Aussie Wildcard Guccione Stuns Top-Seeded Ferrero at ATP Sydney

Posted on January 14, 2004

The future of Australian tennis is looking pretty good. Following Aussie teen Todd Reid's run over the opening two weeks of the ATP season, now his No. 447-ranked 18-year-old countryman Chris "Penthouse" Guccione has put himself on the map Tuesday at Sydney with a straight-set upset of No. 1 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero. "I think I couldn't play more than I did because he was serving very good all the time," said Ferrero, who watched 19 aces go by. "I think I'm feeling (like) I didn't play a match, because I play, I think, one rally in the whole match. It's difficult to play against these kind of guys. You only hit the ball one time in each point...I didn't know anything about him. That was the first time that I saw him." That's why players have coaches JC, it's called scouting, check into it. Three other seeds advanced in (3)Carls Moya (d. (Q)Bogomolov, Jr.), (4)Mark Philippoussis (d. Ramirez Hidalgo in three), and (8)Martin "Berzerk" Verkerk (d. (WC)Arthurs), while (5)Paradorn Srichaphan led Jonas Bjorkman 4-1 in the third when rain halted play for the day. Other un-seeds moving on were Wayne Ferreira (d. Blake, nice effort coming off the Hopman Cup win), Spaniards Felix Mantilla (d. (Q)Gasquet who retired at 0-3 in the first with heat exhaustion) and Tommy Robredo (d. countryman Al Costa), Max "The Beast" Mirnyi (d. Calleri), Slovak Karol Kucera (d. Lopez in three), the Frenchmen Arnaud Clement (d. Fish), and the hot-handed Michael Llodra (d. Youzhny). "It was pretty difficult to be as bad as I was last week," said Ferreira, who last week as the top seed in Adelaide won only one game against the Aussie wildcard Reid.
On Tap Wednesday in Sydney is (5)Srichaphan vs. Bjorkman (to be completed), (7)Hewitt vs. Kucera (Slovak leads head-to-head 1-0), Rusedski vs. (4)Philippoussis (Dopey leads 3-2), (WC)Guccione vs. Ferreira, (3)Moya vs. Llodra (first meeting), Mantilla vs. (WC)Reid (first meeting), (8)Verkerk vs. Mirnyi (first meeting), Robredo vs. Bjorkman or (5)Srichaphan, and Clement vs. (Q)J.Johansson. Hewitt, Flipper, Reid, and Guccione in action? Nice day to be an Aussie fan in Sydney.

A big match schedule at Auckland Tuesday saw two seeds on their way to Melbourne early in (4)Sjeng Schalken (l. to Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal) and (8)Jarkko Nieminen (l. to Fabrice "I'll Cut Ya" Santoro). Seeded players into the second round were (3)Gustavo Kuerten (d. (WC)Corretja, winning a three-set marathon), (5)Vince Spadea (d. countryman Todd Martin), and (6)Gaston Gaudio (d. Stepanek). "I'm very happy," said The Prodigy after getting back on track. "I've been going through a lot losses, about six in a row. I'm so happy to win today. I felt comfortable, like I felt at the beginning of last year. I always try to give 100 percent. Not always I can play like today. I feel like I played for three quarters of last year, so I felt great." Un-seeds into the second round featured a number of heat-tested qualifiers in German qualifier Philipp Kohlschreiber (d. Luis "Me So" Horna), Luxembourg qualifier Gilles Muller (d. N.Lapentti 6-1 in the third), Croatian qualifier Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic (d. (WC)Rea), Dutch qualifier Freddy Hemmes Jr. (d. Soderling), Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty (d. (WC)Nielsen), and Spain's Al Martin (d. Koubek).
Wednesday in NZ features (Q)Muller vs. (2)Novak, (1)Guillermo "The Wizard" Coria vs. The Dominator (tied 2-2 in career meetings), (3)Kuerten vs. A.Martin, (Q)Hemmes Jr. vs. (5)Spadea, (Q)Baby Goran vs. The Prodigy (tied 1-1), (Q)Kohlschreiber vs. (6)Gaudio, Santoro vs. Carraz in an all-baguette match-up, and "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter vs. D.Sanchez.


WTA REVIEWS/PREVIEWS
Three of four seeds in action advanced Tuesday in Hobart, including (4)Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga (d. (WC)Stosur), (6)Shinobu Asagoe (d. Rita "Ain't It" Grande), and (7)Anca Barna (d. (Q)Mashona "Sister Of" Washington, who led 6-3, 5-3 before flaming out). Stosur, a semifinalist last week in Gold Coast, pulled her hamstring after the first set. "I felt a slight twinge after the first set which restricted my movement around the court," said Stosur, who is a wildcard at next week's Australian Open if she can recover. Unseeded players advancing into the quarterfinals were Amy "Down Goes" Frazier (d. Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues), Italy's Maria Elena Camerin (d. (5)Vento-Kabchi in three), Kristina Brandi (d. Garbin), Japan's Akiko Morigami (d. Sucha), and Argentine qualifier Maria Emilia Salerni (d. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova in three).
Today in the Hobart quarters are (7)Barna vs. (Q)Salerni, Brandi vs. Morigami, Camerin vs. Frazier, and (4)Zuluaga vs. (6)Asagoe.

