Serena, Venus Williams Too Strong in French Openers
Posted on May 26, 2004
Serena and Venus Williams, sequestered on the same side of the draw at Roland Garros this year, both looked strong in first round wins Tuesday at the French Open.(2)Serena rolled Iveta "Play Better" Benesova 6-2, 6-2, while elder sister (4)Venus Williams subdued Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-2, 6-4.
Serena in her post-match was more excited about the color of her outfit than the quality of her game: "It's more or less like hints of pink in it. However, it's like purple. It's actually purple. But that's not the name of it...Fuscia. It's fuscia. Thank you. Fuscia with actually red hints on my waistband, it's red. It's cool. It's really different."
Ignoring the fact she was booed off the court last year, Serena was nonetheless confident in speaking for French fans concerning their love for (add gemstones here) SERENA!.
"I think they (the French) always appreciate the fashion style and flair that I bring," Serena said.
While the Williams sisters barely broke a sweat Tuesday, other Top 10 seeds struggled in (6)Anastasia Myskina (d. Molik in three sets), and (7)Jennifer Capriati (d. Beygelzimer in three). Other seeded winners were (11)Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Bacheva), (12)Ai Sugiyama (d. Bartoli), (16)Patty "Hnadshake" Schnyder (d. Kapros), (17)Francesca Schiavone (d. Cohen-Aloro), (20)Conchita Martinez (d. Ashley), (23)Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga (d. Martina "Nurse Hand Me a" Sucha), (25)Elena Bovina (d. Vinci), (29)Petra Mandula (d. McCain 6-1 in the third), and (30)Mary Pierce (d. Schaul).
Two low-rent seeds were sent home on the day in Frenchwoman (26)Nathalie Dechy (l. to countrywoman Stephanie Foretz), and (22)Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem (l. to Swiss Myriam Casanova).
Un-seeds into the second round were legend-killer Gisela "Sgt." Dulko (d. (WC)Navratilova), Klara "Kouky" Koukalova (d. French wunderteen Golovin in two tiebreaks), Japan's Shinobu Asagoe (d. Daniela "The Walking Stick" Hantuchova), Jelena Kostanic (d. Pin), Barbara Rittner (d. Barbara "Don't Give a" Schett), Gala Leon Garcia (d. Granville), Virginie Razzano (d. Brandi), Maria Kirlienko (d. Mikaelian), Virginia Ruano Pascual (d. Melinda "Our Favorite Element" Czink), Barbora Strycova (d. Callens), Denisa "Hanging" Chladkova (d. Beltrame), Anna-Lena Groenefeld (d. Stosur), Katarina Srebotnik (d. Black), Silvija Talaja (d. Gagliardi), Maria Vento-Kabchi (d. Lee-Waters), Russian Elena Likhovtseva (d. countrywoman Jidkova in three), Kveta Peschke (d. Birnerova in three), and American Shenay Perry (d. Obziler).
On court Wednesday are (3)Mauresmo vs. Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues, (5)Davenport vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, (10)Vera "Warren" Zvon-areva vs. Serna, (15)Farina Elia vs. Shaughnessy, Weingartenr vs. Camerin, (14)Suarez vs. Douchevina, (28)Raymond vs. Parra Santonja, (32)Dinara "Little Sis" Safina vs. Irvin, (31)Loit vs. Zheng, (1)Henin-Hardenne vs. Garbin, (8)Petrova vs. Fedak, (9)Dementieva vs. Pratt, Perebiynis vs. Ashley "Anna 2.0" Harkleroad, (18)Maria "Grunt-o-licious" Sharapova vs. Rita "Ain't It" Grande, (21)Maleeva vs. Marrero, and (19)Smashnova-Pistolesi vs. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova.
On the men's side Tuesday, defending champ Juan Carlos Ferrero showed what a pain-killing injection can do for an injured rib, putting on an impressive display in beating a hot-handed Tommy Haas 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to move into the second round.
"You know, at the beginning I feel like, you know, I couldn't play in 17 or 20 days one match and also one set, because I have a lot of problems," said the No. 4-seeded Ferrero, whose problems also extend to his grasp of English. "So I start to feel better and better in the second set, you know. I start to feel my forehand very good, you know, and my backhand. Physically, I start to feel a little bit tired in the third set, but I was passing the -- enjoying the time and try to not thinking physically I'm tired."
