Federer Edges Safin in Popcorn Match at ATP Dubai

Posted on March 4, 2004

In a rematch of last month's Australian Open final, top-seeded Roger Federer edged unseeded Marat Safin 7-6(2), 7-6(4) in a crowd-pleasing first round encounter Tuesday at Dubai. Safin took a late wildcard into the event, and was unseeded after sitting out much of last year with a wrist injury.

"I fought much better today (than in Australia) and was a just little bit unlucky in the tiebreaks," said the No. 30-ranked Safin. "I had chances but didn't take them, and whatever chances he had he took. But I felt really good and felt like I could win today. It's not like I'm struggling with my confidence." For Federer it was his fifth win over Safin in six encounters.

Two more seeds were upset in (2)Guillermo Coria (l. to Youzhny in three sets, avenging a double bagel last year on clay) and (4)David Nalbandian (l. to Nieminen), bringing the total thus far to five seeds ousted in the opening round (joining Rainer Schuettler, Mark Philippoussis and Tim Henman). Other players advancing Tuesday were defending champ (8)Sjeng Schalken (d. Sargsian), France's Fabrice Santoro (d. A.Martin in three), and three Spaniards showing their hardcourt chops in Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi), Tommy Robredo (d. Bjorkman), and Feliciano Lopez (d. Davydenko). Today in Dubai features (7)Srichaphan vs. Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty in an upset special, O.Rochus vs. The Prodigy, Santoro vs. (8)Schalken, (Q)Van Scheppingen vs. Youzhny, Nieminen vs. Carraz, and in doubles the Spanish Davis Cup team of Nadal/Robredo vs. former year-end No. 1s (3)Knowles/Nestor.

Top-seeded Andy Roddick was two points from advancing Tuesday at Scottsdale when rain suspended his match for the day. The combustible Roddick (see Notes below) led 6-3, 6-5, 30-30, coming back fro ma 1-4 deficit in the second set against Dutchman John van Lottum. Seeds into the second round were (2)Martin "Berzerk" Verkerk (d. (Q)Allegro), and Americans (3)Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri (d. (Q)Phillips), (4)Vincenzo Spadea (d. (WC)T.Johansson), and (6)James Blake (d. Vassallo Arguello).

"He does have a pretty good accolade there with his major win, and obviously he has been Top 10, and he's coming back now," said Spadea, reaching deep into the vocabulary after downing former Aussie Open winner Johansson. "I knew that he had potentially good weapons that could hurt me if I didn't stand up. Overall I had a really solid performance, my concentration was there. It wasn't an easy match, it was fairly close but I just stayed in there. It was just a matter of focusing in on my game plan."

Un-seeds into the second round were American wildcard Alex Bogomolov, Jr. (d. (Q)Marcaccio in three), Romania's Victor Hanescu (d. (8)Ferreira 6-1, 6-2), Aussie serving machine Wayne Arthurs (d. Corretja), and American qualifier Cecil Mamiit (d. Lisnard in three after winning the first set 6-0). On court today are Malisse vs. Soderling (first meeting), (4)Spadea vs. Arthurs (Vincenzo leads meetings 1-0), (1)Roddick vs. van Lottum (to finish), Moodie vs. (3)Ginepri (first meeting), (7)Kiefer vs. Tursunov (first meeting), and in the night match, Andreev vs. (6)Blake (first meeting).

All five seeds in action slid through on the dirt in Acapulco Tuesday in (1)Carlos Moya (d. Sanchez), (4)Mariano Zabaleta (d. G.Lapentti in three), (5)Felix Mantilla (d. (Q)Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience), (6)Gaston Gaudio (d. countryman Acasuso 6-1 in the third), and (8)Filippo Volandri (d. Blanco in three). Un-seeds into the second round were Spain's Dave Ferrer (d. (WC)Gallardo Valles) Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (d. Portas) and Fernando Verdasco (d. Behrend), Argentine wildcard Guillermo Canas (d. (Q)M.Lopez in three), and a stunner in American qualifier Jeff Salzenstein (d. N.Lapentti 6-1 in the third). Bad day for the Lapentti brothers, but a good night for the bar owners in Acapulco.

Today on the dirt features (3)Calleri vs. Luis "Me So" Horna (Calleri leads meetings 4-0), (Q)Salzenstein vs. (2)Massu (first meeting), (6)Gaudio vs. (WC)Canas in an all-ARG (Gaudio leads 5-2), (5)Mantilla vs. Verdasco in an all-ESP, Ramirez Hidalgo vs. (4)Zabaleta, and in doubles (1)Bryan/Bryan vs. Spaniards Ferrer/Ramirez Hidalgo.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Two of three seeds advanced at Doha Tuesday, with No. 7 seed Conchita Martinez ousted in three sets by Germany's Anca Barna. Winners on the day were (5)Silvia Farina Elia (d. Krasnoroutskaya), (6)Jelena Dokic (d.(Q)Vinci), American Meghann Shaughnessy (d. Molik), Jelena Kostanic (d. Widjaja in three), China's Ting Li (d. Callens in three) and Jie Zheng (d. Gehrlein), Maria Vento-Kabchi (d. (Q)Sun), and France's Nathalie Dechy (d. Douchevina). On court Wednesday are Sugiyama vs. Shaughnessy, Likhovtseva vs. Myskina in an all-Russian, Henin-Hardenne vs. Vento-Kabchi, Li vs. Capriati, Kuznetsova vs. Barna, Dokic vs. Zheng, Dechy vs. Testud, and Farina Elia vs. Kostanic.