Five matches were played between the rains at Canberra Tuesday, with two seeds advancing in (2)Paola Suarez (d. (Q)Serra Zanetti, then received a walkover from Kleinova who was ill) and (3)Silvia Farina Elia (d. (Q)Santangelo). "I am looking forward to my next match," Suarez said. "For me, it is very important to keep winning matches, to play many matches and to build some momentum ahead of the Australian Open." Three un-seeds also moved on in Conchita "Not That Conchita" Martinez Granados (d. Kostanic in three), Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual (d. Seguera), and the Ukraine's Julia Vakulenko d. Ondraskova in three).
Wednesday's order of play in Canberra will be Loit vs. Martinez Granados, Tanasugarn vs. Pennetta, Gagliardi vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, Ruano Pascual vs. Sprem, and Weingartner vs. Parra.

Wacky three-setters were the order of the day Tuesday in Sydney, with the spunky Amanda Coetzer giving Patty "Nutty" Schnyder a lesson in how to last in the Australian heat with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 win, and No. 6 seed Elena Dementieva recovering from a second set nap against American qualifier Ansley Cargill with a 6-0, 0-6, 6-3 win. In the only other two matches on the day, Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi bested Swiss qualifier Myriam Casanova in straights, and Russian Lina Krasnoroutskaya continued Daniela "The Walking Stick" Hantuchova's horrendous start to the year with a 6-2, 6-2 pounding.
Tuesday's Sydney highlights are Henin-Hardenne vs. Martinez, Shaughnessy vs. Mauresmo, Myskina vs. Coetzer, Bovina vs. Dementieva, Davenport vs. Zvonareva, Krasnoroutskaya vs. Rubin, Navratilova/Raymond vs. Davenport/Morariu, Safina/Shaughnessy vs. Huber/Sugiyama, Sugiyama vs. Dechy, then Schiavone vs. Sugiyama or Dechy. Sucks to be Sugiyama or Dechy.

ATP AUCKLAND PAST CHAMPIONS
Gustavo Kuerten is attempting to become the first player to win the Auckland title twice:

2003 Gustavo Kuerten
2002 Greg Rusedski
2001 Dominik Hrbaty
2000 Magnus Norman
1999 Sjeng Schalken
1998 Marcelo Rios
1997 Jonas Bjorkman
1996 Jiri Novak
1995 Thomas Enqvist
1994 Magnus Gustafsson
1993 Alexander Volkov
1992 Jaime Yzaga

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Is retirement not far away for former No. 1 Monica Seles after missing much of last year, and now pulling from the Australian Open with the foot injury that won't heal?...Andy Roddick says that since he was drug tested "17 or 18" times last year, he thinks the sport is clean. "If someone tests positive, it is announced to the public," Roddick said, apparently unaware of the "Mystery Six" that tested positive and the ATP failed to announce last year. "If there really were 47 positive drugs tests (ed. note: as Greg Rusedski claims), then a third of the tour would have been announced. I think those are just numbers." As Butt-head said to Beavis, "I Hate numbers." Beavis: "Yeah, there's like, too many of them and stuff."...Kim Clijsters pulled from Sydney Tuesday due to her continuing problem with a left ankle sprain, but she is still hopeful for the Aussie Open...Andre Agassi is all over the our-sport-is-clean wagon: "Our sport is the leading -- if not top -- in drug testing, in both the intensity, what they test for." From last year's ATP incident with the trainers handing out steroids in the supplements, seems like they are also inadvertently the leading -- if not the top -- suppliers of drugs to players (see: Bohdan Ulihrach out-of-court settlement)...Younes El Aynaoui is now doubtful for the Aussie Open after pulling out of the Kooyong exhibition with a foot injury...Is anyone beginning to suspect that the new racquet technology is forcing players to demand more of their own bodies in reacting to the bombs coming off the super-racquets, thus causing more injuries? Could more players be injured?...The WTA Tour has announced that it will be hosting "Media Happy Hours" during the year at tournaments including the Australian Open, Miami, French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open and the WTA Tour Championships, which means nothing for Tennis-X readers, but for Tennis-X staff means "Point us to the keg."...From BBC Sport: "By the way, well done with the (upcoming Wimbledon center court) roof. People have been protecting themselves from the rain for 60,000 years, so by the standards of the All England Club that's pretty quick going."...Sydney wildcard Chris "Penthouse" Guccione's mother, Diane, was at home in Melbourne watching her son beat No. 1 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero on TV when Australia's Channel 7 pulled the plug so viewers could watch "Wheel of Fortune." Nice one! Guccione wears size 15 shoes, was a junior Wimbledon finalist last year and a practice partner for the Aussie Davis Cup team...The Kooyong exhibition gets underway today, with matches including Andy Roddick playing fellow American Robby Ginepri, Roger Federer takes on Thomas Johansson, defending champion Andre Agassi comes up against Frenchman Sebastian Grosjean and Argentina's David Nalbandian plays American Taylor Dent. Lots of cash, but no ranking points.