Monfils Gets First Top 10 Win; WTA Calls Up New Title Sponsor

Dent dropped the second set before winning decisively 6-2 in the third, showing no signs of past conditioning problems.

"I love it here," Dent said. "The courts really suit me well and I love the hot weather."

Un-seeds into the second round were Xavier "X-Man" Malisse (d. A.Martin), Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau (d. "You Say" Potito Starace), Argentina's Agustin Calleri (d. Nieminen 7-6 in the third), and qualifiers Amer Delic (d. (WC) Reid in three) of the U.S. and Frenchman Julien Lisnard (d. (Q) De Chaunac).

On court Wednesday are Enqvist vs. (7) Florian "Oscar" Mayer, (3) Kiefer vs. Saulnier, Olivier "The Roach" Rochus vs. (6) Stepanek, and X-Man vs. (2) Pim-Pim.

Teen Monfils Stuns Gaudio at ATP Doha

Former No. 1-ranked junior and first-year pro Gael "Force" Monfils of France produced the biggest upset of the new year Tuesday at the ATP stop in Doha, defeating reigning French Open champ Gaston Gaudio 6-4, 7-6(4) to advance to the second round.

"I'm very happy because I played very good tennis," Monfils said. "I have a lot of confidence in my game. I'm happy to win my first match against a Top 10 player. I don't know if it was my best match, but it was a very good one."

Another upset on the day was unseeded Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal topping No. 4 seed Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets, carrying over his confidence from Spain's year-ending Davis Cup triumph.

Seeds avoiding the upset bug were (3) Sebastien Grosjean (d. Muller) in a successful return from injury in his first match since the 2004 US Open, and No. 8 Nikolay Davydenko (d. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic).

Un-seeds on the march in the desert Tuesday were Fabrice "The Original Magician" Santoro (d. T.Johansson), Slovak Karol Beck (d. Andreev), Spaniards Al Costa (d. D.Sanchez) and Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco (d. (WC) Abdulla), and Swiss qualifier Marco "Chud" Chiudinelli (d. (5) Pavel in three).

On court Wednesday in second-round action at Doha are Santoro vs. (WC) Monfils in an all-French, (1) Federer vs. Rusedski (Club Fed leads series 2-1), (3) Grosjean vs. H.-T. Lee, (Q) Vico vs. (7) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez, Hot Sauce vs. The Prodigy in an all-Spanish, (6) Ljubicic vs. (WC) Marc "M-Lo" Lopez, Beck vs. (8) Davydenko, and (Q) Chiudinelli vs. A.Costa.

Monfils on playing the veteran Santoro: "I hope to play well, I think it will be a very enjoyable match. I respect him a lot, he is a very good guy and has a lot of experience. When I was young I watched him on TV, winning the Davis Cup. I really respect him a lot."

Srichaphan Skirts Scare at ATP Chennai

Fan favorite and No. 2 seed Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan dodged a Belgian bullet Tuesday at the ATP stop in Chennai, India, fending off two match points to outlast scampering baseliner Christophe "The Roach" Rochus 6-1 in the third.

"It feels great to win the first match of the year," Srichaphan said. "It was a difficult one but I am really happy I hung in there and was able to come back to win in three sets."

All five seeds advanced in (4) Jonas Bjorkman (d. (WC) Zouhir, baking a bagel in the second), (5) Kenneth Carlsen (d. Okun), (8) Kevin Kim (d. (Q) "That's" Harsh Mankad in three), and top-seeded Carlos Moya (d. (Q) Knowle) who also advanced into the quarterfinals when second-round opponent Ivo "I Dated Hingis" Heuberger withdrew from the tournament with a back injury.

"As it was my first match of the year, I felt a little out of it, but it is normal and I am pretty happy with my performance," Moya said. "I was a little bit more relaxed in the second set. He also played better I think. He just won three qualifying matches so his confidence level was quite high."

Unseeded players into the second round Tuesday were the Czech Republic's Tomas Zib (d. Burgsmuller), and French qualifier Nicolas Devilder (d. (Q) Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis 7-6 in the third).

On tap for Wednesday on the Indian continent is a grim line-up in Gimelstob vs. (4) Bjorkman, Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience vs. Tabara, Garcia-Lopez vs. Garcia in an all-Garcia, and (8) K.Kim vs. Zib.

Safina Slams Defending Champ Sugiyama at WTA Gold Coast

Dinara Safina pasted defending champion Ai Sugiyama Tuesday at the WTA stop in Gold Coast, dealing out a 6-3, 6-2 shellacking to the Japanese native who afterwards said she did not choke in the face of the Russian baseline onslaught and her first match of the year.

"It was really tough today," Sugiyama said. "I came back as the defending champion and I wanted to do well but I wasn't ready at all. I didn't feel that much pressure, I just didn't perform well."

Seeded winners Tuesday were (1) Nadia Petrova (d. Zheng), (5) Silvia Farina Elia (d. Denisa "Hanging" Chladkova, coming from a set down), and (8) Maggie Maleeva (d. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova).

Unseeded winners advancing were Aussie favorite Sam Stosur (d. Benesova) and American qualifier Angela Haynes (d. (LL) Cohen-Aloro, who replaced Nicole Pratt (knee strain)).

Wednesday's play features Pennetta vs. Pin, Haynes vs. Schnyder, Petrova vs. N.Li, Likhovtseva vs. Karatantcheva, Golovin vs. Safina, and in doubles Dechy/Navratilova vs. Likhovtseva/Maleeva.

