Coria, Nalbandian Set Up All-Argentine Showdown at ATP Monte Carlo
Posted on April 24, 2004
The favorites plowed through on the red clay Thursday at the Masters Series-Monte Carlo, led by Argentines Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian who set up a mouth-watering all-Argentine quarterfinal meeting.Coria faced his first test of the tournament after handing Thomas Enqvist and Nicolas Kiefer 6-0 sets in the first two rounds, coming from a set down to best Romanian claycourt veteran Andrei Pavel 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Nalbandian, who has seen little court time in the last two months with an ankle injury, easily handled the slicing-and-dicing Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 6-2.
Coria said 2004 is much different from last year.
"I am much more confident, I have more experience," Coria said. "Last year I played great tournaments, major tournaments, against very big players. I was just happy if I played a good match. But since I reached the semis in the French Open, I won Hamburg, and I won several matches in a row, I am now very confident."
Other seeded winners on the day were (4)Rainer Schuettler (d. (16)Hewitt in three sets after trailing 0-3, 15-40 in the third), (5)Carlos Moya (d. Chela), and (6)Tim Henman (d. (9)Massu after dropping the first set).
"After that first set where I was struggling with my rhythm I knew it couldn't get much worse so I just started to relax," Henman said. "After my practice at the weekend I wasn't expecting much, to be honest, but I have picked up my form. It just shows you find a way to win and things can start happening."
Unseeded players into the quarterfinals were Russians Marat Safin (d. Arthurs) and Nikolay Davydenko (d. Ljubicic), and Spaniard Al Martin (d. Calleri 7-6 in the third). Safin said clay is the only surface that blunts the Aussie's monster lefty serve.
"Wayne (Arthurs) is extremely hard to play on grass or hardcourt but on clay, it's something else," Safin said. "He served well, but it's much too slow for him."
Teams into the doubles semifinals were (4)Knowles/Nestor (d. (8)Palmer/Vizner), Czechs (5)Damm/Suk (d. (2)Bjorkman/Woodbridge), Argentines (7)Etlis/Rodriguez (d. (1)Bhupathi/Mirnyi), and the oddball pairing of Henman/Zimonjic (d. Gonzalez/Massu).
Friday's singles quarterfinal match-ups are Safin vs. A.Martin (Russian leads career meetings 5-0), (5)Moya vs. Davydenko (Moya leads 3-0), (3)Coria vs. (7)Nalbandian in an all-ARG (El Mago leads 2-0), and (4)Schettler vs. (6)Henman (Brit leads 3-2, first meeting on clay). One doubles semifinal will be played in (7)Etlis/Rodriguez vs. (4)Knowles/Nestor.
WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Fed Cup Preview: Yawn!
The French "Dream Team" of Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce kick off their campaign to retain the 2003 Fed Cup title this weekend when the defending champions host Germany in the opening round. Like your typical WTA event, the first round of the Fed Cup can be best characterized as "wake us for the semifinals."The French squad was practically handed the Fed Cup title last year when both Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne boycotted their semifinal match, and in the final the French rolled over a depleted U.S. team that was lacking Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Lindsay Davenport due to injury.
The 2004 Fed Cup campaign looks to be much of the same: injury and disinterest. Last year the Belgians boycotted the semifinals when the venue was awarded to Russia rather than Belgium. Jennifer Capriati could have made the difference for the U.S. in the final but chose not to play, by default serving up the U.S. "C"-squad of Meghann Shaughnessy and Lisa Raymond as a sacrifice to the French.
The men's Davis Cup has struggled for recognition over the years, but has not lacked participation with virtually all the top players anxious to represent their respective countries in the storied competition. Not so for the Fed Cup, which was only brought into existence as recently as 1963, and suffers from a poor match format which leaves the doubles until the fifth match, which is usually an inconsequential "dead rubber" by that point.
