Federer, Agassi Roll, Baby Goran Out on Day One at US Open
Posted on August 31, 2004
Only one upset on the men's side on the opening day at the US Open, with Belgian Olivier "The Roach" Rochus ousting the back-too-soon-from-injury No. 27 Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic in straight sets."You see upsets all the time. Everyone can play now," said Ancic, discounting his recent injury problems. "He had all the answers for my game."
It was the third consecutive first-round loss for the Croat since reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon.
World No. 1 Roger Federer eased into the second round with a straight-set win over injury-addled Spaniard Al Costa in straight sets.
"I lost the last two times I played him, once on clay, once on hard," Federer said. "He knows how to beat me."
Federer was joined in the winner's circle by seeds (3)Carlos Moya (d. Baker in four), (6)Andre Agassi (d. Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri), (9)Gaston Gaudio (d. Monaco in four), (16)Andrei Pavel (d. Nieminen in four), (21)Taylor Dent (d. El Aynaoui who retired in the second with a recurring foot injury), (25)Jiri Novak (d. Stepanek in an all-Czech), (26)Mardy "Silver" Fish (d. Ferrer), and (31)Fabrice "The Original Magician" Santoro (d. T.Martin, who afterward announced his retirement from the game).
Un-seeds advancing into the second round were Frenchmen Paul-Henri Mathieu (d. "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter), qualifier Jerome Golmard (d. Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze who retied after the first set with injury) and Cyril Saulnier (d. Rusedski in a fifth set breaker, fighting off a match point), former NCAA champ Amer Delic (d. (Q)Tipserev), Cyprus qualifier Marco "Bombs Over" Baghdatis (d. Olivier "Mucus" Mutis in four), Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco (d. Andreev in five), Sargis "Sarge" Sargsian (d. Corretja in four), Spain's Alex Calatrava (d. (Q)Bogdanovic in five), Italian qualifier "You Say" Potito Starace (d. Alexander "My Serve Had" Popp in four), Karol Kucera (d. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse 6-1 in th fifth), Thomas "Tommy the J." Johansson (d. Elsner), and qualifier Mario Tabara (d. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi in four).
Germany's Florian "Oscar" Mayer lead Flavio "Of the Day" Saretta 6-4, 6-2, 5-1 when the match was suspended by rain.
On the men's side Tuesday are (13)Marat "The Tank" Safin vs. Enqvist, (5)Henman vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, (7)Ferrero vs. Zib, Ram vs. Gambill in an all-American, Reynolds vs. Alexander "I'll Make You" Peya, (2)Roddick vs. Jenkins in an all-American, (15)Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan vs. Hanescu, Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal vs. Ivo "I Dated Hingis" Heuberger, Koubek vs. Bogomolov, K.J. "Puffin Stuff" Hippensteel vs. Volandri, (24)Ljubicic vs. H.-T. Lee, (18)Tommy "The R." Robredo vs. Udomchoke, A.Martin vs. Dupuis, Goldstein vs. Suzuki, Arthurs vs. Clement, (28)Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. Lu, (10)Nicolas "The Golden Child" Massu vs. Acasuso in an all-South American, (11)Rainer "Shine" Schuettler vs. Seppi, (29)Canas vs. Vliegen, Zabaleta vs. Tursunov (internet betting alert, Russian with a bad back), Llodra vs. Elseneer, and (22)Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty vs. O.Hernandez.
Serena Wins, Spreminator, Shaughnessy Out on Day One at US Open
Two upsets on the women's side on the opening day at the US Open in (18)Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem (l. to Kostanic in three) and (32)Meghann Shaughnessy (l. to Bartoli).
Two seeds lost, but five others came perilously close in (6)Elena "The Diagnosis is" Dementieva (d. Dinara "Little Sis" Safina in three), (8)Jennifer Capriati (d. Denisa "Hanging" Chladkova in three), (22)Maggie Maleeva (d. Flavia "Of the Day" Pennetta in three), (28)Nathalie Dechy (d. Dokic in three), and (31)Maria Vento-Kabchi (d. C.Martinez in three).
