Davenport New No. 1, Monfils Still Rolling, Top ATP Players Bailing from Madrid
Posted on October 15, 2004
Davenport Retakes No. 1 WTA RankingWith the Big Four in Justine Henin-Hardenne, Kim Clijsters and the Williams sisters alternating injuries this year, the No. 1 ranking has been up for grabs. First the slam-less Amelie Mauresmo ascended to the throne, now Lindsay Davenport has returned to the top spot.
The No. 2-seeded Davenport defeated Russian (WC) Dinara "Little Sis" Safina Thursday at the WTA stop in Moscow, retaking the No. 1 ranking for the first time since Jan. 2002.
"Of course I'm excited but I would like to be able to keep going and win the tournament as a new No. 1," Davenport said.
This will be (come Monday when the rankings are released) the fifth different time Davenport has held the No. 1 spot, coming up on a total of 38 weeks. She first rose to No. 1 in Oct. 1998.
Other winners in second round action were (3) Anastasia Myskina (d. countrywoman Likhovtseva, winning 6-0 in the third), (5) Elena Dementieva (d. (Q) Mamic), and (7) Venus Williams (feeding a bagel to (WC) Douchevina).
Friday's quarterfinals in Moscow line up as Bovina vs. (7) Venus, (4) Kuznetsova vs. (5) Dementieva in an all-Russian rematch of the US Open final, (6) Vera "The Crying Game" Zvonareva vs. (3) Myskina in an all-Russian, and Schiavone vs. (2) Davenport.
WTA Tashkent Update: Due to the WTA Tour's misguided policy of running Tier IV and V events during the same week as their top-level Tier I events, thereby confusing fans and media, Tennis-X is boycotting the results this week from the Tier IV Tashkent event while the Tier I Moscow event is being contested. Like the ATP, who run their Masters Series events uncontested, we hope the WTA will eventually make a calendar change to highlight their top-level events. Nothing personal against the Tashkent competitors. We apologize for any inconvenience. Results from Tashkent can be found at www.wtatour.com.
Unseeded Rusedski Through to ATP Moscow Quarterfinals
Greg Rusedski showed some of his old aggressive form Thursday at the ATP stop in Moscow, with the unseeded Brit ousting No. 7 seed Filippo Volandri in straight sets to advance to the quarterfinals.
"I feel like I am playing really well, I think every week I have gotten better this year," said Grinning Greg. "Today it was a very comprehensive performance, four breaks, 6-2, 6-4."
Others into the quarters Thursday were No. 3 Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty (d. (Q) Vladimir "The Vladiator" Voltchkov 7-6 in the third), No. 5 Mikhail Youzhny (d. Bjorkman), and unseeded Dane Kenneth Carlsen (d. Andreev 6-1 in the third).
Friday's quarters line up as Stepanek vs. (8) Davydenko, Carlsen vs. (5) Youzhny, (WC) Kunitsyn vs. (3) The Dominator, and in a serving throw-down, Rusedski vs. (2) Joachim "Pim-Pim" Johansson.
Ginepri Bumps Srichaphan at ATP Vienna
American Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri provided the only upset of the day Thursday in Vienna, steamrolling No. 5 seed Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan, losing only three games en route to the quarterfinals.
Ginepri will now face Tommy Haas in the quarters.
"I am just going to play as well as I can and try to give Patrick (McEnroe) something else to look at," said Ginepri, hoping to sneak on the U.S. squad traveling to Spain for the Davis Cup final in December.
Other seeds into the quarters were No. 1 David Nalbandian (d. Koubek), No. 2 Nicolas Massu (d. (Q) De Voest), No. 3 Rainer "Shine" Schuettler (d. Luis "Me So" Horna in three), No. 6 Guillermo Canas (d. Dent), and No. 8 Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez (d. Ulihrach).
Nalbandian was almost drawn into three sets against the home-crowd-supported Koubek, winning the second in a tiebreak.