Here is a look at the eight first round match-ups for the 2004 Fed Cup competition:
U.S. at Slovenia
Site: SRC Marina Portoroz, Portoroz, SLO
Surface: Clay (Red Clay) -- outdoors
Ball Type: Wilson Double Core
Serena pulled from this contest with the bum knee, but Venus, Lisa Raymond in singles, and Raymond and Martina Navratilova in doubles should be more than enough firepower to handle the Slovenia squad. Tina Pisnik and Katarina Srebotnik will likely take the singles reins for Slovenia, an underwhelming prospect, but the clay will give them a better shot at a victory over Raymond. Venus has a 3-0 record against the top Slovenians, while Raymond is 1-1 vs. Pisnik and 1-0 vs. Srebotnik. This is the first meeting between the two nations. Catch this one on The Tennis Channel if you have absolutely nothing else to do this weekend.
Slovak Republic at Austria
Site: St. Poelten Tennis Centre, St. Poelten, AUT
Surface: Clay (Red Clay) -- outdoors
Ball Type: Wilson Double Core
Here's an ugly tie without a Top 50 singles player in site. Barbara Schett (No. 53) and Patricia Watusch (No. 195) will take the home court advantage against some combination of Slovaks in Ludmila Cervanova, Lubomira Kurhajcova, and Martina Sucha. All you really need to know about this tie is that the winner will get spanked by the U.S. in the second round.
Australia at Russia
Site: Small Sports Arena "Luzhniki," Moscow, RUS
Surface: Carpet (Taraflex) -- indoors
Ball Type: Wilson US Open Regular Duty High Visibility Felt
This will be an uphill climb for the visiting Aussie squad, which will be without Nicole Pratt due to injury, and will have to rely on up-and-comers Alicia Molik (ranked No. 40) and Sam Stosur (No. 103). The Russians bring the heavy artillery with two Top 10-ranked singles players in Anastasia Myskina and Nadia Petrova. Molik is 0-1 vs. both Russians, while Stosur is 0-1 vs. Myskina, and has never faced Petrova. Book the Russians in round two.
Japan at Argentina
Site: Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club, Buenos Aires, ARG
Surface: Clay (Red Clay) -- outdoors
Ball Type: Penn Championship (Red Seal)
This tie is a coin flip, with the No. 15-ranked Paola Suarez leading the Argentine claycourt defense, and No. 10-ranked Ai Sugiyama leading the visiting Japanese. Gisela Dulko will likely fill the No. 2 spot for the Argentines, while Japan's No. 2 spot is up for grab between three similarly-ranked players in Saori Obata, Shinobu Asagoe, and Akiko Morigami. The main element of this tie is the winner getting crushed by Russia in the second round.
Czech Republic at Italy
Site: Circolo Tennis Maglie, Lecce, ITA
Surface: Clay (Red Clay) -- outdoors
Ball Type: Dunlop Fort All Court
Italy holds the big advantage at home with two Top 25 singles players in Francesca Schiavone and Silvia Farina Elia against two players well outside the Top 50 in Klara "Kouky" Koukalova and Barbora Strycova. The Czechs have won three of the four meetings between these two "founding members" of the Fed Cup, but chalk this one up to the Italians.
Germany at France
Site: Coliseum, Amiens, FRA
Surface: Clay (Red Clay) -- indoors
Ball Type: Roland Garros
The defending champions are sitting pretty with a home tie on clay against a German team without any players ranked within the Top 99 in singles. The "Dream Team" of Amelie Mauresmo (if her back problems are behind her) and Mary Pierce will roll over some combination of Germans Marlene Weingartner, Barbara Rittner, and Anna-Lena Groenefeld.
Switzerland at Spain
Site: Centro Tenis La Manga Club, ESP
Surface: Clay (Red Clay) -- outdoors
Ball Type: Dunlop Fort All Court
Conchita Martinez and Maria Sanchez Lorenzo will defend the home claycourts against Patty Schnyder and Myriam Casanova in this potentially explosive tie. Martinez has won seven of her nine meetings with Schnyder, most recently on clay last week at Charleston where Schnyder refused to shake Martinez's hand after the match due to the Spaniard's penchant for taking extra time between points to find the ball she used during the previous point. Martinez beat Casanova in their lone meeting. If Schnyder is still fired up and ready to do a Roger Federer-like one-woman show, this tie could be the upset special.
