Agassi Takes the Money and Runs at ATP St. Poelten

Andre Agassi's plan of sitting out the entire claycourt season save for the tiny ATP St. Poelten event in preparation for the French Open left much to be desired Monday when the No. 1 seed was ousted 6-2, 7-6(6) by little-known qualifier Nenad Zimonjic.

Agassi, who has left tournament organizers empty-handed after accepting a large appearance fee to play the event, now enters Roland Garros with an 0-1 record on the European red clay with a loss to a guy ranked No. 339. That should translate into wonderous success at Roland Garros, ya think?

"Nobody is more surprised than I am," said Agassi, who will have plenty of cash to spend this week as a tourist in Austria, and plenty of time to hone his game on the practice court. "I did not move well, I was only reacting."

Don't worry St. Poelten organizers, you still have Sargis Sargsian to carry the load, put him up on some billboards around the city. Or maybe Ollie Rochus. And hey, Zimonjic is the current Australian Open mixed doubles champ.

Two other seeds won on the day in (3)Nikolay Davydenko (d. Tursunov), and (7)"Dr." Ivo Karlovic (d. (Q)Stoppini in three). Un-seeds into the second round were Austrian homeboy Stefan Koubek (d. Soderling), Belgian waffles Xavier Malisse (d. Beck) and Olivier Rochus (d. Levy), American Hugo Armando (d. Behrend), and Croatia's Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic (d. Blanco).

On court Tuesday are Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer vs. "Grinning" Greg Rusedski, (WC)Knowle vs. (4)Labadze, (3)Davydenko vs. Ancic, (Q)Malisse vs. (LL)Armando, and "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter vs. (8)Volandri.

Australia and Argentina picked up wins at the World Team Cup Monday in Dusseldorf, with the Aussies edging the U.S. 2-1 on the red clay, and the Argentines beating The Netherlands 3-0 with each match going three sets.

Mark Philippoussis got a rare win in coming back from a set down to beat Vince Spadea 7-6 in the third, while Lleyton Hewitt also needed three to subdue Robby Ginepri. The Bryan brothers got the lone point for the U.S., beating Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley in the doubles. Way for the U.S. to post that singles "C"-squad. For Argentina it was Gaston Gaudio over Martin "Berzerk" Verkerk, Juan Ignacio Chela edging Sjeng Schalken, and Lucas Arnold/Mariano Zabaleta beating John van Lottum/Verkerk. Tuesday at the WTC features Germany vs. Czech Republic, and Spain vs. defending champs Chile.

Only one upset at the heinous Casablanca event Monday, with Ivo "I Used to Date Hingis" Heuberger ousting No. 6 seed Dennis "I Can't Believe I Was Seeded" Van Scheppingen. Seeded winners were (3)Anthony Dupuis (d. Di Pasquale), (7)Thierry Ascione (d. (WC)Tahiri), and (8)Oscar Hernandez (d. (WC)El Aarej). Unseeded winners were (Q)Santiago Ventura (d. Sabau), Juan-Pablo Guzman (d. Taino), (Q)Simone Vagnozzi (d. Lisnard), Al Portas (d. Mutis), Federico Browne (d. Krajan), and Nicolas Mahut (d. (LL)Rehnquist).

On court today in Casablanca are (4)Ramirez-Hildalgo vs. Benneteau, (1)Hrbaty vs. Calatrava, Portas vs. (3)Dupuis, (5)Saulnier vs. C.Rochus, and Guzman vs. (8)O.Hernandez.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW

Severine Beltrame of France upset No. 7 seed Maria Sanchez-Lorenzo of Spain in the only seeded action on Monday at the WTA stop in Strasbourg. Other winners were Czech Barbora Strycova (d. Tanasugarn in three), Spain's Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues (d. Mikaelian in three), Japan's Akiko Morigami (d. Bacsinszky in three), France's Marion Bartoli (d. Schett in three), American Laura Granville (d. Brandi), and Slovak Katarina Srebotnik (d. Obata).

On court Tuesday in Strasbourg are Pisnik vs. Martinez Granados, Sequera vs. Safina, Farina Elia vs. Nagyova, Testud vs. Loit, Parra Santonja vs. Schaul, Craybas vs. Cohen-Aloro, and Vakulenko vs. Shaughnessy.

No. 3 seed Lisa Raymond bombed out in the first round at Vienna Monday, brushed aside in straight sets by China's Jie Zheng. Other winners on the day were (5)Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier (d. Ivanovic), (WC)Yvonne Meusburger (d. Camerin), Lubomira Kurhajcova (d. Cervanova), and Aussie Nicole Pratt (d. Chaldkova).

On today's Vienna sausage schedule is Sucha vs. Molik, Vento-Kabchi vs. Czink, Talaja vs. Hantuchova, Jidkova vs. Schwartz, Serna vs. An.Barna, Dulko vs. Koukalova, Weingartner vs. Black, Li vs. Benesova, and Stosur vs. Kostanic.

AGASSI LOWLIGHTS
Andre's loss the Ziminojic on Monday ranks among his worst. Here are a few others that Agassi has certainly tried to forget over the years (but we won't let him!):

Player Event Rank
Luke Jensen '96 Memphis 419
Nenad Zimonjic '04 St. Poelten 339
Doug Flach '97 Washington 174

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Andre Agassi has yet to win a match as a 34-year-old (0-1) and yet to win a title since turning 33...Andre Agassi is still stuck with 799 career match wins, and still looking to join Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Guillermo Vilas and Stefan Edberg in the "800 Club"...Add James Blake and Younes El Aynaoui to the long list of French Open injury pull-outs...The WTA Tour named 37-year-old Susan Lomax, the former head of public relations at Vivendi Universal Entertainment’s Universal Orlando, as Vice President of Communications...Mark Philippoussis' win Monday at the World Team Cup was his first since the Australian Open in January...U.S. Olympic men's tennis captain Patrick McEnroe says his second doubles team will be comprised of singles players, likely Andy Roddick and someone else trying to develop a volley...Notables in the men's Roland Garros quali draw include Hyung-Taik Lee, Marc Rosset, Swiss Davis Cup No. 2 Michel Kratochvil, Franco "The Squirrel" Squillari, Giovanni "Little Bro" Lapentti, top seed Al Montanes, German riser Florian Mayer, Argentine riser Juan Monaco, and Spanish riser Marc Lopez. The main draw will be made Friday morning...Andre Agassi fans rejoice, the last time - and only time since 1990 -the Vegas star played the week before the French was in 1999, the same year he won in Roland Garros title! Agassi played Dusseldorf that year, but like his result on Monday, miserably retired early in his first match. So all hope is not lost.