Massu to Fish for Gold in Athens Olympics Tennis Final

Posted on August 21, 2004

With only one career title to his credit, unseeded American Mardy Fish will try and make his second one golden when he takes on No. 10 seed Nicolas Massu of Chile Sunday in the gold medal final at the Athens Olympics

To gain the final Fish beat No. 16-seeded Chilean Fernando "The Flayin' Chilean" Gonzalez, who had previously knocked off his Fish's teammate Andy Roddick, coming back from a set down in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 semifinal slugfest. Gonzalez twisted an ankle at 2-2 in the second set, hampering his movement for the remainder of the match.

"I didn't expect to be here, so I don't have anything to lose," said Fish on his attitude entering the gold medal match. "I'm sure Nicolas would say the same thing. There's less pressure on both of us."

Massu said he will try and put the medal ceremony out of his mind.

"I'm living a dream," said Massu, who has never won a title on a surface other than clay. "I'm not thinking about the medals right now. I'm concentrating on my game...I always go into a tournament hoping to win, but I never expected to be playing for a gold medal, and to be doing so in both singles and doubles is unbelievable."

Upon winning Fish flashed the thumb-up sign in the direction of his support box, which included Roddick.

"I've been waiting for this sort of performance from him at a huge event," said U.S. Olympic and Davis Cup coach Patrick McEnroe, who has been particularly hard on his young charge in the media over the last year. "I've been waiting for him to do this at a Slam, and it's just as big here."

Massu's win over unseeded American Taylor Dent was a tight affair in the first set with a tiebreak, but then Dent suffered a mental collapse, losing the first five games of the second set before surrendering 7-6(5), 6-1.

In the doubles bronze medal final, Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic beat India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes 7-6, 4-6, 16-14 in a four-hour match that ended at 1:05 a.m in Athens, celebrated wildly by a couple hundred Croatian fans in attendance.

At one point Bhupathi yelled "Shut up!" at the rowdy Croatian cheering section.

"With all the work we've done in the past month, going back empty-handed -- it's mind-boggling," Paes said. "I don't think we've had this much disappointment in a long time."

On court Saturday are Dent vs. (16)Gonzalez in the bronze medal match (Dent leads encounters 1-0, winning at the 2003 US Open), then Gonzalez/Massu vs. Nicolas Kiefer/Rainer Schuettler in the gold medal doubles match.

Gonzo/Massu entered the Olympics with a 3-2 career doubles record in Davis Cup play, and neither have ever ever won an ATP doubles title.

Agassi, Hewitt One Round From Final at ATP Washington
Top-seeded Andre Agassi and No. 2 Lleyton Hewitt continued their march to the destined final at the ATP stop in Washington Friday, with the American subduing Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets, while the Australian had to put in some overtime, beating (7)Cyril Saulnier 7-6 in the third.

"He wasn't going to go away," Hewitt said. "He was serving unusually well, I couldn't get any rhythm on his serve.
My goal in the third set was just to hold serve, I didn't want to go down a break. Once we got to the tiebreak, a couple of good returns helped me out."

Also into the semis were (4)Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri (d. "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter), and Luxembourg's Gilles Muller (d. (Q)Kratochvil in three) in his first ATP semi.

On tap for Saturday are (4)Ginepri vs. (2)Hewitt (Aussie leads meetings 3-0, including the double bagel in 2002), and (1)Agassi vs. Muller (first meeting).

Henin-Hardenne Wins Chokefest Against Myskina at Athens Olympics
In a substantial show of Olympic grit after coming off an extended injury lay-off, top-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne came back to beat No. 3 seed Anastasia Myskina 7-5, 5-7, 8-6 Friday at the Athens Olympics to advance to the gold medal final.

After failing to serve out the second set, Henin-Hardenne fell to 1-5 in the third before winning seven of the next eight games. H-H got tight, but Myskina proved the bigger choker in the end, failing to hold serve at 5-4 in the third in a horrendous game, then appearing near tears during the next few games when she suspected all was lost.

After 6-6 in the third, Myskina would look up to her Russian support after losing each point with a 'Why is the world against me?' look. In the end it was an amazing display of two of the top players on the WTA Tour in a contest to see who could choke the least.

"It was a great comeback," H-H said. "Just amazing. I don't know how I did it but I did it...I am guaranteed a medal now, but let's hope it is a good one."

H-H seemed to cramp while serving out the final game, but Myskina did not notice.

"I'm really, really upset," Myskina said. "If you're up 5-1, you have to finish the match, no matter what."

In the final H-H will face (2)Amelie Mauresmo who defeated unseeded Aussie Alicia Molik 7-6(8), 6-3.

The women's doubles final will be the No. 8-seeded Chinese team of Ting Li/Tian Tian Sun (d. (7)Suarez/Tarabini 9-7 in the third in their semifinal) against No. 2-seeded Spaniards Conchita Martinez/Virginia Ruano Pascual (d. (5)Asagoe/Sugiyama, serving a bagel up in the second set).

On court Saturday is the gold medal singles match in (1)Henin-Hardenne vs. (2)Mauresmo (Frenchwoman leads the career encounters 3-2, splitting two this year), the bronze medal singles match in (3)Myskina vs. Molik (Russian leads 2-1, splitting two this year), and the bronze medal doubles match in (7)Paola Suarez/Patricia Tarabini of Argentina vs. (5)Shinobu Asagoe/Ai Sugiyama of Japan.

Top Four Seeds Slide into Semis at WTA Cincinnati
The top four seeds moved into the semifinals at Cincinnati Friday in (3)Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier (d. Selima "So Close But" Sfar), (4)Marion Bartoli (d. Granville), (1)Lindsay Davenport (d. (7)Flavia "Of the Day" Pennetta), and (2)Vera "Warren Zvonareva (d. (Q) Peng), all in straight sets.

On tap for the Saturday semis are (3)Joltin' Joe vs. (2)Zvonareva and (1)Davenport vs. (4)Bartoli.

X-CORRECTION
Olympic singles semifinalists are not guaranteed a medal, rather there is a bronze playoff for the losers...Lindsay Davenport has lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne the last four times they have played...Jim Courier is NOT a good tennis commentator.

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
How popular is Olympic tennis? The phrase "Olympic Tennis" was No. 3 on the Yahoo! Buzz Top 20 Movers Friday, behind "Ichiro" but ahead of "Lavinia Milosovici"...You think SI.com's Jon Wertheim is ready to take back his award to Jim Courier as the best tennis announcer in the business after his work for Bravo this week? The most horrendously-repeated phrase has to be: "Mr. Momentum has changed his address on this court..." Argh...Chile will win their first tennis medal ever today in both singles and doubles...How intense is Olympic badminton? That is sweet...American Mardy Fish has determined he likes the Olympics: "I came into this tournament with a goal of trying to win a medal, but realistically, I hadn't won very many matches this summer. I'm just so excited now that I have a chance to play for the gold and I'm guaranteed the silver. Where do I sign up, you know?" Russian Mikhail Youzhny on his underachieving countryman Marat Safin: "He thinks he doesn't need to focus on tennis because he's so talented. If I did like he does -- his nightclubs, his smoking -- I'd never make the Top 100."...Lindsay Davenport has won 16 consecutive matches.