Dent, Beast, Rusedski Crowned at Queen's

Posted on June 8, 2004

Favored net-rushers Taylor Dent, Greg Rusedski, and Max "The Beast" Mirnyi were bounced on the first day of play at Queen's Monday, heralding in two weeks of typical grasscourt upsets leading to The Championships at Wimbledon.

The American Dent swallowed a humiliating loss to Brit "B"-squad player Jamie Delgado, ranked No. 326, while The Beast was slain in three sets by French comer Nicolas Mahut.

No. 13 seed Dave Ferrer (l. to Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience) was also bounced, while No. 14 "Dr." Ivo Karlovic was the only seed to advance on the day, with the Croatian giant edging American Jan-Mike Gambill in a third-set tiebreak.

Other un-seeds into the second round were Brit wildcard Jonathan Marray (d. C.Rochus), Spaniard Marc Lopez (d. Tursunov in three), Canadian wildcard Frank Dancevic (d. (WC)Parmar who led 5-2 in the opening set and 3-1 in the third -- choke!), France's Anthony Dupuis (d. countryman Benneteau), Korean Hyung-Taik Lee (d. Rusedski, who led 3-0 in the third set -- gack!), Russian Igor Andreev (d. Gasquet in two breakers), South African Wesley Whitehouse (d. Vacek), Aussie Todd Reid (d. Ascione), Slovakia's Karol Kucera (d. van Lottum in three), Yen-Hsun Lu (d. Arthurs in a shocker), and Italy's Davide Sanguinetti (d. Koubek).

"It's disappointing because every match you can get through somehow, you think that maybe things will start to click. But unfortunately it just didn't happen for me today," Rusedski said. "I wasn't serving well, threw in too many double faults, and I wasn't moving as well as I would have liked."

On Tuesday's schedule at Queen's are Ivanisevic vs. Hanescu, (3)Agassi vs. Andreev, (1)Roddick vs. Kucera, (8)Schalken vs. (Q)Whitehouse, Ancic vs. (Q)Morrison, (Q)Flanagan vs. (9)Philippoussis, Enqvist vs. (Q)Suzuki, (15)Stepanek vs. Sluiter, (WC)Dancevic vs. Patience, Beck vs. Elseneer, Saulnier vs. (12)Ginepri, Moodie vs. Bogomolov Jr., and O.Rochus vs. (16)T.Martin.

Two of four seeds advanced in Halle Monday, with (6)Mardy Fish making a successful comeback from a hip injury (d. (WC)Prinosil), and (3)Jiri Novak easily dismissing Ivan Ljubicic.

On the losing end were (7)Andrei Pavel (l. to Alexander "My Serve Has" Popp in three), and (8)Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez (l. to (WC)Haas).

"I think I played pretty solid, which you have to do on the grasscourts," Haas said. "It's my first match in three years on grass so it's a new total different game again. You are forced to serve and volley and to hit good returns and I think I played pretty good today."

Other unseeded winners were the smooth Sargis Sargsian (d. Volandri in three), Frenchman Arnaud Clement (d. (WC)Waske), (LL)Marco Chiudinelli (d. (Q)Kratochvil), and Kenneth Carlsen (d. (Q)Berrer 7-6 in the third).

On court Tuesday in Halle are (Q)Hernych vs. (2)Schuettler, (1)Federer vs. T.Johansson in a battle of former winners, Burgsmuller vs. Kiefer in an all-German, (5)Safin vs. Bjorkman (Russian leads meetings 4-3, but Swede has won last three), Mayer vs. Youzhny, Verdasco vs. (4)Verkerk, J.Johansson vs. Soderling in an all-Swedish, and (Q)Seppi vs. Davydenko.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Only one seed in (9)Emilie Loit (d. (WC)O'Donoghue) survived the strife Monday at Birmingham, with three seeds out in (11)Tina Pisnik (l. to McCain in three), (12)Magui "Don't Call Me Maggie" Serna (l. to Anne "Cosmo" Kremer), and (14)Lina Krasnoroutskaya (l. to Sequera 6-0 in the third).

Other unseeded winners into the second round were Japan's Shinobu Asagoe (d. Vakulenko) and Saori Obata (d. Camerin in three), Arantxa Parra Santonja (d. Srebotnik), Americans Jamea Jackson (d. Santangelo) and Shenay Perry (d. Strycova), Aussie Sam Stosur (d. Baltacha), Tamarine Tanasugarn (d. Jidkova in three), Swiss Marie-Gayanay Mikaelian (d. Zheng in three), Jelena Jankovic (d. Perebiynis in three), Brit Anne Keothavong (d. Marrero 7-6 in the third, resulting in dancing in the streets with a Brit woman winning a WTA match), Anca Barna (d. Ivanovic), and  Flavia "Of the Day" Pennetta (d. Bartoli who retired in the first set with injury). 

On today's shed-yoole (as the Brit's say) are Hantuchova vs. Cho, Molik vs. Pennetta, Parra Santonja vs. Schnyder, Jackson vs. Sharapova, Ruano Pascual vs. Vento-Kabchi, Sanchez Lorenzo vs. Callens, Black vs. Grande, Craybas vs. Schaul, Vinci vs. Kirilenko, Kremer vs. Mikaelian, Czink vs. Morigami, and Golovin vs. Likhovtseva.

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