Coria Still Handing Out Bagels at ATP Monte Carlo

Posted on April 23, 2004

No. 3 seed Guillermo Coria continued to hand out bagels at the Masters Series-Monte Carlo on Wednesday, drumming Nicolas Kiefer 6-0, 6-3 after handing veteran Thomas Enqvist a 6-0 set in his first round match.

"My confidence right now is very high," Coria said. "I'm very positive for this tournament. I feel at ease on the court, I feel well on the court. It's important that I won those two matches the way I did -- playing very deep, with a lot of confidence."

Coria, last year's runner-up to Juan Carlos Ferrero, is looking every bit like the invincible favorite after the top-seeded Ferrero's loss on Tuesday and the withdrawal of No. 2 seed Andy Roddick. Coria won his first title of the year on clay earlier this year at Buenos Aires, and reached the Masters Series-Miami final against Roddick before retiring with injury. The bagel machine could come to a halt today as Coria faces clay veteran Andrei Pavel, who beat Coria in their previous lone meeting.

There were two seeded upsets on the day, with (8)Sebastien Grosjean handed a straight-set defeat by Spaniard Al Martin, and 2003 French Open runner-up (14)Martin "Berzerk" Verkerk easily dismissed by Ivan Ljubicic.

Other seeds into the third round Wednesday were (4)Rainer Schuettler (d. Lisnard), (5)Carlos Moya (d. Nieminen w/walkover), (6)Tim Henman (d. D.Sanchez in three), (7)David Nalbandian (d. Mantilla 7-6 in the third), (9)Nicolas Massu (d. F.Lopez), and (16)Lleyton Hewitt (d. Gaudio in three, saving two match points).

"I got to the stage where I just tried to go back to basics a little bit, and tried really working the ball from then on, trying to find some rhythm out there," Hewitt said in eventually dispatching Gaudio. "There's no doubt that I got a little bit lucky out there with coming back from a double break down. But, you know, that's one positive I guess for hanging in there and keep fighting every point."

Unseeded winners were Russians Marat Safin (d. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi) and Nikolay Davydenko (d. (WC)Corretja), French slicer Fabrice Santoro (d. Dent), Argentine Agustin Calleri (d. (WC)Escude), Romanian Andrei Pavel (d. Bjorkman), Estoril winner Juan Ignacio Chela (d. Haas in three), and Aussie veteran and lucky loser Wayne Arthurs (d. (Q)Devilder in three).

There were two doubles upsets on the day in Tim Henman and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic ousting Frenchmen (3)Michael Llodra/Fabrice Santoro, and Chileans Fernando Gonzalez/Nicolas Massu surprising Israel's (6)Jonathan Erlich/Andy Ram.

On court Thursday are (3)Coria vs. Pavel (Pavel leads meetings 1-0), 33-year-old (LL)Arthurs vs. Safin (Aussie leads 2-1), (WC)Santoro vs. (7)Nalbandian (Frenchman leads 1-0), (16)Hewitt vs. (4)Schuettler (tied 1-1), Ljubicic vs. Davydenko, Calleri vs. A.Martin, (6)Henman vs. (9)Massu (Henman leads 2-1), (5)Moya vs. Chela (Spaniard leads 2-0), and some tough doubles match-ups in (4)Knowles/Nestor vs. (8)Palmer/Vizner, (1)Bhupathi/Mirnyi vs. (7)Etlis/Rodriguez, and (5)Damm/Suk vs. (2)Bjorkman/Woodbridge.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
No WTA events this week, Fed Cup this weekend.