Croatia at Belgium
Site: Expodroom Bree, Bree, BEL
Surface: Clay (Red Clay) -- indoors
Ball Type: Dunlop Fort Duck
What the hell is a Dunlop Fort Duck? Kim Clijsters would probably skip this tie if it weren't held at home in Belgium, while world No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne is forced to miss this one with a viral infection. Not that she would have been all pumped to play after skipping last year's semifinals. Clijsters said on her website she may pull from the event after all with her wrist injury come Friday, even though the wrist was healthy enough to recently play a hit-and-giggle exhibition against fiance Lleyton Hewitt. The Belgian team will be screwed if Clijsters pulls, leaving No. 84-ranked Els Callens, and two players ranked outside the Top 300 in Elke "Little Sis" Clijsters and Kirsten Flipkens. Croatia comes in with a young hungry crew in Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem and Jelena Kostanic, both ranked in the Top 50 and both capable of producing upsets on the red dirt. The Croats also have former Roland Garros winner "Deliver Us From" Iva Majoli, who has struggled with a ranking currently outside the Top 200. The elder Clijsters has never faced either Sprem of Kostanic, and with the suspect wrist, the tie will hinge on the effort made by Kim, if any at all.
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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Fashion fashionista Melissa Rivers, talking to ESPN, on Serena Williams' fashion sense (commenting on Serena in two dresses recently): On the purple dress, Melissa says "Oh, the big girl (sigh ...). The Williams sisters are girls who are into fashion. And I know that purple is in. And the flower print is in. I love the fabric. It fits her really, really well...But, I'm not loving the neckline on her...Honestly, I'm worried that she's going to fall out of this dress. You should never look at someone in a dress and worry that they are going to fall out of it. It's very distracting." On the pink dress: "This dress does not fit her at all. The pink is all wrong, it's almost a 'Pepto' pink; it should be either a little bit lighter or a little bit darker. The seaming is too obvious. There is too much fabric down by the waist and her (breasts) look saggy...I don't like this on her at all. She's definitely going to fall out of this dress by the end of the evening."...Thursday at Monte Carlo, Rainer Schuettler pulled a camera from his bag to photograph the spot where he believed a disputed ball had landed out, and picked up a warning from the umpire for his troubles: "I took a picture because the ball was clearly out," said Schuettler, taking a shot at the ATP for being slow to adopt the "Shot Spot" technology for chair umpires. "We have fantastic equipment to judge balls these days and we see mistakes like this...Everybody complains about tennis getting boring and when someone does something out of the ordinary, he receives a warning. The crowd laughed but not the umpire. It's a shame."...Sally Jenkins writing for the Washington Post: "I'm trying to think of anything more culturally irrelevant than tennis. New Age music festivals? Sport fishing and rare book auctions also come to mind. Here's how irrelevant the sport has become: Eleven days ago a U.S. Davis Cup team led by Andy Roddick beat Sweden in the quarterfinals on American soil, and it only merited a brief mention on the nightly sportscasts. You probably missed it, because Tiger Woods's slump seemed so much more important at the time. So did Sean Penn's political views, and Pete Rose's future, and Lesley Stahl's hair style. Tennis is dead. It has been dead before, but at the moment it's dead without precedent."...According to a 2002 survey in the Sports Business Journal, rodeo, soccer and greyhound racing had better attendance than tennis in the U.S...That Andre Agassi will skip the ATP's top tier of Masters Series events in Monte Carlo, Hamburg and Rome, but play the tiny St. Poelten, Austrian event speaks to the renewed power of under-the-table guarantees paid to players during this time when the tour is struggling financially. In past years the ATP maintained a year-end bonus pool of money for the top players, and could dictate the movement of players by taking away a percentage of bonus pool if they skipped major events. But with the collapse of major sponsorships, the tour no longer maintains a year-end bonus pool as in years past, and can no longer guarantee players posting for the top events. Andy Roddick accepted a large guarantee to play the Houston event last week, then pulled from this week's event in Monte Carlo with little (cash) incentive...Rainer Schuettler has won more matches in Monte Carlo than he had the first 3-1/2 months of the year...David Nalbandian has not won a title in over a year...Anna Kournikova is being sued by her parents, who say the tennis starlet has taken over the waterfront home the three jointly own, reports the AP, nice relationship...Our apologies for those getting the newsletter late this week, one of the rubber bands holding our server together broke. Whoever said you can't run a server off two networked Apple IIs, we're proving you wrong, kinda.