Tearful Two-Time Defending Champ Daniilidou Dumped at WTA Auckland

Italy's Mara Santangelo provided the shocker at the WTA stop in Auckland Tuesday, shrugging off a 1-6 second-set loss to upset two-time defending champion and No. 3 seed Eleni Daniilidou 6-1 in the third.

"I had a break point in the first game of the third set and I lost the chance. Suddenly at two-love I lost concentration," said Daniilidou, who broke into tears during her post-match conference. "The first match of the year is always the toughest one and I am just very disappointed."

In other seeded action, No. 2 Jelena Jankovic fought through the flu to defeat Luxembourg's Claudine Schaul in straight sets.

"It was really tough for me because I could not breathe," the 19-year-old Jankovic said.

No. 4 Shinobu Asagoe (d. Perebiynis) was also a winner, joined in the second round by un-seeds Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic (d. (Q) Yoshida 0-and-1), New Zealand wildcard Marina Erakovic (d. (Q) Pelletier), Slovak qualifier Janette Husarova (d. (6) Brandi), fellow Slovak Katarina "Robotnik" Srebotnik (d. (8) Jidkova in three), Israeli teen qualifier Shahar Peer (d. Morigami in three), American Jill Craybas (d. countrywoman (LL) Tu), and Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives (d. Anne "Kosmo" Kremer).

On court Wednesday are Asagoe vs. Perry, Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier vs. Safarova, Erakovic vs. Husarova, Peer vs. Santangelo, Llagostera Vives vs. Jankovic, Panova vs. Sucha, Srebotnik vs. Krasnoroutskaya, and the injured Bartoli vs. Craybas.

X-CORRECT
Roger Federer's win streak as of Tuesday was 17 matches, not 18, as he received a walkover during the US Open.

X-NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Cell phone maker Sony Ericsson agreed to become the global title sponsor for the WTA Tour in a deal worth $88 million over six years, a tennis source told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The renaming of the women's pro tennis circuit to "The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour" will be announced later today. No word on how Maria "Motorola Cell Phone Mannequin" Sharapova and Sony Ericsson will coincide, or why the WTA waited until now to leak the news to the AP when the deal was done in early December 2004...James Blake says he is feeling back on top of his game after a disastrous 2004 season that saw him injure his neck after a header into the net pole at Roland Garros, followed by an illness that affected his hearing and vision, and the death of his father: "Last year, I had a few occurrences that put few things into perspective and put tennis into perspective."...Amelie Mauresmo (pulled from a Hong Kong exo with an abdominal strain) and Serena Williams (abdominal strain) are both question marks for the Australian Open. Serena is playing doubles-only in the Hong Kong exo rather than resting the injury. "I've had an abductor problem which has come and gone and prevented me from playing in a few tournaments towards the end of the season," Mauresmo said. "I thought the injury would heal after a few weeks rest, but when I started my pre-season training, I started feeling the same pains as before."...Lindsay Davenport pulled from the Hopman Cup exhibition with a shoulder injury, but is scheduled to play Sydney next week...Nicole Pratt was forced to withdraw Tuesday from the WTA stop at Gold Coast with a knee injury, and blames it on her previous week's practice on the sticky newly-resurfaced Australian Open courts at Melbourne Park: "The Rebound Ace courts at Melbourne Park I've been practicing on are quite sticky compared to other years, particularly as they have been newly resurfaced. Hardcourts have been proven to take their toll and Rebound Ace is a hardcourt (editor's note: thanks for the clarification). It's important not to play in new shoes (to lesson the court traction)."...Between the Rebound Ace surface, the out-of-control racquet technology, players who refuse to rest their ailments (Serena) and the WTA Tour doing next to nothing about injuries, look for another star-sidelined women's season in 2005...Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard on the Aussie Open Rebound Ace controversy, speaking to the Herald Sun: "We've got the message the courts should be a bit faster and we've gone to Rebound Ace and asked for it to be faster. Rebound Ace told us they could make it a bit faster and it cost a lot of money to make it faster, but it would appear we haven't done enough for what Lleyton (Hewitt) wants. A number of Australian players said to us to make it faster, so we've made it faster."...Marat Safin on Russia's embarrassing early exit from the Hopman Cup exhibition, with Safin and Anastasia Myskina losing 6-2, 6-0 in the mixed doubles decider to Argentines Guillermo "El Fragile" Coria and Gisela "Sgt." Dulko: "Gisela was even returning my serve very well which was kind of embarrassing but I'll have to live with that and get better for the Australian Open. (Coria) played really well, was always running, always biting, not literally, but he was too good." Safin also took the opportunity to compliment the Aussie Open surface, and compare Lleyton Hewitt's problems in Melbourne to his own poor efforts at Wimbledon: "You would probably have 50 players who like it, and 50 players who don't, but that's normal. I like the surface. The ball bounces a bit higher, it's not too fast and the courts suit my game, but (Hewitt) is completely different. We have completely different games. He is the complete opposite of what I'm doing. Everyone is different. Here (Melbourne) is a little slower, the French Open is on clay, Wimbledon is fast and with a low bounce and the US Open is fast hardcourts. Some players can't adjust, I can't adjust to Wimbledon, it seems. Maybe I'm not good enough. It really doesn't matter how many hours, days, weeks or years of practice you put in on the court, it either suits you or it doesn't. I really feel like Wimbledon doesn't suit me, but I have to play, and who knows, if I get (a good draw) then I could find myself in the quarterfinals."