Mauresmo Motivated Against Spreminator, Capriati Crushed at Montreal

Posted on August 7, 2004

It's Amelie Mauresmo versus the Russians at Montreal.

The No. 2-seeded Mauresmo advanced into the semifinals at the WTA stop in Montreal Friday, coming back from a set down against Karolina Sprem for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win.

"She played really well in the first set," said Mauresmo, who waited out the storm and eventually benefited from 42 unforced errors by The Spreminator. "But when you hit the ball with the intensity that she does and put 100 percent into every shot, you can't put every ball in, otherwise you're No. 1 in the world. I just waited a bit and thought, 'If this lasts, what can I do?' But when you put intensity into every shot, it's a risky game because at the end of the match, there's a lot of unforced errors and I guess a lot of winners, too."

At 3-3 in the third The Spreminator choked in two double faults to hand Mauresmo the critical break.

Unheralded Russian Elena Likhovtseva pulled the biggest upset of the quarterfinals with a straight-set win over (5)Jennifer Capriati, her third win over the former Montreal champ in seven meetings.

"I knew I had to control Jennifer (from the baseline) from the beginning," Likhovtseva said. And she did.

In the two late semifinals the hot-handed Russian (10)Vera "Warren" Zvonareva pasted French teen Tatiana Golovin, giving up four games, and (3)Anastasia Myskina beat (13)Maggie Maleeva.

Saturday's semifinals are (10)Zvonareva vs. (2)Mauresmo (Mauresmo leads meetings 3-0), and (3)Myskina vs. Likhovtseva in an all-Russian (Myskina leads 2-1).

Stockholm Results
Due to the WTA Tour's inept scheduling, running the Tier IV Stockholm event during the same week as an "elite" Tier I Montreal event, Tennis-X is voluntarily aiding the WTA this week by not running results from Stockholm. We hope this will help to elevate the Montreal results in the eyes of casual fans and avoid confusion, while at the same time shielding fans from the heinous field in Stockholm. We apologize for having to do the WTA's job in raising the status of their Tier I events, and apologize to you diehard Tier IV fans. Future note: Tier I = good, Tier IV = public park event, don't put them in the same calendar slot.

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi won Friday to set up a blockbuster old vs. new semifinals Saturday at the Masters Series-Cincinnati.

(2)Roddick had surprisingly little trouble with (WC)Tommy Haas, who he had lost to in all four of their previous meetings, sweeping the German in straight sets. (11)Agassi fought through a brutal first set tiebreak to subdue (4)Carlos Moya 7-6(12), 6-4 in a battle of former No. 1s.

"That tiebreak was definitely one for the memories -- I don't remember playing one that deep before," Agassi said. "To come out two days in a row and start raising the standard is what creates belief. It's important to me beat some of the best in the world and get the belief in my game."

In the other two quarterfinals, (10)Lleyton Hewitt beat (14)Marat Safin in straight sets in another battle of former No. 1s, and Spaniard Tommy Robredo eased past Fabrice "The Original Wizard" Santoro in straight sets.

The semifinals line up as (10)Hewitt vs. Robredo (The Spaniard leads their career meetings 1-0, winning last year in five sets at Roland Garros), and (2)Roddick vs. (11)Agassi (Agassi leads 4-1).

The doubles semis are (1)Bjorkman/Woodbridge vs. Palmer/Vizner, and (3)Knowles/Nestor vs. Mirnyi/Sargsian.

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Aussie former tennis coach Gavin Hopper is getting a maximum 3-1/2 years in the slammer for child molestation, and it's not over yet according to The Age: "It was reported this week that another former Wesley student received more than $100,000 in a secret payout over an affair with Hopper. The school confirmed that a confidential agreement had been reached, but declined to provide details. A police spokeswoman said police became aware of the other alleged incident as a result of the Hopper investigation, but were unable to proceed due to the statute of limitations." Reportedly Pat Cash is sprinting to cut ties with Hopper, who he shares a stake with in a tennis camp...Jim Courier on improving the image of tennis, as told to the BBC: "I think we need to do a better job of letting the public know that we are good citizens and that we give back, that we are very charitable. We are the one sport that I can think of off the top my head that doesn't advertise on television that we give back to charity. For basketball, American football, baseball or hockey in the U.S., they have 30 second television spots that show their players out in the community doing good work, giving back, and we haven't spent the money to create a campaign like that, and I think that's a huge oversight." Courier on the famous book incident, where he appeared so disinterested in a match during the Masters Cup that he began reading during a changeover: "People read a lot into that scenario, but it was just the book that I happened to have in my bag that week. I always have books in my bag to kill the time in the locker room. It was just something that I felt like I needed to do to take my mind off the match at the time." C'mon Jim, you're retired, time to come clean...Andre Agassi on the kid who plays his son in the commercial with Taylor Dent: "His name is Connor. He hits the ball pretty well. He plays every day. He's the real deal."...Marat Safin on the big reception he's been getting in Cincinnati during his matches: "If the people, they enjoy it, that's great. I don't think they're just cheering me they want me to win, they want to see also a good game. Must be like they like me, they like my game. I'm happy for them (smiling)."...The International Tennis Federation has awarded the Fed Cup semifinals and finals to Moscow for the second straight year, ahead of Nice, France and Germany...The last pair of American brothers to play in the Olympic tennis tournament at the same time for the U.S. were Joseph and Arthur Wear, who played doubles with different people in 1904, according to the LA Times. The Wears were great-great-uncles of President George W. Bush...Richard Krajicek saved eight match points, but Jim Courier eventually prevailed 6-2, 6-7(6), 11-9 for the senior tour title in Portugal in his first senior tour event: "The match was in my hands and I almost let it slip away," Courier said. "Richard stepped up his game but I was choking like a dog. I feel really good about the way I'm playing though. I had a lot of fun this week and I surprised myself with the level of tennis that I was playing. I thought Richard and I had a really good time on the court together. We fought hard, we played hard, and it was very close, but everything was done in a really good spirit."...Tim Henman has suffered a minor back injury that may hinder Britain's Olympic hopes...Anastasia Myskina accused GQ magazine in a federal lawsuit of failing to prevent a photographer from reselling two topless pictures from a photo shoot to a Russian magazine, according to the New York Times. Hey yo, someone post that on the discussion board.