Venus Rises with Punishing 1st Round Aussie Win Over Harkleroad
Posted on January 21, 2004
Former No. 1 Venus Williams looked like she hadn't missed a step after an extensive absence from the game due to an abdominal muscle tear, Tuesday at the Australian Open decimating fellow American Ashley "Baby Phat" Harkleroad 6-2, 6-1 in her first appearance back on tour. Williams slapped groundstroke winners seemingly at will, while the weaponless H-Road was left to ponder perhaps how her court speed could improve by more time on the treadmill and less at the Burger King drive-thru. "I didn't think that I played up to my potential, really. I was, you know, a bit nervous. It was my first time, you know, on Rod Laver. You know, my first time to play her," H-Road said. Yeah, we know. "I wasn't sure how she was gonna play, but I felt like she played really well, and I didn't really take -- I wasn't really as aggressive as I wish I could have been. I let her pretty much take over the points...You know, I thought when I went out there that maybe since she hasn't played since Wimbledon, she's going to be a little rusty. But she really wasn't." We know.The slew of other seeded winners included (2)Kim Clijsters still gimpy on a sore ankle (d. Weingartner), (6)Anastasia Myskina (d. Arvidsson), (8)Ai Sugiyama (d. Tatiana "The Pocket Baseliner" Panova), (9)Chanda Rubin (d. Svensson in three), (12)Paola Suarez (d. Dulko), (14)Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi (d. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova), (18)Francesca Schiavone (d. Torrens-Valero), (20)Silvia Farina Elia (d. Nagyova), (22)Patty "Nutty" Schnyder (d. Widjaja in three), (23)Lina Krasnoroutskaya (d. Sprem), (25)Lisa Raymond (d. Sanchez Lorenzo in three), (27)Amanda Coetzer (d. Snyder), (28)Maria "Grunt-o-meter" Sharapova (d. Conchita "Not That Conchita" Martinez Granados), and (29)Nathalie Dechy (d. Kostanic). Only one seed fell on the day with (13)Conchita "Already Won My Slam" Martinez losing to Puerto Rico's Kristina Brandi.
Un-seeds moving into the second round Tuesday were Lindsay Lee-Waters (d. Ferguson), Dinara "Little Sis" Safina (d. Kurhajcova), Maria Elena Camerin (d. Sequera), Marion Bartoli (d. the hapless Alexandra "Dr. A" Stevenson), Anca Barna (d. Drake in three), Vera Douchevina (d. Zheng 6-0 in the third), Saori Obata (d. Casanova in three), Tatiana Golovin (d. Mikaelian, who retired in the second set), Denisa "Hanging" Chladkova (d. Foretz), Elena Likhovtseva (d. Randriantefy 6-1 in the third), Julia Vakulenko (d. Birnerova), Emmanuelle "I'm Hot as My Name Sounds" Gagliardi (d. Prusova), doubles No. 1 Virginia Ruano Pascual (d. Srebotnik), Barbora Strycova (d. Parra), Tzipora Obziler (d. Martina "Nurse, Hand me a" Sucha), and American Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier (d. Cohen-Aloro in three).
On the men's side, No. 5 Guillermo Coria was the only Top 10 seed eliminated in Melbourne Tuesday, still suffering from an abdominal strain in a straight-set loss to Frenchman Cyril Saulnier. Five other low-rent seeds were put on planes home in (17)Martin "Berzerk" Verkerk (l. to feisty veteran Alex "I'm Not Retiring, Dammit" Corretja), (23)Felix Mantilla (l. to Frenchman Thierry Ascione), (24)Max "The Beast" Mirnyi (l. to Romanian Andrei "The Beastmaster" Pavel), (25)Jonas Bjorkman (winning only six games off Sargis "Sarge" Sargsian), and (28)Feliciano Lopez (l. to countryman Al Martin, who came back from 0-2 sets down).
Four of the Top 10 seeds in action moved into the second round in (2)Roger Federer (d. Bogomolov), (3)Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Montanes, losing two games), (8)David Nalbandian (d. Mello) whose formerly-injured wrist now looks up to task, and (10)Mark Philippoussis (d. former champ T.Johansson in straights). "I'm happy to have started well," Club Fed said. "Straight sets in the first round is a good start. The beginning was a little bit, you know, tentative, the way I played. But after I started to go more for my shots, and I also volleyed well today, served well. So overall, I'm really happy the way it started." Watch out for Fed, whose poor play leading up to the event could be just a matter of good pacing. Other seeds winning through were (11)Tim Henman (d. Lisnard), (14)Jiri Novak (d. O.Rochus), (15)Lleyton Hewitt (d. Mamiit), (22)Agustin Calleri (d. C.Rochus), (26)Al Costa (d. Rusedski in a straight-set stunner), and (31)Wayne "The Walking Wounded" Ferreira (d. Hanescu).
