El Mago, Moya, Safin Advance at French Open

Posted on May 29, 2004

The favorites crushed the opposition on the men's side at the French Open Thursday among a rapidly-thinning field after early exits by defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, former champ Andre Agassi, and world No. 2 Andy Roddick.

No. 1 on many punters' lists, No. 3 seed Guillermo "El Mago" Coria displayed crushing form in putting the beat down on Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic 6-3, 6-1, 6-2. Likewise former champ and No. 5 seed Carlos Moya had little trouble with "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter, handing the Dutchman a 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 loss.

El Mago says he is just chillin'.

"Everyone who comes here feels a bit of pressure on him, but I am relaxed," El Mago said. "I trusted myself and I'm not thinking that I'm going to win whatever the case. There's not that much pressure on me."

Other seeds into the fourth round were (9)Tim Henman (d. "Julio &" Galo Blanco), (17)Tommy Robredo (d. (11)Massu easily), (20)Safin (d. Mantilla in a continuation of Thursday's match, see below) and (22)Juan Ignacio Chela (d. Corretja in four).

Un-seeds into the fourth round were three Frenchman in Nicolas Escude (d. Youzhny in four), Roddick-killer Olivier Mutis (d. Santoro), and Michael Llodra (d. Jeanpierre), all in straights.

On court Saturday are (1)Federer vs. (28)Kuerten in (hopefully) an ESPN special, (20)Safin vs. (Q)Starace, (23)F.Lopez vs. H.-T. Lee, (26)Costa vs. Malisse, Benneteau vs. Andreev, (12)Hewitt vs. (19)Verkerk, and Enqvist vs. Gaudio.

On the women's side, Frenchwoman and No. 3 seed Amelie Mauresmo kept her eye on the prize Friday with an easy victory over Arantxa Parra Santonja to move into the fourth round.

Other seeded winners were (5)Lindsay Davenport (d. Irvin), (9)Elena Dementieva (d. (19)Smashnova-Pistolesi who retired with cramping), (18)Maria "Grunt-o-licious" Sharapova (d. (10)Vera "Warren" Zvon-areva), (14)Paola Suarez (d. Perebiynis), and (21)Maggie Maleeva (d. Shaughnessy).

In the only all-unseeded match, China's Jie Zheng continued to set the record for a Chinese woman advancing at a slam, moving into the fourth round with a three-set win over France's Tatiana Garbin.

Saturday's line-up includes (7)Capriati vs. (25)Bovina, (4)Venus vs. (30)Pierce, Asagoe vs. Dulko, (11)Kuznetsova vs. Casanova, (17)Schiavone vs. Ruano Pascual, (6)Myskina vs. Chaladkova, (2)Serena vs. Talaja, and (23)Zuluaga vs. Srebotnik.

FREE TENNIS-X E-NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to the FREE Tennis-X daily e-newsletter, click on the logo on the top right of the page at www.tennis-x.com. Daily results, daily previews, daily notes and quotes, daily smack on the dysfunctional world of pro tennis.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Guillermo "El Mago" Coria, Roger Federer and qualifier "You Say" Potito Starace have yet to drop a set at Roland Garros...Roger Federer comes in on a hot streak having won 8 straight matches, but can you name the player left in the draw with a longer current match win streak? How about Potito Starace, who has won his last 10 matches. That is 5 at the San Remo Challenger, 3 in qualifying and 2 more in the main draw. Plus, he's only dropped one set during that streak. That ain't bad for a guy playing in his first Slam...Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi, one of the fittest and leanest players on the WTA tour, was visibly suffering from leg, arm and hand cramps which ultimately forced her to retire Friday...Michael Llodra lost his mom just before Roland Garros last year, but this week is enjoying his best career Slam, good for him...Tim Henman pushed into the fourth round of Roland Garros for the first time in his career...With Justine Henin-Hardenne out, Amelie Mauresmo now takes the burden and pressure of being the favorite in the top half to reach the final, though Lindsay Davenport is the lone player that has won a Slam on that side...A female Russian has reached the round of 16 in 15 consecutive Slams now. But where are the titles?....In case you are wondering, in their last three meetings Guillermo Coria has surrendered exactly ZERO sets to Carlos Moya...From the are-you-kidding-me file: Igor Andreev, Jerome Haehnel and Potito Starace all have something in common besides posting huge upsets at the French Open -- being born on the same day, July 14...Rain is expected to move into Roland Garros late Saturday...Marat Safin, screaming after missing easy volley No. 58 against Felix Mantilla in the fifth set: "So burned out! So fucking burned out!"...Marat also had a hard time understanding getting a penalty point for pulling his pants down on court: "Nobody complained. Everybody was okay. It wasn't like really bad. But I don't understand why. The people like the chair umpire, the supervisor on the court, they should to come and they should destroy this just to show that they are there. Really, they have no clue about tennis." They definitely have no clue about the finer aspects of pulling your pants down during a tennis match. "All of the people who runs the sport, they have no clue. It's a pity that the tennis is really going down the drain. It's really a pity...I felt it was a great point for me. I felt like pulling my pants down. What's bad about it?...It's like, what, entertaining business. You try to make it fun. You try to make it -- you know, I am working my ass off on the court, it was full crowd, full stadium. We did a great job, I think. Was great tennis for four hours. Because of this incident, that's how we get treated by the people from ATP?"...Marat Safin, sporting a mustache and goatee, says he won't shave until he loses...Tim Henman's grandfather also made the fourth round at Roland Garros in 1939.