"It was a little bit difficult," Nalbandian said. "I had a match point and made an easy mistake and then the crowd was incredible. But in the tiebreak I served good, I kept very focused on my game and I took my chance."
Other un-seeds into the quarters were German Tommy Haas (d. countryman Florian "Oscar" Mayer) and Italy's David Sanguinetti (d. Peya).
Match-ups for the Friday quarters are Sanguinetti vs. (2) Massu, Haas vs. Baby Courier, (8) F-Lo vs. (3) Schuettler, and (1) Nalbandian vs. (6) Canas.
Monfils Raises Pro Record to 2-0 at WTA Metz
18-year-old French wildcard Gael Monfils, winner of three of the four junior slams this year, upped his career pro win-loss record to 2-0 Thursday with a straight-set win over countryman Olivier "All We Need is just a Little" Patience at the ATP stop in Metz, France.
"I am happy about the result. I played well and was relaxed," said Monfils, who will now face a test against fellow 18-year-old countryman Richard Gasquet. "I played against Richard when we were thirteen years old I think. He defeated me. I'm not take this match as a special one. It is just another match. The first one of a long series maybe, but I don't know, and I don't think about it."
Others into the quarterfinals Thursday were former No. 2 Alex Corretja (d. Carraz in three), French homeboy Paul-Henri Mathieu (d. countryman (Q) Serra), and American Jeff "Baby Krajicek" Morrison (d. (6) Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau in three).
Friday's quarterfinal line-up will be (WC) Gasquet vs. (WC) Monfils in an all-future-of-French-tennis, (1) Ljubicic vs. Mathieu, (Q) Haehnel vs. Clement in an all-French, and Baby Krajicek vs. Corretja.
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
With the end of the season approaching, the exo season is in full swing. Oracene Price and University of Kentucky coach Tubby Smith announced Wednesday that Venus, Serena, and Anna Kournikova will play an exhibition in Lexington on Nov. 21, with proceeds to benefit the Owl Foundation and the Tubby Smith Foundation...Andy Roddick filmed two commercial spots Wednesday at the ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, Conn...Yevgeny Kafelnikov, not playing the Kremlin Cup for the first time in nine years, speaking to Sport Express in Moscow: "If some of my fans are still nurturing hopes in this respect, I have only one advice to give -- get rid of these hopes as soon as possible. Even if I badly wanted to, I would not be able to come back to professional sport, nor do I really want to. Maybe because I've been playing tennis too seriously for too long giving it 100 percent, sacrificing my whole life to it. And then at one point I felt I stopped enjoying it like I used to." That was around, we think, 2001...Gael Monfils recently started working with former ATP player Thierry Champion...Matt Cronin writing for tennisreporters.net: "Another tennis web site has dissed the Tashkent event for its weak field, somehow forgetting how good Iroda Tulyaganova was before she blew out her arm." Don't point the slamboni at us! Who says we've forgotten how good Iroda Tulyaganova is? Iroda who? Actually we're dissing the WTA for running low-level events during the same week as their top-level Tier I events. How are casual fans supposed to determine which events are important? The WTA needs to be taken to task for poor calendar planning, people need to get on this train...Elena Dementieva says she and the women Russian players have no free time due to their training regiment, compared to the slack-ass male Russian players: "We have virtually no free time, contrary to the Russian male players. We are on the court all the time -- either we are training or we are playing. But I do not feel abnormal at all, I am sure that the time will come when I will be able to devote more time to myself."...Another headline from the entertainingly loose-cannon ATP Masters Series-Madrid website: "Agassi arrives in Madrid while Roddick, Hewitt make their excuses." How will the ATP get a rein on their top players pulling from their top-level events, with some (Hewitt) not even bothering to come up with injury excuses anymore? Back in the day when the tour had bank, that year-end bonus pool sure was handy for keeping players in line. Perhaps once China buys the CEO slot next year they can start waving bills in front of the players again and get them to post for the top-tier events.