Coria Rips Enqvist WTA-Style; Federer, Agassi, Roddick Skip at Monte Carlo
Posted on April 21, 2004
Guillermo Coria announced his return from injury with a 6-0, 6-1 shellacking of Swede Thomas Enqvist on the opening day of the ATP Masters Series-Monte Carlo Monday."I played very well, very deep," Coria said. "My tactics were perfectly all right. I'm very pleased it went so fast because now I'm keeping physical condition for the next matches." Coria was last seen on court in the final of the Masters Series-Miami, where he retired with what was thought to be a back injury, but was later diagnosed as kidney stones, a condition that has since...passed.
The big story at Monte Carlo remained not the players on court, but the players not in attendance as world No. 1 Roger Federer and former No. 1s Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick decided to skip the ATP's top-tier event, with Roddick citing a "scheduling conflict" after losing in the Houston final Sunday to Tommy Haas. Federer and Agassi withdrew before the weekend, while Roddick withdrew after the draw had been made, with no word from the ATP on fines to the three Top 10 players.
In other seeded action, No. 6 seed Tim Henman survived a first-round scare, but three other seeds weren't so lucky.
Henman edged resurgent American Vince Spadea 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5), despite dropping his serve twice in the third set. Seeded losers on the day were (11)Sjeng Schalken (l. to Calleri), (12)Jiri Novak (l. to Dent), and (13)Fernando Gonzalez (l. to Max "The Beast" Mirnyi).
No. 4 seed Rainer Schuettler survived a tough first round draw against former French Open winner Gustavo Kuerten, winning in straight sets.
"Here, against Guga, like he was the favorite, so...even though I'm seeded four," said Schuettler, trying to turn around a disappointing start to his 2004 campaign. "But against him on clay, he was former No. 1, he won Roland Garros a few times, so he was the favorite today. It was little bit easier for me to go on court. I didn't have pressure. So I just was trying to play well, even though I was sick for the last four or five days. But I'm happy that I won. I'm a little bit lucky that he made mistakes in the important points."
Other un-seeds into the second round were qualifier Nicolas Devilder (d. Ivanisevic in three), Germany's Nicolas Kiefer (d. Arazi), Frenchmen (WC)Fabrice Santoro (d. Andreev) and Jean-Rene Lisnard (d. (Q)Berdych), Spaniards David Sanchez (d. Ulihrach) and Felix Mantilla (d. A.Costa), Finland's Jarkko Nieminen (d. (Q)Vico in three), Croat Ivan Ljubicic (d. Robredo) and Russian Nikolay Davydenko (d. Zabaleta).
Tuesday's line-up on the dirt is (16)Hewitt vs. (WC)Benneteau, O.Rochus vs. Safin, Clement vs. (8)Grosjean in an all-French Davis Cup clash (Clement leads meetings 5-2), (WC)Corretja vs. (2)Ferrero in an all-Spanish (Ferrero leads 4-1), Malisse vs. Haas, (WC)Escude vs. Carraz in another all-French, Gaudio vs. Volandri, Chela vs. (10)Srichaphan, (5)Moya vs. Sargsian, Saretta vs. (9)Massu, Bjorkman vs. (LL)Mahut, Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty vs. (7)Nalbandian, (LL)Arthurs vs. (Q)Ascione, Canas vs. A.Martin, Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. Soderling, (14)Martin "Berzerk" Verkerk vs. (LL)Portas, and Stepanek vs. Pavel.
WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
No WTA events this week, Fed Cup this weekend.
