Venus Pounds Harkleroad at WTA LA

Posted on July 21, 2004

No. 2 seed Venus Williams pounded American wildcard Ashley "Anna 2.0" Harkleroad 6-2, 6-1 Tuesday night to advance to the third round of the WTA stop in LA.

"I've been working on hitting the ball harder," Williams said, giving a glimpse into her coach-less strategy nowadays on tour. "If I can hit hard and overpower someone that's very intimidating." You and Jennifer Capriati should start a camp together.

Williams dropped serve to go down 0-2 in the opening set, but then ran with 12 of the final 13 games.

Harkleroad was sidelined for four months with a torn right elbow ligament, and had problems with Venus' hit-or-miss play.

"It's very difficult to get a rhythm against someone like that because she either misses 10 feet long or she makes it right on the line," Harkleroad said. "I'm the type of player who defends a lot, so it's difficult to play her."

Other seeded winners on the day were (4)Elena Dementieva (d. Osterloh), (7)Nadia Petrova (d. Kirkland), and (9)Patty "Handshake" Schnyder (d. Lee-Waters in three), (10)Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi (d. Ruano Pascual), and (15)Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier (d. Jidkova).

Unseeded winners were Barbara "I Give a" Schett (d. Schaul), Aussie Nicole Pratt (d. Mandula after losing the opening set 0-6), Daniela Hantuchova (d. Black), Venezuela's Maria Vento-Kabchi (d. Gisela "Sgt." Duklo), Russian Elena Likhovtseva (d. (Q)Castellvi), Greece's Eleni Daniilidou (d. (WC)Ashley in three), Jelena Jankovic (d. Shaughnessy), and Iveta Benesova (d. (Q)Spears).

On tap today in LA are Vento-Kabchi vs. Kuznetsova, Serena vs. Daniilidou, Smashnova-Pistolesi vs. Hantuchova, Benesova vs. Rubin, Kremer vs. Davenport, Pisnik vs. Zvonareva, Parra Santonja vs. Barna, Sugiyama vs. Pratt, Jankovic vs. Likhovtseva, Dechy vs. Schiavone, Frazier vs. Schett, Kostanic vs. Schnyder, and Morigami vs. Bartoli.

Top-seeded Klara "Kouky" Koukalova fought off a tough challenge from qualifier Darija Jurak Tuesday at Palermo, edging the Croat in three sets.

The casualty list for the seeds read (6)Lubomira Kurhajcova (l. to Ant. Serra Zanetti in three) and (7)Melinda "The Fifth Element" Czink (l. to Groenefeld in three).

The two other seeded winners were (5)Flavia "Of the Day" Pennetta (d. Jugic-Salkic) and (8)Ludmila Cervanova, who beat French wildcard Sandrine "Test Tube" Testud.

Unseeded winners on the day were Spain's Conchita Martinez "Not That Conchita" Granados (d. (WC)Casoni), (Q)Marta Domachowska (d. (Q)Yakimova), (Q)Delia Sescioreanu (d. Rita "It Ain't" Grande), the Ukraine's Yuliana Fedak (d. Beltrame), Slovak Henrieta Nagyova (d. Cohen-Aloro who retired in the second set with a knee injury), Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi (d. Llagostera Vive in three), and Italy's Roberta Vinci (d. Schruff).

On the dirt today in Palermo are Srebotnik vs. Sescioreanu, An.Serra Zanetti vs. Martinez Granados, Vinci vs. Medina Garrigues, and Beygelzimer vs. Chladkova.

ATP REVIEWS/PREVIEWS
Only two seeds in action Tuesday at Indianapolis, with former runner-up and No. 4 seed Paradorn Srichaphan beating Frenchman Thierry Ascione in straight sets, and No. 10 Ivan Ljubicic dismissing local wildcard Rajeev Ram.

Qualifiers had their day Tuesday with five winners in South African Rik De Voest (d. Arthurs), Swiss Michael Kratochvil (d. Vacek in three), Aussie Todd Reid (d. Llodra, who retired in the third with an upset stomach), Frenchman Sebastien De Chaunac (d. countryman Dupuis in three), and Israel's Noam Okun (d. Lu).

Other unseeded winners were Slovak Karol Beck (d. (WC)Delic 6-1 in the third), Czech lucky loser Jan Hernych (d. Gambill, who retired in the second with dizziness), French lucky loser Julien Jeanpierre (d. Elseneer in three), "Dr." Ivo Karlovic (d. (Q)Vahaly), American Jeff "The Lizard King" Morrison (d. Benneteau), American lucky loser Alex Bogomolov, Jr. (d. Carlsen), and Frenchmen Gregory Carraz (d. Sargsian) and veteran Fabrice Santoro (d. H.-T. Lee in three).