A lot of action on the dirt in Acapulco Tuesday, with one seeded upset in (8)Ludmilla Cervanova (l. to Garbin), and two seeds moving on in (4)Emilie Loit (d. (WC)Kremer in three) and (7)Arantxa "Not That Arantxa" Parra (d. Jidkova). Qualifiers had their day, with three advancing into the second round in (Q)Mashona "Sister of" Washington (d. Perebiynis), (Q)Iveta Benesova (d. (Q)Roesch), and (Q)Samantha Stosur (d. Sequera). Other unseeded winners were Czech Nicole Vaidisova (d. Kurhajcova, who retired with an abdominal strain), Ukraine's Julia Vakulenko (d. (WC)J.Fernandez), and Argentina's Mariana Diaz-Oliva (d. Melinda "Our Favorite Supplement" Czink in three). On the dirt Wednesday are Vaidisova vs. Asagoe, Coetzer vs. Marrero, Schruff vs. Gagliardi, Klara "Kouky" Koukalova vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, Benesova vs. Bartoli, and Parra vs. Pennetta.

WTA DOUBLE BAGELS IN 2004
Martinez d. Maleeva (Sydney 1r)
Henin-Hardenne d. Lukaszewicz (Australian Open 1r)
Schaul d. Perebiynis (Australian Open 1r)
Clijsters d. Camerin (Australian Open 2r)
Chladkova d. Gagliardi (Antwerp 1r)
Brandi d. Gullickson (Memphis 1r)
Zuluaga d. A.Bondarenko (Bogota 2r)

JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE CAREER JAN.-FEB. STARTS
2000 4-3 win-loss
2001 9-3 (1 title)
2002 13-5 (2 r-up to Venus)
2003 13-3 (1 title)
2004 14-0 (3 titles)

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
While Major League Baseball is currently imploding with the steroid doping allegations against Barry Bonds and other marquee players, men's tennis waits for the verdict in the Greg Rusedski case, and the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) reinvestigation into the "Mystery Six" players who tested positive but were let off the hook by the ATP...Jan-Michael Gambill likes the dry, dusty conditions in Scottsdale: "This is an atmosphere that I play well in. I've always played well in the desert. When you play well in a place over the years you know you can do it. However, the reason I played well today is because over the last two weeks I've really refocused the way that I'm playing tennis."...International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci "Itty" Bitti isn't hesitating to take credit for the ATP putting together a doping task force: "I always said that the key in doping matters was education. It's very positive that the players want to be educated. I was complaining to the ATP and WTA for some time that they weren't doing enough to inform the players."...With 18 weeks at No. 1, Justine Henin-Hardenne has moved up to No. 9 on the all-time No. 1 list, overtaking Jennifer Capriati at 17 weeks, and now trailing No. 8 Tracy Austin at 22 weeks. Steffi Graf is the all-time leader with 377 weeks...Svetlana Kuznetsova cracked the Top 20 this week for the first time after her runner-up effort at Dubai, becoming the fifth Russian in the Top 20...14-year-old Czech Nicole Vaidisova debuted at No. 264 on the WTA Tour Rankings after winning the ITF/Columbus-USA event...Oops, the WTA omitted Venus Williams from the Top 15-ranked Upcoming Schedules in their newsletter -- stone...How much cash are top seeds such as Roger Federer getting handed under the table in appearances fees this week in Dubai? Consider that when Tiger Woods tees off tomorrow in Dubai, he has already pocketed $6 million from the oil-rich organizers just to get on the plane. Just open the suitcase and tell them to fill it with oil money. And you wonder why George W. wants to march across the Middle East...Guillermo Coria, banned for seven months after also testing positive for nandrolone three years ago, says he wish he got the support Greg Rusedski is getting: "I hope he comes out of it, as I know what he's experiencing. It affected me very badly and it was hard to get over it. When I was suspended a lot of players didn't think I had a long enough ban. It's difficult for me because players are rallying around Greg and they didn't rally round me."...Robby Ginepri comparing the current crop of young Americans to legends Chang, Courier, Sampras and Agassi: "I think we're different and a little unique from them because we all hang out with each other. We all go out to eat."...Guillermo Coria on trying to pump more power into the serve: "I changed my service action in December and injured myself. I had to go back to my old service action and don't have much confidence in this serve."...Sign-up for the free daily Tennis-X e-newsletter, click on the box at the top of the page at www.tennis-x.com...Serbian Jelena Dokic says she is not jonesin' for a spot on the Australian Olympic team: "The question simply doesn't arise. I have not played in the Fed Cup and so am not eligible to play in the Games. But someone from Tennis Australia did speak to my manager once or twice."..."Bad Andy" was at it again in Scottsdale Tuesday, where the former No. 1 Andy Roddick berated chair umpire Enric Molina for an overrule, drew a delay penalty that cost him the first point in the next game, pointed a finger at opponent John van Lottum for telling him to quit stalling, and threw his racket three times, finally breaking it and drawing a racket-abuse warning. Bad Andy.