Ivanisevic Stays Alive at Last Wimbledon

Posted on June 22, 2004

Rain was intermittent Monday at Wimbledon, where 24 matches went uncompleted or unstarted, and the serve-and-volleyers are feeling good about the soggy, low-bouncing conditions.

Former champ and unseeded Goran Ivanisevic, playing his last Wimbledon, is one of the happy ones, serving No. 31 seed Mikhail Youzhny off the court in straight sets.

"I left 2001 with a victory, a great moment," Ivanisevic said. "I came back today, another victory. I enjoyed today every second on Centre Court."

Top-seeded Roger Federer led the top dogs with a straight-set shellacking of Brit wildcard Alex Bogdanovic, joined by seeds (6)Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Boutter), (7)Lleyton Hewitt (d. Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer), (10)Sebastien Grosjean (d. Ascione), (17)Jonas Bjorkman (d. "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter in four), and (27)Robby Ginepri (d. Tipsarevic in four).

"I feel like I'm capable of beating anyone on any given day," said Hewitt, who last year was knocked out in the first round by "Dr." Ivo Karlovic. "But, you know, there's a lot of tough players, you know, ahead of possibly playing in a final or holding up a trophy...I think I don't know how many guys there are actually capable of winning the tournament, but there's a lot of guys who are capable of causing upsets throughout the tournament."

Leading the seeded losers was (13)Paradorn Srichaphan in a shocker (l. to "Dr." Ivo Karlovic in four), (29)Nicolas Kiefer (l. to T.Johansson, blowing a 2-0 set lead), in addition to (31)Youzhny.

Other un-seeds into the second round were Frenchmen Fabrice Santoro (d. A.Martin in four) and Gregory Carraz (d. O.Rochus), Spaniard Fernando Verdasco (d. Weiner), Alejandro Falla (d. Knowle in four), Austrian Stefan Koubek (d. Acasuso in four), Italy's Filippo Volandri (d. Brit Delgado) and Daniel Bracciali (d. Hernych, who blew a 2-0 set lead), Gilles Elseneer (d. Brit (WC)Parmar), and Radek Stepanek (d. Corretja in five).

On tap for Tuesday on the men's side are (9)Moya vs. Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience (to finish), (2)Andy Roddick vs. Wang, (5)Henman vs. Ramirez Hidalgo, (3)Coria vs. Moodie (to finish), Rusedski vs. Sanguinetti, (19)Safin vs. Tursunov, (12)Schalken vs. Childs, (11)Philippoussis vs. C.Rochus, A.Costa vs. Hilton, (28)Ljubicic vs. W.Ferreira, (20)Robredo vs. Starace, T.Martin vs. Canas, Labadze vs. Vliegen (to finish), Beck vs. Marray, Mantilla vs. Pless, Benneteau vs. Berdych, Mayer vs. Arthurs (to finish), Peya vs. Salzenstein, (26)Dent vs. Delgado, Saulnier vs. Llodra, (30)Spadea vs. Reid, Kucera vs. O.Hernandez, Ferrer vs. Hanescu, Saretta vs. Heuberger, (25)Hrbaty vs. D.Sanchez, Vacek vs. Lu, (15)Massu vs. Alexander "My Serve Has" Popp, (33)Luis "Me So" Horna vs. Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, (16)Novak vs. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, (24)Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez vs. Vassalo Arguello, (18)Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. Bloomfield, (8)Schuettler vs. Soderling, (14)Fish vs. Navarro Pastor, (32)Arazi vs. Sa, Pescosolido vs. van Scheppingen, Andreev vs. van Lottum, Sargsian vs. M.Lopez, Ulihrach vs. Montanes, (22)Pavel vs. Ram, Verkerk vs. Davydenko, Carlsen vs. Gasquet, (23)Mirnyi vs. Gambill (to finish), Haas vs. Dupuis, (21)Chela vs. Burgsmuller, Clement vs. J.Johansson, and Enqvist vs. "Julio &" Galo Blanco.

On the women's side the buzz was around Martina Navratilova, with the 47-year-old wildcard and former champ stomping Colombian Catalina Castano 6-0, 6-1, setting up a second round match with her French Open conqueror, Gisela "Sgt." Dulko.

"It's nice when the biggest applause is when my opponent wins one game," Navratilova said. "I've done that many times. Just let up a little bit. She started playing better at the end and I had to play better, so that was good. It's nice to be pushed a little bit at the end."

Seeded winners on the women's side were (2)Anastasia Myskina (d. Kurhajcova), (3)Venus (d. Mikealian), (5)Lindsay Davenport (d. Randriantefy), (11)Ai Sugiyama (d. (WC)Janes in three), (12)Vera "Warren" Zvonareva (d. Stosur), (13)Maria "Grunt-o-meter" Sharapova (d. (Q)Beygelzimer), (21)Maggie Maleeva (d. Douchevina), (27)Alicia Molik (d. Melinda "The 5th Element" Czink), and (31)Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier (d. Kirilenko).

On the seeded losing side were (28)Emilie Loit (pounded by Russian qualifier Tatiana "The Pocket Baseliner" Panova), (16)Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi (l. to Slovak Katarina Srebotnik), and head-case (23)Jelena Dokic (dismissed by Gisela "Sgt." Dulko).

Other un-seeds into the second round Monday were Americans Teryn Ashley (d. Pisnik in three) and Jill Craybas (d. Black), Japan's Saori Obata (d. (Q)Birnerova in three), Czech Denisa "Hanging" Chladkova (d. Weingartner), Hungary's Aniko Kapros (d. Jugic-Salkic in three), Puerto Rico's Kristina Brandi (d. Benesova), and to the amazement of the home crowd, Brit wildcards Emily Webley-Smith (d. Beltrame) and Anne Keothavong (d. Pratt).

