takes a while to find your rhythm. I started well and my serve helped me a lot. I've worked hard on my serve. If you can pick up easy points on your serve and hold your serve well you can relax a bit more on your return games. It was lucky that I broke his serve in the first game. That didn't help him. I know he can play well. I guess he was a little nervous." Not so lucky was (6)Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal-Parera, who added a hyphenation to his last name for 2004, but apparently no additional hardcourt skills in falling to unheralded Frenchman Theirry Ascione. Other unseeded winners were Austrian qualifier Julien Knowle (d. (WC)Rastogi in a dream draw), and Kenneth "Can't Believe I'm Not Injured" Carlsen, who in a turnaround won when French youngster Paul-Henri Mathieu retired with a left wrist injury. Mathieu said he injured his wrist during practice on Monday.
Five matches on court Wednesday in India in Levy vs. (2)Srichaphan, Carlsen vs. (4)Robredo, (8)Dupuis vs. Lisnard in an all-French affair (first meeting), and (7)Ferrer vs. Andreev.

ATP ADELAIDE PAST CHAMPIONS
Five players have won twice in Adelaide, but no player has won the title three times:
2003 Nikolay Davydenko
2002 Tim Henman
2001 Tommy Haas
2000 Lleyton Hewitt
1999 Thomas Enqvist
1998 Lleyton Hewitt
1997 Todd Woodbridge
1996 Yevgeny Kafelnikov
1995 Jim Courier
1994 Yevgeny Kafelnikov
1993 Nicklas Kulti
1992 Goran Ivanisevic
1991 Nicklas Kulti
1990 Thomas Muster
1989 Mark Woodforde
1988 Mark Woodforde
1987 Wally Masur
1985 Eddie Edwards
1984 Peter Doohan
1983 Mike Bauer
1982 Mike Bauer
1981 Mark Edmonson
1979 Kim Warwick
1977 Victor Amaya
1974 Dick Stockton

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
James Blake debuted his shaved head at the Hopman Cup, and will raffle of his shorn locks at the Australian Open, with the proceeds to benefit his friend's inner-city basketball team. Said Australia's The Age: "The 24-year-old American has shorn his trademark dreadlocks for charity, so that he now resembles Andre Agassi more than he does Sideshow Bob."...Wimbledon has announced it will put a roof on the stadium court, to be completed in 2009, no hurry eh?...Pat Rafter, playing doubles in Adelaide this week, reiterated that a singles comeback is not in the making...Marat Safin says his time off has done wonders for his attitude in 2004: "I decide to come in to play, to come back strong and prepare myself, and I really want to be the No. 1 in the world at the end of this year."...Marat Safin had his Australian passport stolen two days before his departure from Moscow but still made it Down Under via Frankfurt and Singapore...The ATP announced that Argentine player Mariano Puerta failed the pee test for the banned substance clenbuterol (anabolic muscle enhancer) during the 2003 event in Vina del Mar, Chile, and has been handed a 9-month suspension that began Oct. 3, 2003. He also must forfeit 15 singles points and $5,600 in prize money. Puerta will be eligible to return to competition after July 1, 2004. So where's the punishment?...Thomas Johansson says he'll skip next month's Davis Cup match against Australia to play a Challenger and try and up his ranking, the Swedes can't be too happy about that, they're the only one the Aussies fear...Carlos Moya is now 10-1 in Chennai after advancing out of the first round Tuesday...Pat Rafter debuts in doubles today at Adelaide with partner Josh "Hope I Don't Choke" Eagle...In its own newsletter, the WTA Tour proclaims it has the "Best-ever website for WTA Tour"! The new design is a "joint venture between ATP and WTA personnel," which means the ATP must have designed it...From the Hindustan Times: "If people out here are talking about this possibly being the last edition of the Tata Open and the ATP Tour event being shifted out of Chennai, be sure it could happen. For the second day running, fans were conspicuous by their absence even as the top guns -- Carlos Moya and defending champion Paradorn Srichaphan -- advanced into the second round with ease."