Henin, Venus, Roddick in Action Today at Athens Olympics
Posted on August 15, 2004
Top-seeded Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne makes her return from illness today at the Athens Olympics, joined in action by No. 6 seed Venus Williams of the U.S.Henin-Hardenne turned down the chance to carry the flag for her country in Friday's opening ceremony, conserving her energy for today's match.
"It's been harder than I could think," H-H said concerning her extended absence. "At the beginning, they said, 'You need a little bit of rest.' After a few months and after the French Open, being away from the tour has been very hard for me. When you cannot do what you love so much, it's hard for everybody."
The women's schedule for Sunday follows as (WC)Melinda "The Fifth Element" Czink vs. (6)Venus, (1)Henin-Hardenne vs. Strycova, (8)Sugiyama vs. Zheng, (16)Rubin vs. (ALT)Stosur, Mandula vs. (10)Patty "Handshake" Schnyder, Tanasugarn vs. Widjaja, Dechy vs. (7)Suarez, (WC)Kanepi vs. Cho, Jankovic vs. Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga, Matevzic vs. Obata, Gisela "Sgt." Dulko vs. (12)Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem, Vento-Kabchi vs. Anne "Kosmo" Kremer, (WC)Perebiynis vs. Randriantefy, (WC)Black vs. Pisnik, and (11)Schiavone vs. Asagoe.
Pennetta Wins Sopot
Flavia "Of the Day" Pennetta beat Klara "Kouky" Koukalova Saturday for her first career WTA Tour title at Sopot. Koukalova falls to 0-5 in tour singles finals, also losing in last year's Sopot final to Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi.
In the semis played on the same day due to rain, Kouky got a walkover from the top-seeded Anastasia Myskina who bailed for the Olympics, and Pennetta defeated polish wildcard Marta Domachowska.
"This was my third final of the year and I lost the first two, so I was nervous," Pennetta said. "I was a bit tired but stayed focused."
In the doubles final, Spaniards Llagostera Vives/Marrero defeated Polish wildcards Jans/Rosolska for their first title as a team.
In Vancouver Saturday, 15-year-old Nicole Vaidisova (d. (3)Jidkova in three) and (4)Laura Granville (d. Pin in three) advanced to the final of the WTA Tier V event.
ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
On court for the first day in Athens today are Saretta vs. (2)Roddick, Novak vs. (4)Henman, (5)Ferrero vs. Arazi, Karol "The Little Cat" Kucera vs. (9)Marat "Get Me Out of Here" Safin, Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. (11)Chela, (16)Fernando "The Flayin' Chilean" Gonzalez vs. (WC)Economidis, (8)Sebastien "The Skateboard Kid" Grosjean vs. Luis "Me So" Horna, Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. Haas, Soderling vs. Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez, Carraz vs. Baghdatis, Fish vs. Bjorkman, (14)Kiefer vs. (ALT)Voltchkov, (WC)Hanescu vs. (WC)Arthurs, Youzhny vs. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, Nieminen vs. (WC)Lu, and Zabaleta vs. (WC)H.-T. Lee.
Nadal, Acasuso Advance to Rainy Sopot Final
No. 6 seed Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal of Spain and Argentina's unseeded Jose Acasuso advanced to the final of the ATP stop at Sopot Saturday, each winning two matches to catch up on the rain-delayed schedule.
The Prodigy looked strong with straight-set wins over two qualifiers in Franco "The Squirrel" Squillari and countryman Felix Mantilla, while Acasuso had a more difficult time with a three-set win over Czech qualifier Jan Vanek, then a straight-set win over young countryman Juan "The Principality" Monaco.
"It's been a very hard day after yesterday's rain," said Nadal, who will be playing for his career-first ATP title. "The court was pretty bad in my first match against Franco. You couldn't play very well. We didn't play a very good match. But this afternoon, I played much better, with much better light and I think it was my best match so far in
Sopot."
Monaco saved two match points in his 7-6-in-the-third quarterfinal win over Marc Lopez, while Mantilla had beaten Chilean Adrian Garcia.
The final will be the first meeting between The Prodigy and Acasuso.
The doubles final will be (1)Cermak/Friedl (d. Kohlmann/Landsberg in three in their semifinal) against (4)Garcia/Prieto (d. A.Martin/Nadal).
NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
The WTA website announced that Anastasia Myskina pulled from the Sopot event Friday with a rib sprain (even though she hurriedly hopped on a plane to compete at the Athens Olympics), while the Sopot website said she pulled with a shoulder sprain. You guys need to calibrate your fake stories...Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario has come out of retirement for the Athens Olympics in a bid to add to her four medals. The veteran Spaniard won bronze in singles and silver in doubles in 1992 at Barcelona, then won a silver in singles and a gold in doubles at 1996 Atlanta. She is playing only doubles in Athens with Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues...For the first time, both the men and women competitors will receive ATP and WTA ranking points for playing in the Olympic Games...Venus Williams has designed a new hat for McDonald's employees to wear while serving food during the games, an oversized, red newsboy cap featuring designs in representing various Olympic sports, each bearing Venus' signature on the inside label: "I guess it's my first big step, huh? I'm making a name for myself! My first designs were more like a baseball cap, more like what you see in the McDonald's stores. But then they came back to me and said no, we want you to do something more creative."...Vince Spadea did a little boasting at an Athens press conference, earning a scowl from Andy Roddick: "Hot?" said Spadea, responding to a question about the weather. "We're hot here for gold medals." Nice one Vince, keep your day job...From St. Louis Today: "Shortly after the U.S. women's basketball team checked into the village, for instance, first-time Olympian Swin Cash -- who is trying to add an Olympic gold medal to her NCAA and WNBA championship hardware -- found herself behaving like a giddy school girl. "I'm just walking along minding my business, and I look up and there's (U.S. tennis star and resident heartthrob) Andy Roddick just walking right by me," Cash said, giggling. "I was like 'Ohhhhhhh...MY gawwwd! It's Andy Roddick!' You always figure guys like that would be surrounded by these huge entourages, but there he was just walking all by himself, baseball cap on backward, wearing flip flops and shorts."...Venus Williams gave Martina Navratilova a lesson in greed in Athens: "I've already gotten into the swing of trading Olympic pins thanks to Venus Williams," Navratilova said. "Yesterday when we got to the village, she told me, 'Because you're kind of famous, a lot of people are going to want to take pictures with you.' So she told me a great way to build up my pin collection, because this is what she did (in Sydney). When they come up asking for a picture, tell everybody, 'OK, sure I'll take a picture with you...but you have to give me a pin.'" Uhhh, no thanks...Apparently the Australian women's water polo team has each chipped in $50 (for $500 overall) each to be the first member of the team to kiss Andy Roddick, according to The Age...Lindsay Davenport has taken a wildcard into the WTA event this coming week at Cincinnati...Former player Bill Scanlon has a new book out: "Bad News for McEnroe -- Blood, Sweat and Backhands with John, Jimmy, Ilie, Ivan, Bjorn and Vitas"...For 2005 the Australian Open will play the men's semifinals and final at night, meaning a 3:30 am wake-up call in the U.S. (EST) to catch it: "I think it's important that the conditions for the final are the same as those for the two semifinals," Tennis Australia chief executive and Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee told The Herald Sun. "Our feedback is that, although it's a break from tradition, I can't see any backlash."...Boris Becker beat Thomas Muster in the final of the senior tour stop at Graz...Justine Henin-Hardenne on being at the Olympics: "Wow...it is just so special. The atmosphere...everything, it's amazing. The village is something you can't describe. I am lucky because the Belgian team, we are just 51 so we know each other perfectly. I'm going to be nervous for sure but it's going to be an amazing experience."...Tim Henman on staying at the Olympic village: "It is a fantastic experience. I am sharing a room with my trainer and we've got some of the archery team in our apartment, a trampolinist and a wrestler. That's what it is all about."...We're expecting Anastasia Myskina to make a quick recovery from that "rib injury" that "forced" her to pull out of Sopot...Favorite turn-around of the month: Marat Safin saying chasing points and trying to qualify for the year-end Masters Cup is "bull****," then the next week in Sopot (where he accepted a hefty appearance fee) saying he was there to collect ranking points in an effort to qualify for the Masters Cup. Safin also said collecting a medal at the Olympics was at the bottom of his to-do list, but then on Saturday in Athens at a news conference arranged by his shoe sponsor, Safin calling the Olympics "the most important event of the year. It's really, really prestigious." We knew Marat had given up on court with the take-the-appearance-fee-and-run in Sopot this week, but looks like he has given up off-court as well.