Unseeded Aussies had a good day Tuesday, with Todd Reid (d. Kutsenko) and Wayne Arthurs (d. Karanusic in five) through, joined by un-seeds Filippo Volandi of Italy (d. Kiefer), Americans Jeff Morrison (d. van Scheppingen) and Glenn Weiner (d. Salzenstein in an all-American acefest), Spaniard Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. Tabara), Fabrice "I'll Cut Ya" Santoro (d. Aussie Luczak), Argentine Guillermo "Test Me, I Dare You" Canas (d. de Chaunac), Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic (d. "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter in five), Radek Stepanek (d. Sanguinetti from two sets down), Jan Vacek (d. Ramirez-Hidalgo), Joachim "Lleyton's Sister's Boyfriend" Johansson (d. Popp), Karol Kucera (d. Malisse), Hicham "Where's the Party?" Arazi (d. Mutis), and Spaniard David Sanchez (d. Moodie in five).
As of Wednesday 4 a.m. Aussie time, the Australian Open officials had only released the show court schedule, and the bonehead Aussie Open webmasters forgot to post the full schedule to the official AO webpage, so here you go:
Rod Laver Arena
Day Session
Amelie Mauresmo (4), France, vs. Ludmila Cervanova, Slovakia
Andre Agassi (4), United States, vs. Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic
Andy Roddick (1), United States, vs. Bohdan Ulihrach, Czech Republic
Night Session
Alicia Molik, Australia, vs. Daniela Hantuchova (15), Slovakia
Robby Ginepri (32), United States, vs. Chris Guccione, Australia
Vodafone Arena
Aniko Kapros, Hungary, vs. Samantha Stosur, Australia
Gustavo Kuerten (19), Brazil, vs. Ivan Ljubicic, Croatia
Justine Henin-Hardenne (1), Belgium, vs. Camille Pin, France
Jarkko Nieminen, Finland, vs. Marat Safin, Russia
Margaret Court Arena
Eleni Daniilidou, Greece, vs. Cara Black, Zimbabwe Juan Ignacio Chela, Argentina, vs. Taylor Dent (27), United States Emilie Loit, France, vs. Lindsay Davenport (5), United States Jerome Golmard, France, vs. Paradorn Srichaphan (13), Thailand
AUSSIE OPEN MULTIPLE WINNERS (OPEN ERA)
4--Andre Agassi -- 1995, 2000, 2001, 2003
4--Margaret Court -- 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973
4--Evonne Goolagong -- 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 (Jan.)
4--Steffi Graf -- 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994
4--Monica Seles -- 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996
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3--Martina Hingis -- 1997, 1998, 1999
3--Martina Navratilova -- 1981, 1983, 1985
3--Mats Wilander -- 1983, 1984, 1988
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2--Boris Becker -- 1991, 1996
2--Jennifer Capriati -- 2001, 2002
2--Jim Courier -- 1992, 1993
2--Stefan Edberg -- 1985, 1987
2--Chris Evert -- 1982, 1984
2--Johan Kriek -- 1981, 1982
2--Ivan Lendl -- 1989, 1990
2--Hana Mandlikova -- 1980, 1987
2--John Newcombe -- 1973, 1975
2--Pete Sampras -- 1994, 1997
2--Guillermo Vilas -- 1978, 1979
NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
ATP Masters Cup promoter Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale is running his redneck voice-over Masters Cup commercials on ESPN during the Aussie Open for the November event? Nice effort...Lleyton Hewitt looked steady but particularly weaponless against American Cecil Mamiit, has the former No. 1 lost the ability to put away the ball?...American Glenn Weiner leads all players with 34 aces in the first round at the Aussie Open...Guillermo Coria was bounced in the first round, still plagued by a bum stomach...Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal faced just two break points in his first round win...No doubles bagels on the women's side Tuesday, for those wondering...How wacky is the Melbourne weather -- at 3:45 p.m. the temperature was about 98 degrees and sunny, then 15 minutes later it dropped to 80 degrees but still sunny. Temps are expected to fall during the week...Perhaps to prevent the drunks from passing out on the lawn, the big screen in the Tennis Garden in Melbourne gets switched off after the first night match...Lleyton Hewitt's last three opponents have all retired against the Aussie...Ashley "Baby Phat" Harkleroad looks like she visited a few fast food joints over the off season...Alberto Martin and Radek Stepanek both overcame two-set deficits to advance, that's six players to already accomplish the feat...Alexandra "Dr. A" Stevenson has lost in the first round at nine of her last 10 grand slams, good effort...Andre Agassi is the only player to rank among the Top 10 in three different decades...Greg Rusedski, who said he's been suffering from a stomach virus that's been going around, may have played the last match of his career: "Saturday I had a fever and have had gastroenteritis. I've hit a half an hour of tennis balls since Saturday...A lot of players have been suffering with it..."...Can Andy Roddick notch his first two slam wins in a row? If he did, he would be the first man to do it in the Open Era. According to the ATP's Greg "The Remorseless Eating Machine" Sharko, the last man to win the next Slam event after notching his first one was John Newcombe of Australia in 1967...All three Belgian men in the Aussie Open draw lost on Tuesday in the Rochus brothers and Xavier Malisse...Qualifier Florian Mayer is the only German left in the men's draw after first round exits by Alexander Popp, Nicolas Kiefer, Rainer Schuettler, Tomas Behrend and Lars Burgsmuller. So Germany, with Tommy Haas perpetually injured and Rainer Schuettler 0-3 on the year, and your country out of the 2004 Davis Cup World Group -- how's it going?