Coria-Safin, Moya-Schuettler in ATP Monte Carlo Semifinals Today
Posted on April 25, 2004
Tournament favorite Guillermo "El Mago" Coria resumed his straight-line charge toward the Masters Series-Monte Carlo title Friday, rebounding from an early break of serve to showcase some baseline magic and roll No. 7-seeded countryman David Nalbandian 6-4, 6-3."As far as I'm concerned, I consider him a candidate to be No. 1 in the world," said Coria of his countryman. "So for me, this match today was very pleasing. I'm very happy."
The No. 3 seeded Coria was joined in the semifinals by No. 4 Rainer Schuettler (d. the weary (6)Tim Henman), No. 5 Carlos Moya (d. Davydenko), and unseeded Marat Safin (d. A.Martin 6-1 in the third).
"I think in all honesty the 16 previous sets over the past four days caught up with me," said Henman, who is also in the doubles semifinals. "My shoulder is definitely a bit sore. You know, if I felt I was going to risk something I wouldn't play doubles tomorrow...but I don't envision that being the case."
Saturday's semifinal match-ups will be (3)Coria vs. Safin (first meeting), and (4)Schuettler vs. (5)Moya (German leads 4-3). The second doubles semifinal will be played in Henman/Zimonjic vs. (5)Damm/Suk, with the winner advancing to the final to face (7)Etlis/Rodriguez (d. (4)Knowles/Nestor in three in their semifinal).
Safin knows it will be a baseline grind against El Mago in their first-ever meeting: "I played more aggressive, attacking players earlier in the tournament, now I am facing the real claycourt specialists. It is not easy to change your game to do this. But I will try...But Coria will be really tough."
WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
No WTA events this week, Fed Cup begins today (see review story on site).
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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
The Guardian on the Tim Henman-Nicolas Massu match at Monte Carlo: "The opening was remarkable for the fact that nine of the first 12 games were won by the returner. At least Henman saw the funny side of it, first asking the umpire Cedric Mourier if he could help with his serve and then threatening to wear a skirt if he lost his serve again. 'WTA,' he muttered at one changeover, a reference to a type of match so often seen in the women's game...Later, knowing he was scheduled to play a doubles on the court central, with Massu again involved, Henman suggested to Mourier that he ask Alan Mills, the tournament referee, if they could play both matches at the same time. The umpire duly obliged, which led to a somewhat concerned Mills making an appearance at a change-over. The Court des Princes had become the court of fools."...More from quote machine Marat Safin: "Outside the court I am taking it easier because I know my time will come. You can't win all the time, you can't play great tennis all year. Sometimes you lose to some people that you shouldn't lose to in a thousand years. But it happens and you have to accept it. I have talked to experienced players like Tim Henman and Albert Costa and say, 'Is it true when you are young you have no fear, you are playing and you don't care about the score?' But in time, you start to care. You lose your virginity."...Rainer Schuettler is the only MS-Monte Carlo semifinalist without a career Masters Series title...Marat Safin says he stays at the hotel, even though he lives in Monte Carlo, because "the hotel room is bigger than my apartment."...Guillermo "El Mago" Coria on his magician nickname: "I think it's important to do something like a dropshot or something to amuse the public, but I don't do it on purpose just to distract the crowd; I do it because it has a purpose in the game. Since I don't have a big serve, well, I like sometimes to do a dropshot to attract the player to the net." Looks for a lot of droppers against Safin...This marks the first time since 1986 that the Monte Carlo has three of the top five seeds through to the last four. That year, the top four seeds of Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg, Joakim Nystrom and Yannick Noah reached the semifinals."...Kim Clijsters says she is fit and will compete for Belgium against Croatia in Fed Cup play today...Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Anna Kournikova is countersuing her parents, seeking to remove their names from the deed of the $5 million dollar waterfront home in Miami Beach. Get the hell out of my house!..Martina Navratilova has never lost a match in 29 years of Fed Cup play...Andre Agassi says his prep school in Las Vegas, with students in grades 3-7, keeps him going: "The good news is that I've created an endowment fund that will pay for the school forever, so we'll never be going back to anybody just to keep the lights on. But I do understand that the longer I play, the better off I know that the school will be."...Our friends at vamosrafael.com were nice enough to remind us that Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal, even though he will miss the Olympics with his fractured/broken ankle, would have had to put in some solid results during the dirt season to make the Spanish team in the first place. Bad luck for the kid who was looking at his break-out claycourt season in 2004.