Federer Loses, Roddick Escapes, Ferrero Chokes on Fish at Athens Olympics

Posted on August 18, 2004

World No. 1 Roger Federer was knocked out of the Olympics Tuesday by No. 74-ranked Czech Tomas Berdych 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a first-time meeting on the blue Athens hardcourts.

The Swiss looked as shaky as he did in the first round facing Russian Nikolay Davydekno, against Berdych dropping his serve in the last games of the last two sets after winning the first set.

"I'm disappointed because the Olympics mean so much to me," Federer said. "But it wasn't to be."

World No. 2 Andy Roddick also had a battle against a former No. 2, saving three match points before beating unseeded Tommy Haas 4-6, 6-3, 9-7.

"I'm just happy to be alive," said Roddick, who needed six match points in the final game before he could close shop. "Playing the Olympics puts that little bit of extra pressure on you because you're playing for your country."

Former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero is having problems of his own. Bad problems, like 4-wins-in-your-last-10-matches bad. Earlier this year he said the problem was confidence, a lack of it. In Tuesday's loss at the Athens Olympics, Ferrero said confidence was not a problem, but the result was still the "L."

The Spaniard, who roughly eight months ago almost finished the year No. 1, is in danger of tumbling out of the Top 10 after he sees his runner-up points come off his ranking in a couple weeks at the US Open.

On Tuesday Ferrero was serving for the match at 6-4, 5-4, when a tight double fault started a downward slide, resulting in a 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 loss to unseeded American Mardy Fish.

Fish pointed to an American flag in the stands as he left the court, giving props to his scant crowd support.

"There were a lot of Spanish people out there cheering for him," Fish said. "So whoever was cheering for me, I was pointing at them."

The Fish also pointed to the support of his American teammates in being able to pull through against the former No. 1.

"The Olympic factor had a lot to do with it," Fish said. "There was definitely something extra there. I kept saying to myself, 'This is the Olympics, this is the Olympics, I can't go out in two straight sets.' I've had other big wins, but this is the Olympics, so it's the biggest one."

Ferrero denied the choke, blaming the little things in life.

"I don't know what was happening with the two double faults I served," Ferreor said. "I was feeling good, I was serving good, I had confidence -- it wasn't nerves. Maybe there are small things that I was doing well last year, and last year I would have won the match."

Other seeded winners were (3)Carlos Moya (d. Olivier "The Roach" Rochus), (8)Sebastien "The Skateboard Kid" Grosjean (d. (WC)Arthurs), (10)Nicolas Massu (d. Spadea), (14)Nicolas Kiefer (d. (Inv)Baghdatis in three), (15)Tommy "The R." Robredo (d. Fabrice "The Original Wizard" Santoro in three), and (16)Fernando "The Flayin' Chilean" Gonzalez (d. Korea's (WC)H.-T. Lee).

One other upset fell on the uninspired (9)Marat Safin (l. to Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez), who will no longer have to pretend how important he feels the Olympics are to appease his sponsors after originally trashing tennis at the international competition.

Winners in all-unseeded match-ups were Russians Igor Andreev (d. Calleri who retired with an ab strain) and Mikhail Youzhny (d. Novak), American Taylor Dent (d. Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbary), Croats Ivan Ljubicic (d. Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson) and "Dr." Ivo Karlovic (d. Clement in three), and Max "The Beast" Mirnyi (d. Nieminen).

Two upsets were provided in the men's doubles by Chileans Fernando Gonzalez/Nicolas Massu (d. (6)Etlis/Rodriguez), and Germans Nicolas Kiefer/Rainer Schuettler (d. (2)Arthurs/Woodbridge).

On Wednesday for the men in Athens are (16)The Flayin' Chilean vs. (2)Roddick, (3)Moya vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, (8)The Skateboard Kid vs. F-Lo, Fish vs. The Beast, Berdych vs. (15)Robredo, Ljubicic vs. Dent, and (14)Kiefer vs. Youzhny.

Highlights on the doubles tip today are (1)Bryans vs. the Chileans Fernando Gonzalez/Nicolas Massu, Indians (5)Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes vs. Zimbabwe's (4)Wayne Black/Kevin Ullyett, Aussie open champs (3)Michael Llodra/Fabrice Santoro of France vs. unseeded Croat serving machines Baby Goran/Ivan Ljubicic, and Israel's finest (8)Jonathan Erlich/Andy Ram vs. Germans Nicolas Kiefer/Rainer Schuettler.

Five-Time Winner Agassi Rolls Like That at ATP Washington
Top-seeded Andre "The Boss" Agassi, seeking a record sixth title this week at the ATP Stop in Washington, punched the clock versus fellow American Paul Goldstein with a 6-4, 6-2 win to advance to the second round.

"I feel really good, coming in with a lot of confidence. I can't be feeling any better," said the shiny-pated former No. 1. "It was a nice evening for me, Goldie played good game to break me and that got my attention early."

Other seeds in action Tuesday were (6)Al Martin (d. Ferreira in a third-set breaker), (7)Cyril Saulnier (d. French countryman Dupuis), and (5)James Blake losing to (SE)Adrian Garcia.