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MARAT SAFIN EXPLAINS
The big Russian talks about how annoying it is that everyone is happy to have him back on tour: "Of course it's annoying. Of course like everybody's happy, sure, 'Marat comes back, he's playing great tennis, I'm really happy for you.' Come on. Seriously, whenever you are losing, like, 'It's his fault.' Whenever he is winning, 'That's us.'  That's the team, the people. And whenever the guy is losing, whenever he has two, three, four matches, bad matches, 'It's his fault, he doesn't want to practice, he doesn't want to do this, he doesn't want...He doesn't want...He doesn't need...He doesn't care...' He doesn't whatever they want to say. But then when everything goes well, everybody is like -- all of a sudden there are coming friends from out of the -- from behind the stone and they are saying, 'Oh, my God, he's back finally, and I was there to help him out.' So it's a little bit annoying, and also it's annoying when the people, they come to you and they try to explain to you, 'But maybe you should have a little bit  -- you will be more calm, you will be much better...' Yeah, but normally -- is also another thing -- is all the time who says this, they're normally losers. Because they don't know how much time, how much dedication, how much it takes to be where I am right now. And of course there is not such a thing as a perfect player; it doesn't exist. It has to be a balance. So of course if you take out of my serve, would be with me, so maybe I would have better head. But because I have a serve or because I have this kind of game, that's why I have this head, and I have to deal with that. I know that's my problem. I cannot change it. Nobody can change it. I can improve it a little bit. But it's my head, it's the way I am. It's how I am. It's no chance I can be different. So whenever they start to teach you and explain to you..." Thanks Marat, that gave us a headache.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
The Guardian summing up the ATP's inability to get all its top players at its Masters Series events: "The Monte Carlo Open, or the Tennis Masters Series Monte Carlo as it is branded, is supposed to be one of the nine leading men's tournaments outside of the four grand slams. So, it might be assumed, all the leading players will be here. Indeed the ATP, the men's ruling body, considers entry to be mandatory. It is a joke. Prior to the tournament starting yesterday Andre Agassi, No. 5 in the world, had already made his excuses, which were no excuses at all. The American has always played the system to suit himself, whatever it has been, and has not turned up in Monaco since 1998. OK, he is a special case, and the ATP has always been frightened stiff of upsetting him. But Roger Federer, the world No. 1, is also absent because he is apparently "fatigued," and yesterday came the news that Andy Roddick would not be arriving because of "schedule incompatibility." In other words, he could not be bothered to fly from Houston, Texas, where he lost the final of the U.S. Clay Court Championship on Sunday, to Europe. And what is the ATP going to do about it? Nothing."...We're waiting for the European players to start popping off about the USTA's US Open Series of events with bonus money to the top players in the series. How long until they start complaining 'Where is out little European mini-tour with bonuses?' Not a lot of incentive for the claycourt Euros to come over for the US Open Series and get blown out on hardcourt, they should have called it the 'Andy Roddick Hardcourt Series'...For those missing the point of the top players blowing off events, money drives the tour, and the tour has no money. The ATP can no longer afford the luxurious year-end bonus pool for the top players, hence they can't penalize them for skipping the Masters Series events, hence after Andy Roddick accepts a big guarantee check to play Houston, what is his incentive to rush to Monte Carlo the next day? None. No bonus pool = no control of the top players...Doctors have confirmed that world No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne is suffering from a viral infection, "CMV viral infection," and has been prescribed rest until the beginning of May...Lleyton Hewitt says he can relate to Juan Carlos Ferrero apparently still recovering from the chickenpox: "Yeah, everyone's different with the chicken pox. And, you know, when I spoke to doctors and everything, you know -- obviously, I got it in the Hopman Cup, then tried playing in the Australian Open. You know, I was pretty much useless."...Marat Safin says don't try and figure him out, you'll never understand: "I will never win -- like, for example, people, they come to me and they say I should have won already five Grand Slams. Yeah, but, sorry, but...I couldn't. For some reasons, I couldn't. I wish also, but it doesn't work this way. And also it's No. 1 in the world from outside, watching from the TV. I could be even coach of football team. You know what I'm saying? Everybody is smarter from outside of the court. But in the court, is little bit different. It's little bit different. You see different, and you feel, and you play sometimes against yourself. And it's really  -- sometimes you are little bit, you know, you have to fight against yourself. It's really sometimes difficult to push. Sometimes you are scared, sometimes you are choking, sometimes you are not feeling confident, sometimes you are too confident, which is also bad. It's sport." Marat was "on" Wednesday...Juan Carlos Ferrero has turned down a wildcard next week at Barcelona to further recover from the pox...Amanda Coetzer is taking some time off, apparently contemplating retirement.