Top-seeded Roger Federer set the tone for his run at a first Roland Garros title with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 spanking of Belgium's Kristof Vliegen. Club Fed was joined among the seeded winners by (8)David Nalbandian (d. Gasquet), (10)Sebastien "Skateboard Kid" Grosjean (d. (Q)K.Kim), (12)Lleyton Hewitt (d. (WC)Di Pascuale in four), (14)Jiri Novak (d. Dupuis in four), (19)Martin "Berzerk" Verkerk (d. (WC)Boutter), (20)Marat Safin (d. Calleri who retired in the third set with injury), (23)Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez (d. N.Lapentti in four), (24)Jonas Bjorkman (d. Dent in five), (25)Ivan Jlubicic (d. Arazi in five), (26)Al Costa (d. Saretta in four), and (28)Gustavo Kuerten (d. (Q)Almagro in five).
Un-seeds into the second round were two Germans in Nicolas Kiefer (d. Ascione) and (Q)Daniel Elsner (d. (Q)Peya), three Belgians in Gilles Elseneer (d. Hidalgo Ramirez in five), Christophe Rochus (d. (LL)M.Lopez) and Xavier "X-Man" Malisse (d. (7)Schuettler, coming back to Earth on the dirt), three French homeboys in (WC)Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience (d. Volandri), Julien Benneteau (d. (29)Max "The Beast" Mirnyi in four), and Fabrice Santoro (d. countryman (32)Clement 16-14 in the fifth, setting the record for the longest match), Spaniards Felix Mantilla (d. (LL)Salzenstein in four) and Dave Ferrer (d. O.Rochus), Austrians Stefan Koubek (d. D.Sanchez 6-0 in the fifth) and Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer (d. W.Ferreira in four), Slovak Karol Kucera (d. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic), Korean lucky loser Hyung-Taik Lee (d. Soderling coming back from 0-2 sets down), Italian qualifier "You Say" Potito Starace (d. Tursunov), Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla (d. Pless in four), Russian Igor Andreev (d. Vacek), and Swedish veteran Thomas Enqvist (d. Carlsen). Suspended by darkness was an all-Argentine dirtball battle with Guillermo Canas tied with Gaston Gaudio 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 3-6.
On court Wednesday for the men are (3)Guillermo "El Mago" Coria vs. Monaco, Santoro vs. Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze, (9)Henman vs. Burgsmuller, Agassi-killer Haehnel vs. Llodra in an all-FRA, (22)Chela vs. Verdasco in a bell-ringer, (30)Zabaleta vs. Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, Canas vs. Gaudio to finish, (21)Pavel vs. Youzhny, (5)Moya vs. Vicente in an all-ESP, (2)Roddick vs. the Frenchman Mutis, Mayer vs. Escude, (11)Massu vs. Voltchkov, "Julio &" Gallo Blanco vs. Luis "Me So" Horna, (13)Srichaphan vs. Corretja (run, don't walk, to the betting site), (27)Spadea vs. Jeanpierre, and (17)Robredo vs. Garcia-Lopez.
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At 6 hours 33 minutes, the Arnaud Clement-Fabrice Santoro match is the longest ever played, beating out by two minutes the Vicki Nelson-Dunbar d. Jean Hepner clash at the Virginia Slims-Richmond in 1984 which went 6:31. The 71 games played was also the most in Roland Garros history...After a shaky start, Juan Carlos Ferrero regrouped to pound Tommy Haas, making one wonder just how injured the Spaniard really is (or could be the drugs)...Gilsela Dulko told her brother/coach in Vienna that she had a feeling she was going to draw Martina Navratilova. Dulko also dates Spain's Fernando Verdasco...Al Costa has a great draw, a seriously great draw...Serena Williams is 21-0 in first-round Grand Slam matches. Sister Venus is 16-0 on clay this year...Venus Williams won just four points of 22 on her second serve all day Tuesday. Check it...Roger Federer lost just four points on his first serve during his win over Kristof Vliegen. The win ended a three-match Roland Garros losing skid for the Swiss who is the top seed at a Slam for the first time...After a chilly weekend and first two days, the weather is expected to warm up until the weekend when a storm is forecasted to hit Roland Garros...Only Guillermo Vilas' 6-0, 6-3, 6-0 win over Brian Gottfried was shorter in games than Roger Federer's stomping of Kristof Vliegen...Word is Andy Roddick is feeling better after suffering from a stomach virus...Scary Note of the Day: Gisela Dulko's mom is 47, the same age as Martina Navratilova...How bright is Spain's future with the under-20 crew of Nicolas Almagro (should have beaten Guga Tuesday), Fernando Verdasco (has won 13 straight games at the French) and Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal..."Dr." Ivo Karlovic's consecutive Grand Slam tiebreak streak was stopped at 13 Tuesday in a loss. Dr. Ivo had played 13 consecutive tiebreak sets in Grand Slam play. Look it up...A day after Jerome Haehnel pulled off the shocker over Andre Agassi, unknown Yulia Beygelzimer