Un-seeds into the second round were American Jan-Mike Gambill with a rare win (d. Koubek), Kristian Pless (d. (WC)Baker 7-6 in the third), Swiss Michel Kratochvil (d. Salzenstein), Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu (d. Yoo), Belgian Gilles Elseneer (d. Wang in three), and former MS-Canadian winner Harel Levy (d. Zimonjic in three).

On the hardcourts Wednesday on an attention-challenging schedule are (7)Saulnier vs. Elseneer (SportsCenter alert), (Q)Levy vs. (4)Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri, Falla vs. (2)Hewitt, and (6)A.Martin vs. "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter.

WTA: Henin-Hardenne Pounds On at Athens Olympics
Top-seeded Olympian Justine Henin-Hardenne increased her post-layoff win-loss record to 2-0 Tuesday in Athens, looking increasingly impressive in dismissing Venezuela's Maria Vento-Kabchi 6-2, 6-1.

"I'm feeling good here. My energy is good even after four months off," Henin-Hardenne said. "Mentally, it's going to be tougher, because I need to be focused on every point. In the next few weeks, that's going to be hardest of all."

No. 6 seed Venus Williams took her anger out on Maja Matevzic after losing in her doubles with replacement partner Chanda Rubin, beating the Slovak 0-and-0.

"I'm still in shock. I'm not used to losing, especially in a first round. It's pretty tough," Venus said. "That really affected the way I played today. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I usually let it go. It bothered me a whole lot."

Other seeds advancing were (2)Amelie Mauresmo (d. Camerin 0-and-1), (3)Anastasia Myskina (d. Kristina "You're a Fine Girl" Brandi in three sets), (5)Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Morigami), (8)Ai Sugiyama (d. (WC)Perebiynis), (10)Patty "Handshake" Schnyder (d. Daniela "The Walking Stick" Hantuchova in three), (11)Francesca Schiavone (d. Cho in three), (12)Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem (d. (WC)Widjaja), and (16)Rubin (d. (WC)Black in three).

Un-seeds moving on were the crafty Aussie veteran Nicole Pratt (d. Garbin in three), Mary Pierce with the upset (d. (9)Petrova), Greece's own Eleni Daniilidou bringing the Athens crowd to their collective feet (d. (15)Maleeva in three), Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga (d. (7)Suarez 6-1 in the third), rolling American Lisa Raymond (d. (14)Farina Elia, giving up only three games), and Aussie comer Alicia Molik (d. Srebotnik).

On court when the seeds start to meet Wednesday are (1)Henin-Hardenne vs. Pratt, (3)Myskina vs. Daniilidou, Pierce vs. (6)Venus, (16)Rubin vs. (2)Mauresmo, (Alt)Raymond vs. Molik, (5)Kuznetsova vs. (10)Handshake Schnyder, (8)Sugiyama vs. (12)The Spreminator, and (11)Schiavone vs. The Fabulous One.

Lindsay Sits, Joltin' Joe Advances at WTA Cincinnati
How nice it is to be the top-seeded Lindsay Davenport at Cincinnati and get the Thursday start? What a joke. The WTA's first-round bye system needs to go buh-bye.

Two of the three seeds in action Tuesday at Cincy won on in (3)Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier (d. (LL)Foretz) and (5)Denisa "Hanging" Chaladkova (d. (Q)Fedak), joined by un-seeds Selima "Close But Yet So" Sfar (d. Pin who retired due to the heat), Italian Mara Santangelo (d. (Q)Beltrame in three), American wildcard Lilia Osterloh (d. (Q)Adr. Serra "Nevada" Zanetti), and (Q)Shuai Peng of China (d. (6)Craybas).

On the star-studded-less line-up today are Ashley vs. Pennetta, Granville vs. Kleinova, Weingartner vs. Sfar, Washington vs. Joltin' Joe, Bartoli vs. Santangelo, Groenefeld vs. Ant. Serra "Nevada" Zanetti, and Jidkova vs. Lee-Waters. It's "C"-level American heaven in Cincy.

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Lindsay Davenport is on a 14-match winning streak, including titles at Stanford, Los Angeles and San Diego...The WTA Tour put out a somewhat-embarrassing media release Tuesday, announcing they had finally made head-to-heads and player activity histories available on their website. Someone remind us, what era is this? Has anyone invented the computer yet? The inter-what? What they didn't announce was that their player database was such a mess they couldn't do it themselves, and had to enlist the help of the ATP. Welcome to the internet era...Andre Agassi is appearing at the ATP stop in Washington for the 15th consecutive year...The US Open will enshrine John McEnroe and Steffi Graf in its Court of Champions this year, joining last year's inaugural inductees Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King and Rod "Rocket" Laver...The world No. 1 American doubles tandem of Bob and Mike Bryan are working to pull doubles back in the limelight, and are starting to see a swing despite the ATP's reduction of draw sizes and prize money over the last few years: "They might be coming back a little bit right now. We're playing bigger matches," Bob told the Palm Beach Post. "They threw us on the front cover of Tennis magazine. They haven't featured a doubles team in a long time. They're dedicating a day to doubles in Davis Cup. Lately, especially in the U.S., they're starting to put us on the stadium court. Our matches are starting to be featured a lot more. In Australia, I think we played every round on the stadium court."