On the hardcourts today in Indy are Dent vs. Reid, Okun vs. Enqvist, Hernych vs. Schalken, Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. K.Beck, Fish vs. Carraz, De Chaunac vs. Ginepri, Soderling vs. Bogomolov, Jr., Chiudinelli vs. De Voest, Grosjean vs. Jeanpierre in an all-French, The Lizard King vs. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, "Dr." Ivo vs. Kiefer, Santoro vs. Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, and in the night session Roddick vs. Kratochvil, and Rusedski vs. J.Johansson.

Three of the four seeds in play advanced in second round matches at Kitzbuhel Tuesday in German riser (6)Florian Mayer (d. Luczak), (7)Luis "Me So" Horna (d. Falla), and (11)Al Costa (d. (WC)Eschauer in three), with Spaniard (10)David Ferrer ambushed by Argentine future star Juan "The Principality" Monaco.

Victorious in opening-round matches were Italians "You Say" Potito Starace (d. M.Lopez) and (WC)Andreas Seppi (d. Tabara), Czech Radek Stepanek (d. (Q)Gimeno-Traver 7-6 in the third), and Austrian Stefan Koubek (d. Rosset).

Today on the dirt features (Q)Minar vs. (2)Gaudio, Vassallo Arguello vs. (12)Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, Koubek vs. (4)Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez, (3)Massu vs. (Q)Schukin, (1)Schuettler vs. (WC)Seppi, (9)Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze vs. Stepanek, (8)Verdasco vs. (Q)Franco "The Squirrel" Squillari, "You Say" Potito Starace vs. (15)Berdych, (Q)Cermak vs. (13)D.Sanchez, (14)Davydenko vs. D.Norman, O.Hernandez vs. (5)Zabaleta, and in an all-Spanish, (16)Montanes vs. Ventura.

Six of the seven seeds on the dirt at Umag moved into the second round in (1)Carlos Moya (d. (WC)Karanusic), (2)Jiri Novak (d. Ramirez Hidalgo), (4)Filippo Volandri (d. (Q)Djokovic), (5)Al Martin (d. Golmard in three), (6)Guillermo Canas (d. Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience), and (7)Flavio "Of the Day" Saretta (d. (Q)Wawrinka).

"I'm happy with the way I played," said Moya, who has won four titles at Umag. "I love it here. I have not played at any tournament this many times."

Czech Tomas Zib scored one for the un-seeds with a win over (3)Igor Andreev, with other unseeded winners in Belgium's Chris Rochus (d. Acasuso) and Spaniard Alex Calatrava (d. Di Pasquale).

On court today on the clay are (7)Flavio "Of the Day" Saretta vs. Garcia-Lopez, C.Rochus vs. (2)Novak, (4)Volandri vs. (Q)Serra in an all-creamy Italian, and Vliegen vs. Ollie Rochus in an all-waffle standoff.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS

Athens Olympic organizers say they have sold barely over a third of the available tickets for next months events. Last week Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, the chief organizer of the 2004 Summer Games, called on Greeks to buy unsold tickets to avoid a national embarrassment...When is The Tennis Channel going to get on the ball and air a "reality series"? Just grab some low-ranked player and follow them around. Give us a ring, we've got a couple to recommend. Or follow ATP CEO Mark Miles around, we know a lot of people who would like to know what he does...SI.com's Jon Wertheim: "Speaking of tennis, you haven't experienced pain until you've watched an episode of John McEnroe's show on CNBC. Magic Johnson looks like (NPR's) Terry Gross by comparison."...Things are getting intense in the case of tennis trainer Gavin Hopper, accused in court of having a past relationship with an underage student. According to The Age: "The woman also spoke of a mark she saw on Hopper's penis during their relationship. "It was always there from the very beginning until he had it removed," she said. "It wasn't a mole...but just a flat, raised bit of skin that was a little darker than the rest of his penis." Too much info there...Carlos Moya has won 16 matches in a row (including three consecutive titles) at Umag...Receiving wildcards for next week's Masters Series-Canada will be Canucks Daniel Nestor, Frank Dancevic, Frederic Niemeyer, and Simon Larose. Yikes. Toss us one too...Still recovering from a virus, World No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne has pulled from San Diego (July 25-August 1) and Montreal (August 2-8). "I was advised by my doctors to wait yet again to return to competition. As you can imagine, I am thoroughly disappointed," Henin-Hardenne said. "The past four months have been challenging. I have worked hard to try and get back onto the court as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, however, my body just needs more rest."