Spadea Only Seed Into ATP Lyon Semifinals

Posted on October 9, 2004

No. 7 seed Vince "Vincenzo" Spadea became the only seeded player into the ATP Lyon semifinals Friday with an uneven 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(2) win over Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer Friday.

"It wasn't going well the whole match but I was very excited when I reached the tiebreak in the third and had the feeling that nothing could stop me," Spadea said.

The three other un-seeds into the semis were Sweden's Robin Soderling (d. (4) Joachim "Pim-Pim" Johansson), Belgian waffle Xavier "X-Man" Malisse (d. Youzhny), and Spain's Dave Ferrer (d. Bjorkman).

"I'm really happy to win today," Solderling said. "I tried to stay a little bit further back on the return to try and get more time because he's serving really big. That really worked today, I returned very well."

The semifinals line-up on Saturday will be X-Man vs. Ferrer, and Soderling vs. (7) Spadea.

Hewitt, Dent, Novak Into ATP Tokyo Semifinals

Top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt eased past No. 9-seeded Frenchman Cyril Saulnier after a tight first set 7-5, 6-1 Friday in the quarterfinals at the ATP stop in Tokyo, setting up a semifinal meeting with No. 5 Jiri Novak, who upset No. 4 seed and crowd favorite Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan.

"There's nothing I can do about the weather and (Novak) also played two matches yesterday, so we were even," Srichapan said. "But I think I played well. He was just playing better."

Also into the semifinals were American No. 7 seed Taylor Dent (d. (16) Muller in three), and unseeded Czech Bohdan Ulihrach (d. (Q) Phau).

Saturday's order of play (if the approaching typhoon doesn't take out the stadium) will be Ulihrach vs. (7) Dent, and (1) Hewitt vs. (5) Novak.

Mauresmo, Davenport, Russians Into WTA Filderstadt Semis

The four top (uninjured) women in the game advanced to the semifinals at the WTA stop in Filderstadt Friday, led by world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo who is attempting to defend her top ranking, on and off the court.

"I was very satisfied, especially because my serve was very strong," Mauresmo said. "I feel no pressure because now I'm No. 1. I expected that."

Mauresmo (d. Raymond) was joined in the semifinals by No. 2-ranked Lindsay Davenport (d. Jankovic), current French Open holder and No. 3 seed Anastasia Myskina (d. Russian Likhovtseva), and current US Open holder and No. 4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga).

"That's pretty bad," said Davenport, who only threw in 41 percent of her first serves. "Normally I have 60 or 70 per cent, especially indoors."

Saturday's semifinals line up is (1) Mauresmo vs. (4) Kuznetsova, and (3) Myskina vs. (2) Davenport.

Surprise Washington to Face Sharapova in WTA Tokyo Final

After spending the majority of her nine-year career slogging through challenger and futures-level events, American Mashona "Little Sis" Washington is suddenly en fuego.

On Friday at the WTA stop in Tokyo, the unseeded Washington outlasted (7) Klara "Kouky" Koukalova 6-2 in the third, and in the final will face the top-seeded Maria Sharapova who cruised past Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-2, 6-3.

With a typhoon approaching Tokyo, the Ariake Colosseum roof was closed.

"I live in Florida and we've been through a lot this year," Sharapova said. "Obviously, it would be nicer to play with the roof open but you can't control the weather."

Washington is the younger sister of former Wimbledon runner-up MaliVai Washington.

Sharapova, who is looking for her second consecutive chance to whip out her cell phone after Seoul last week, leads Washington 2-1 but lost their last meeting earlier this year at New Haven.

Saturday's doubles semifinals will be Americans Hopkins/Washington vs. Japan's Fujiwara/Obata, and Asagoe/Srebotnik vs. Stewart/Stosur.
 
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