"I think the rain delay helped me enormously," Keothavong said. "It gave me a chance to just calm down and regroup. I was pretty nervous when I went out there, which is understandable, I guess."

On tap Tuesday on the ladies side are (1)Serena vs. Zheng, (4)Mauresmo vs. Kostanic, (7)Capriati vs. Schaul, (8)Kuznetsova vs. Razzano, (24)Pierce vs. Ruano Pacual, Hantuchova vs. Reeves, (15)Schnyder vs. Morigami, (29)Safina vs. Parra, Golovin vs. Jidkova, (32)Shaughnessy vs. Irvin, Mandula vs. Llagostera Vives, (26)Raymond vs. Asagoe, Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem vs. Granville, Leon Garcia vs. Likhovtseva, Vakulenko vs. Hopkins, Sucha vs. Vento-Kabchi, Suarez vs. Perry, (22)Martinez vs. Sequera, (20)Bovina vs. Gallovits, Perebiynis vs. Wheeler, Foretz vs. Cohen-Aloro, (17)Rubin vs. Bartoli, Sanchez Lorenzo vs. O'Brien, (19)Zuluaga vs. Anne "Cosmo" Kremer, (10)Petrova vs. Pennetta, (14)Farina Elia vs. Peng, Garbin vs. Sun, Marrero vs. Baltacha, Schett vs. Cervanova, Grande vs. Santangelo, Camerin vs. Barna, Jankovic vs. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova, Gagliardi vs. Snyder, Groenefeld vs. Tanasugarn, (30)Daniilidou vs. Serna, Krasnoroutskaya vs. Nagyova, (6)Dementieva vs. Sandra "Calvin" Kleinova, Ashley "Anna 2.0" Harkleroad vs. Callens, Lee-Waters vs. O'Donohue, (18)Schiavone vs. Casanova, and Strycova vs. Talaja.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
In completed matches Monday, U.S. women were 7-0...Lindsay Davenport lost just seven points on her serve in her win Monday...The Croatian party following the wins by "Dr." Ivo Karlovic and Goran Ivanisevic didn't last long as their home nation was stymied by England in a much-anticipated Euro Cup match played in the evening...With the rains coming (or so we hear), Tim Henman's got first on Court 1 Tuesday...Roger Federer has won 18 straight on grass, and 44 of his last 47 sets...Martina Navratilova was one game from double bageling her 24th career opponent. Her opponent, Catalina Castano, just got doubled bageled last weekend in the first round of qualies...Anastasia Myskina has won eight straight matches...Jennifer Capriati and Tom Gullikson are working on what amounts to a match-by-match basis...Andy Roddick's opponent today, Jimmy Wang, occasionally trains at Bollitieri's. He also was a finalist at the 2001 junior Australian Open and junior Wimbledon, and this is his first career Tour-level event...Goran Ivanisevic has won eight matches in a row at Wimbledon...All three former men's champs in the field advanced without dropping a set on Monday...Why is Posh Spice at Wimbledon? Who is this 18-year-old Rooney kid? Why do people care about the Euro Cup? Why does food taste bad in England? Tennis-X American Office staff want to know...Following her loss to Gisela "Sgt." Dulko, Jelena Dokic has now lost six straight first-round matches...Tommy Haas' sister Sabine got married over the weekend in Munich...Andy Roddick appeared on the "Weakest Link" on the BBC Sunday. For the record, Roddick coach Brad Gilbert was kicked off the show before Roddick. Boris Becker, Virginia Wade and others also participated...Mark Philippoussis has not won a tournament match since the Australian Open. Nice work ethic Scud...Forecast: Scattered rain early Tuesday, heavy rain late lasting through Wednesday...John McEnroe is once again calling out the Williams sisters for a head-to-head: "I believe I could beat them playing them either individually or at the same time. In fact it would probably be easier playing them together because they would confuse each other," he argued in an e-mail exchange with readers of The Independent newspaper...Serena says she has been "doing a lot of off-court work mentally" after her French Open loss against Jennifer Capriati, insinuating she may be seeing a shrink: "Not everything's done on the court. I can't tell you (any more)...Well after my suicide in Paris, I was really disappointed. I don't know why I did some of those things. I have to move forward. I've had to get over it."...Serena is bidding to become only the fifth woman to win Wimbledon three times since the advent of Open tennis in 1968, after Martina Navratilova (nine wins), Steffi Graf (seven), Billie Jean King (four) and Chris Evert (three)...Players at Wimbledon this year with two or more career grasscourt titles are Lleyton Hewitt (5), Roger Federer (3), Greg Rusedski (3), Jonas Bjorkman (2), Goran Ivanisevic (2), Thomas Johansson (2), Andy Roddick (2), and Sjeng Schalken (2)...Roger Federer's 18-match winning streak on grass is closing on Pete Sampras' 23...The ATP stop in San Jose will now be known as the SAP Open...The No. 2-seeded Bryan brothers play Brit wildcards Delgado/Parmar first round, a crowd pleaser that one, it is...All five Canadian men and women failed to qualify into the main draw at Wimbledon this year, with no direct entries, oh Canada, for the days when Greg Rusedski hadn't yet jumped ship...Brit wildcard Anne Keothavong on training with Martina Hingis: "We spent on court with her, off court with her. On court, she's very good. I mean, she's still a great player. I mean she pretty much duffed all of us up pretty much still. Off court, she was really relaxed. Everyone got on well with her. It was just nice to have someone who has been so high, you know, at the top end of the game around to help and talk to us."