"It was a little bit scary there in the beginning," said Capriati, who actually used different racquets at different ends of the court. "I had to make some adjustments, trying to find my range a little bit, and the wind was pretty difficult. One side, you would hit the ball, and it seemed like it would go 10 feet out. On the other side, you couldn't get it past the service line."
Other seeds into the second round were (2)Amelie Mauresmo (d. Irvin), (3)Serena (d. Kleinova in her horrendous dominatrix-in-boots get-up), (10)Vera "Warren" Zvonareva (d. Nagyova), (12)Ai Sugiyama (d. Ashley), (15)Patty "Handshake" Schnyder (d. (Q)Vinci), (16)Francesca Schiavone (d. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova), (17)Alicia Molik (d. Cohen-Aloro), (23)Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga (d. Casanova), and (30)Tatiana Golovin (d. Barna).
"Her outfit? I tried not to look at it," said Kleinova on the Serena spectacle of black "boots" (essentially leg warmers over shoes, removed after the warm-up), dominatrix-style top and super-short denim skirt. "It's her style. She always wears something special."
Would Kleinova consider wearing such a get-up?
"No," Kleinova said. "I'm not that kind of person. It's her style. At least it's better than the (pink outfit) she wore at the French Open. My friend played her there and couldn't stop laughing."
Un-seeds advancing were Russian Vera Douchevina (d. Kapros), Gisela "Sgt." Dulko (d. Tanasugarn), Magui "Don't Call Me Maggie" Serna (d. (Q)Drake), qualifier Eleni Linetskaya (d. Rita "It Ain't" Grande in three), Iveta Benesova (d. Mattek in three), Daniela "The Former Walking Stick" Hantuchova (d. (Q)Pin 7-6 in the third), American Lindsay Lee-Waters (d. Schaul in three), Zimbabwe's Cara Black (d. Jamea "Action" Jackson in three), Belgian Els Callens (d. (Q)Groenefeld in three), American Angela Haynes (d. Perebiynis 7-6 in the third), Japan's Akiko Morigami (d. Gagliardi), qualifier Severine Beltrame (d. Martina "Doctor, Hand Me a" Sucha in three), Tatiana Garbin (d. Santangelo), qualifier Stephanie Foretz (d. Perry in three), Julia Vakulenko (d. Liu in three), and qualifier Julia Schruff (d. Hopkins 6-1 in the third).
The crowded women's schedule Tuesday reads as (1)Henin-Hardenne vs. the 15-year-old wunder-Czech Vaidisova, (5)Davenport vs. Kurhajcova, (7)Sharapova vs. Granville, (4)Myskina vs. Cervanova, (11)Venus vs. Mandula, (20)Rubin vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, Washington vs. Ant. Serra "Nevada" Zanetti, (9)Kuznetsova vs. Sesil "The Mouth" Karatantcheva, (25)Likhovtseva vs. Kirilenko in an all-Russian, (14)Petrova vs. Zheng, (13)Suarez vs. Liu, Raymond vs. Jidkova, (21)Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier vs. McCain in an all-American, (19)Farina Elia vs. Abigail "Hit Me Baby One More Time" Spears, Kirkland vs. Randriantefy, Stosur vs. Razzano, Kristina "You're a Fine Girl" Brandi vs. Sequera, Pratt vs. Castano, (24)"I'll"-Smashnova "Your Face-a"-Pistolesi vs. Asagoe, (27)Pierce vs. Loit in an all-France, (29)Daniilidou vs. Talaja, Alexandra "Dr. A" Stevenson vs. Ruano Pascual, Uberoi vs. Obata, Widjaja vs. Obziler, Melina "The Fifth Element" Czink vs. Camerin, Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues vs. Strycova, Jankovic vs. Llagostera "Pancho" Vives, Craybas vs. Pisnik, Barbara "Trying to Give a" Schett vs. Chakvetadze, Weingartner vs. Parra Santonja, (26)Elena "Lina" Bovina vs. Marrero, and Tatiana "The Pocket Baseliner" Panova vs. Srebotnik.
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