nearly knocked out Jennifer Capriati. Beygelzimer had just one career tournament win entering the match with Chunky Jen...Seven former French Open champions were on court Tuesday...Vince Spadea overcame nine match points and a 5-1 deficit in the fifth set to beat French qualifier Florent Serra in his opener at Roland Garros...No. 97-ranked Alex Corretja wasn't happy being put on Court 17 at Roland Garros, but sucked it up in steamrolling Jan-Mike Gambill: "I'd prefer to play on a better court. It was very distracting. There were people walking around all the time. I could hear car horns beeping. I'm obviously not one of the favorites right now, from a ranking point of view. My main motivation is to win. I can't say to myself, 'I won't play my best because they put me on Court 17.'" Why not? Marat Safin, or mentor Yevgeny Kafelnikov would have put on the flippers immediately, maybe not even made it out of the locker room...The difference between American and Canadian tennis -- from the Tennis Canada newsletter: "Sharon Fichman of Toronto made it to the quarterfinals at the Italian Junior Open. In a nail-biting three-set match, she came close to upsetting #14 seed Viktoria Azarenka, but came up just short, losing 6-4, 6-0." See, in American losing 6-0 means you got your ass kicked; in Canada, it means you almost upset someone. Also in America, a three-set match also has a three-set score...France's Fabrice Santoro on his marathon win: "It's an exceptional moment," said Santoro. "More than victory, the intensity of the match and the strong emotions out there are what you're looking for when you become a professional tennis player." Victim Arnaud Clement was less than enthused: "What do I get? A medal? I'm not interested."...Martina Navratilova says even though she was crushed 6-1, 6-3, it was closer than it looked: "If you look at the score line you would say it was a kill, but if you watched the match, I could have been 4-3 up in the first set. I did not play the big points well; that was the problem." No, you're a late-40s-year-old serve-and-volleyer playing on clay, that's the problem...For people who ask why former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero isn't a big star in the U.S, just sit through one of his post-match conferences, dreaming of the day scientists perfect the personality transplant...Marat Safin says he almost (or did?) come into the French Open burned out after the long claycourt lead-up to the French with three Masters Series events: "I need some kind of a -- just get out of tennis, because it was getting too much on my nerves and I was getting too -- I've been for a long time traveling from tournament to tournament, so I needed some time off. Took like five days off, I didn't touch the racquet, I enjoyed my friends and just did normal stuff that people do, and it helped. So I come back here, I practice for four days, it was enough for me. And now I get motivation to move on. That's what I needed, you know, because it was a really difficult schedule. I mean all the months, we had like three Masters Series tournaments, then you have to make the preparation before the tournaments so it's a little bit too much of tennis for me."...As opposed to sourpusses Amelie Mauresmo, Emilie Loit and Jennifer Capriati, Venus Williams says more power to Martina Navratilova playing singles at the slams: "Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that she's just such a great player and just so motivated. Really, if any of us can be doing what she's doing, more power to anyone who can do it."...Mary Pierce says moving to Amsterdam to be near her coach and trainer has worked out well: "It's a really pretty city. There's a lot of water. It's very green, a lot of flowers. I mean, it's important for me to have some water, being from Florida. There's a lot of water there, so that helps. Yeah, it's a big city, of course, Amsterdam. But it doesn't have that feeling. It's not stressful and busy. That's important. I really like that. I'm very adaptable. Since a young age, I've practically been traveling my whole life, so it's not difficult for me to adapt to different environments."...Carlos Moya attempts to improve his 2004 record against fellow Spaniards to 11-0 when he faces Fernando Vicente today (who he is 10-0 career against)...Today watch Tim Henman and Andy Roddick, both of whom won in the first round but are trying to shake off stomach viruses...The U.S. men went 0-3 on Tuesday...Roger Federer got out of the first round at the French Tuesday for the first time in three years...Is it our imagination, or is Jennifer Capriati looking like she is starting to drop some pounds under new coach Heinz Gunthardt? We have interns who do nothing but write fat jokes, that is going to mean some layoffs.