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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
As predicted (by us, toot toot), Andy Roddick pulls from the Masters Series-Monte Carlo on the heels of playing five events in a row. Sorry ATP Fantasy players (approximately 30% of who have A-Rod in their line-ups), you need to check the X-Preview. Now the ATP needs to figure out how to get their top players to have allegiance to their Masters Series events rather than little tournaments like the Houston U.S. Claycourts. "He has informed the ATP that the reason for the pull-out is schedule incompatibility," said an ATP spokesman. "Schedule compatibility," that's about as good as "wardrobe malfunction." In other words, 'Monte doesn't pay me a guarantee to post like Houston.' Said Andy on bailing on his obligation: "When you make the schedule, you're not planning on playing deep into every single week, or at least I haven't in the past. I'm not physically or mentally ready to pick up my bags and go to Monte Carlo. I definitely have to look at what's best for my chances at (at the French Open)." Roger Federer and Andre Agassi gave advance notice they were skipping the event, while A-Rod waited to pull until after the draw was made. James Blake and Mardy Fish later completed the American exodus from Monte with their own pulls...Nicole Pratt has pulled from the Fed Cup this weekend, citing an irritated ab muscle suffered last week at Charleston. Youngster Sam Stosur will now get a shot for the Aussies, joining Alicia Molik. "Samantha's recent breakthrough into the world's Top 100 is evidence of her rapid improvement this year and Alicia Molik is capable of beating any player on her day," Aussie captain Evonne Goolagong Cawley said...Justine Henin-Hardenne's mystery virus has morphed once again: "I'm suffering from a virus similar to glandular fever," H-H wrote on her website. "Despite the rest I'm taking for the next two weeks, I'm reassured about my health. In two weeks I will know a lot more about the virus."...Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale, who owns Westside Tennis Center and is the organizer for the ATP Houston stop, is a big fan of doubles and decided to give the doubles winners the same pay-out as the singles, with $36,500 to be split by doubles winners James Blake and Mardy Fish for a total check of $52,000, the same amount Tommy Haas made for winning the singles title...Saturday's semifinal spat with Patty Schnyder didn't keep Conchita Martinez from continuing her ritual of requesting the same ball after winning a service point. Schnyder became so irritated with Martinez she put some balls in her pocket, and refused to shake Martinez's hand after the match. "Look, we have an umpire out there and we have a rule, and like I said yesterday, it's 20 seconds in between points," Martinez said Sunday. "Obviously, if I go over, he's going to tell me or give me a warning. He didn't, that's because I didn't go over. End of story. (Schnyder) has no right. Obviously, she should concentrate more on her tennis than looking at me and whatever I do." Venus Williams didn't mind the extra time between points during the final, but Martina Navratilova says if she were in that situation against Martinez, she'd ramp it up even further: "Everybody is superstitious, but when it affects your opponent, that's not good," Navratilova said. "And frankly, if I were playing her and she was doing that, I would put that ball in my pocket, too. Or what I would do, I would have another ball on me, and I'd hit two balls back, and I'd say, 'OK, which one do you think you won the point with?' Really confuse her." Too bad that match-up didn't come about, sounds like some sour grapes left over from losing that Wimbledon final...American Ashley "Anna 2.0" Harkleroad's problems continue to plague her, with H-Road reportedly pulling from the minor league-level event this week in Alabama with an "undisclosed injury."...The WTA stop in Charleston set a new attendance record last week, with over 94,000 in attendance due to the star-studded line-up that included Serena and Venus Williams, Martina Navratilova, Jennifer Capriati and Justine Henin-Hardenne...Charleston was a popular player stop with "Martina's Puppy Park," an on-site facility where players can keep their pets during the week, and is named for Martina Navratilova. "Puppy Park has its advantages for me, because I can have more dogs with me and they can have a great time while they are here during the day," Navratilova said. "And then I bring them home, and they are exhausted and go straight to sleep. It's sort of like kindergarten for kids. If you can get them exhausted, that's great."...Update on that Gustavo Kuerten semifinal tip at Monte -- umm, don't pick him. After losing first round to the slumping Rainer Schuettler, Guga sounded like he should be put on a suicide watch: "It's very sad, especially in a tournament that you have won, like this one. It's the end of some expectations and some hopes to have a good week. I think it's maybe the worst can happen also to the players that are here, wanted to get them going for as fast as possible in the clay season. So I think from now on it's gonna be even more different for me to get myself more confidence and maybe with some more rhythm to try to increase my game."...Injury Report: Rainer Schuettler says he is just coming off the flu, and Guillermo Coria gave graphic testimony how he recently had to stop playing until he discharged some kidney stones...The USTA will announce today that 10 summer U.S hardcourt tournaments will be packaged together for TV this year and offer bonus money for players. The coverage will start July 12 with the ATP tournament in Los Angeles and the WTA tournament at Stanford, and will also include ATP events at Indianapolis (starting July 19), Masters Series-Toronto (July 26), Masters Series-Cincinnati (Aug. 2), Washington, D.C. (Aug. 16) and Long Island (Aug. 23), and WTA events at Los Angeles (July 19), Montreal (Aug. 2) and New Haven (Aug. 23). The top players on the circuit will earn extra prize money at the US Open. This year, the top man and woman in the summer circuit will each get a 50 percent bonus on top of their U.S. Open winnings; that will rise to 100 percent in 2005.