Seeds Massu, Robredo, Ancic Bounced at ATP Lyon; Hewitt, Nalbandian in Action at Tokyo

Posted on October 6, 2004

Three seeds made quick straight-set exits on Tuesday at the ATP stop in Lyon in top-seeded Chilean Nicolas Massu (l. to Agustin Calleri), No. 5 Tommy "The R." Robredo (l. to Robin Soderling), and No. 8 Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic (l. to (Q) Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, retiring with a shoulder injury).

"I didn't play too well today," Massu said. "It's my first match of the indoor season and I lost, that's tennis. I need some more matches and more time to practice on this surface to get to a better level."

Mirnyi was just happy to be in the main draw after fighting his way through the qualifying.

"It's a tough tournament here, considering so many top players are here," said The Beast, who has lost 15 times in the first or second round this year, and reached only one semifinal. "The cut off was very tough and I had to come through the qualifiers and having played a few matches it was good to get warmed up. I'm happy I'm in the second round but unfortunately for Mario I hope he gets well and gets back on tour soon."

Seeded winners on the day were No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Sargsian) and No. 7 Vince "Vincenzo" Spadea (d. Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri).

Other un-seeds into the second round were Russian Mikhail Youzhny (d. Luis "Me So" Horna), Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek (d. (WC) Mathieu in three) and Spaniard Dave Ferrer (d. (Q) "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter).

Wednesday's line-up is Juan "The Principality" Monaco vs. (4) Joachim "Pim-Pim" Johansson, Bjorkman vs. (Q) Mirnyi, Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer vs. (WC) Llodra, Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal vs. (Q) Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau, Arazi vs. (2) Rainer "Shine" Schuettler, Soderling vs. Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez, (Q) Stepanek vs. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, and (7) Vincenzo Spadea vs. Ljubicic.

Hewitt, Nalbandian On Today at ATP Tokyo

An ugly slew of nobodies and over-the-hill veterans led the cast at the ATP stop in Tokyo Tuesday, but highlighted for the Asian fans were Japanese wildcard Gouichi Motomura (d. Glenn "I.C." Weiner) and Taipei qualifier Yeu-Tzuoo Wang (d. Jeff "The Lizard King" Morrison).

"I was very nervous and anxious before the match for a few reasons," Motomura said. "I haven't played an ATP event for some time."

Also into the second round were un-seeds Nicholas "How Did I Get Directly Into the Draw?" Thomann of France (d. (Q) Pless in two tiebreaks), American Justin "Time" Gimelstob (d Christophe "The Roach" Rochus), and Aussie Wayne "Someone Retire Me" Arthurs (d. Lisnard).

Rain washed out the remainder of the schedule on Tuesday.

On Wednesday the seeds finally emerge among the backed-up schedule including (WC) Suzuki vs. (15) Hernych, (1) Hewitt vs. (WC) Motomura, (Q) Wang vs. (2) Nalbandian, (Q) Phau vs. (WC) Iwami, (7) Dent vs. Zib, Gimelstob vs. (8) Thomas "Tommy the J." Johansson, (Q) Iwabuchi vs. (WC) Terachi in an all-Japanese, Arthurs vs. (10) H.-T. Lee, Ulihrach vs. Okun, (16) Muller vs. Bogomolov Jr., Garcia-Lopez vs. Burgsmuller, Vacek vs. Saretta, (9) Saulnier vs. Thomann in an all-French, Carlsen vs. (Q) Kohlmann, and Peya vs. (Q) Chiudinelli.

Zvonareva Porsche Stalls, Dementieva, Davenport Today at WTA Filderstadt

Russian No. 6 seed Vera Zvonareva, the lone seed in action at the WTA stop in Filderstadt, was upset by unseeded countrywoman Elena Likhovtseva in the highlight at the German event Tuesday.

"I played well for both sets until I got 5-2 up and then I let her in the game," said Likhovtseva, who attempted to throw in the choke but eventually won 6-3, 7-5. "I know Vera's game quite well because we practice together and tried to vary my serve and try out different spins."

Other unseeded winners were Slovak Daniela Hantuchova (d. (Q) Osterloh 6-1 in the third), veteran Mary Pierce (d. Suarez), Colombian qualifier Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga (d. (WC) Weingartner 0-and-0), and French wildcard Nathalie Dechy (d. Maleeva in three).

On tap for Wednesday at the Porsche Grand Prix are Dementieva vs. Raymond, Bovina vs. Groenefeld, Petrova vs. Jankovic, Molik vs. Davenport, and Kostanic vs. Patty "Handshake" Schnyder.

"I think I have a good chance of reaching the top spot by the end of the year," Davenport said during the lead-up to her Wednesday debut.

Four Seeds Bomb Out at WTA Tokyo

Four more seeds were shown the door on Tuesday before the rains came at the WTA stop in Tokyo in (3) Shinobu Asagoe (l. to Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn), (5) Meghann Shaughnessy (l. to French qualifier Youlia Fedossova), (6) Nicole Pratt (l. to Russian Evgenia Linetskaya), and (8) Arantxa "Not That Arantxa" Parra Santonja (l. to Bulgarian qualifier Sesil "The Mouth" Karatantcheva).

"I think it was tough for (Asagoe) being the top-seeded woman from Japan at this event, so there were a lot of expectations, especially after her US Open performance," Tanasugarn said. "It's always hard to play in your home country. I know that I don't play well at my home events."

Asagoe was more blunt with her assessment: "She played well today, but it was really my own poor play that was the deciding factor."

Seeded winners Tuesday were (4) Kristina "You're a Fine Girl" Brandi (d. Kleinova in three) and (7) Klara "Kouky" Koukalova (d. Sequera).

Other un-seeds into the second round were Americans Mashona "Little Sis" Washington (d. Sanchez Lorenzo) and Jill Craybas (d. Strycova in three), Slovak Lubomira Kurhajcova (d. Jidkova), Czech teen (WC) Nicole Vaidisova (d. Cho), Japan's Akiko Morigami (d. Katarina "Robotnik" Srebotnik), Aussie qualifier Sam Stosur (d. Nakamura), and Hungarian Aniko Kapros (d. (Q) Peer in three).

On tap Wednesday are (WC) Vaidisova vs. (2) Golovin in an all-teen-future-stars clash, (1) Sharapova vs. (Q) Stosur, Linetskaya vs. (WC) Fujiwara, Kapros vs. (Q) Karatantcheva, Morigami vs. (Q) Fedossova, (7) Koukalova vs. Kurhajcova, Washington vs. (4) Brandi, and Tanasugarn vs. Craybas.

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