Federer In, Teen WTA Stars In, Monfils Edged by The Original Magician

Un-seeds into the quarterfinals were Spain's Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. countryman Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco) and Al Costa (d. (Q) Chiudinelli), and France's Fabrice "The Original Wizard" Santoro who turned back precocious teenage countryman and wildcard Gael "Force" Monfils 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, saving a match point.

"It was a very exciting experience playing him," Santoro said. "He is already a great although he is only 18 and today was probably the first and the last time I have an opportunity to beat him because I think he will be very, very good in the future."

Today in Doha features Federer vs. F-Lo, Grosjean vs. Davydenko, The Prodigy vs. Ljubicic, and A.Costa vs. Santoro.

Enqvist, Roach Uproot Seeds at ATP Adelaide

Veteran Swede Thomas Enqvist (d. (7) Florian "Oscar" Mayer) and Belgian Olivier "The Roach" Rochus (d. (6) Stepanek, bagel in the first) delivered upsets Wednesday at the ATP stop in Adelaide, advancing into the quarterfinals.

"I thought I was playing consistently. My game is a very aggressive kind of baseline tennis," said the 30-year-old Enqvist. "But I also mixed up the shots, so they don't really know what is coming and I think I did that well."

Two seeded players also moved on in (2) Joachim "Pim-Pim" Johansson (d. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse 7-6 in the third) and (3) Nicolas Kiefer (d. Saulnier).

On court Thursday are (8) Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer vs. (Q) Delic, (4) Chela vs. (Q) Lisnard, (1) Hewitt vs. Calleri, and Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau vs. (5) Taylor "Make a" Dent.

Gimelstob Upsets Bjorkman at ATP Chennai

Resurgent American Justin "Time" Gimelstob shrugged off a second-set hiccup to upset No. 4 seed Jonas Bjorkman 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 Wednesday at the Chennai Open.

Gimelstob played challengers much of the 2004 season after returning from injury, winning four minor-league titles.

"Well, he's a great player and is going to make a charge at some point," said Gimelstob on blowing a 6-0, 4-2 lead. "He made his run and I didn't quite lift my level of play but managed to get through in the third set."

Three other players advanced on the day in Czechs Michal Tabara (d. Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience) and Tomas Zib (d. (8) K.Kim), and Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (d. A.Garcia).

Scheduled for Thursday at the ATP stop in Chennai are Y.-H. Lu vs. Vliegen, Mathieu vs. Carlsen, and Srichaphan vs. Devilder.

Teens Golovin, Karatantcheva Into Quarters at WTA Gold Coast

The WTA Tour teen machine was on overdrive Wednesday, highlighting the wave of the future on the Australian hardcourts at Gold Coast.

Advancing into the quarterfinals with gritty three-set victories were 15-year-old Bulgarian qualifier Sesil "The Mouth" Karatantcheva (d. (7) Likhovtseva 6-2, 0-6, 7-6(3)) and 15-year-old Frenchwoman-child Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin (d. Safina 6-2 in the third).

"The heat was just unbelievable," said Karatantcheva who struggled with the heat and humidity. "Sometimes you just had no oxygen. I felt like I couldn't breathe."

Also into the quarters Wednesday were (1) Nadia Petrova (d. N.Li), (2) Patty "Handshake" Schnyder (d. (Q) Haynes), and unseeded Italian Flavia "Of the Day" Pennetta (d. Pin in three).

"It's the first tournament of the year, but I love being in Australia and I love the conditions," said Schnyder, who last year reached the Aussie Open semis. "It's a great chance for me to go even further than last year."

On tap for Thursday are Petrova vs. Farina Elia, Stosur vs. Maleeva, The Mouth vs. Schnyder, and Pennetta vs. Golovin.

Top-seeded Frazier Into Quarters at WTA Auckland

American Amy Frazier, defending the top seed this week at the WTA stop in Auckland, held her ground Wednesday with an easy straight-set win over Czech Lucie Safarova to advance into the quarterfinals.

Other seeded winners on the day were (2) Jelena Jankovic (d. Llagostera Vives, bread-stick-and-bagel), (4) Shinobu Asagoe (d. Perry who retired in the second set with injury), and (5) Marion Bartoli (d. Craybas 2-6, 6-0, 6-2, fighting through a shoulder injury).

"I tried to forget the pain, but it was really hard," said Bartoli, who wept in pain during her match. "I will see how it goes in the warm-up (Thursday) but I will not take any risks before the Australian Open."

Un-seeds advancing were Russian Tatiana "The Pocket Baseliner" Panova (d. Martina "Nurse, Hand Me a" Sucha in three), Slovak qualifier Janette Husarova (d. (WC) Erakovic, bagel in the second), Slovak Katarina "Robotnik" Srebotnik (d. (WC) Krasnoroutskaya), and Israeli qualifier Shahar Peer (d. Santangelo in three).

On tap for Thursday are Srebotnik vs. Peer, Asagoe vs. Husarova, the injury-riddled Bartoli vs. the flu-ridden Jankovic, and Frazier vs. Panova.

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Greg Rusedski is pissed off that he didn't have his ATP-approved GlaxoSmithKline energy drinks and nutritional bars in time for the start of the 2005 season: "I tried to order some but didn't receive any and I haven't got any yet. You would think that they would have been available in December because it can take two months for the body to respond. This event comes in the hottest period of the year, so you would hope the stuff would be available for it. Many players have had nutritional deficiencies, including myself, and all sorts of players out there are competing with deficiencies. That's why we have been needing a solution. The good thing is that there is now a 100 percent guarantee, so hopefully all this will never happen again. Hopefully after the Australian Open we won't have to discuss this any more." Replied David Higdon, Vice President of the ATP: "I agree with Greg, I would have loved to have had these things available as soon as possible but it's a lot of work to make sure they have gone through rigorous testing. The sports science academy of GSK have been working on it around the clock. The reality is though that the first two weeks of the tour are spread far and wide and part of the distribution agreement we had with GSK has an education component. We weren't going to just drop these products out there without having a talk with the players about understanding how to use them. The first chance we will get to do that is at the players meeting on the Saturday before the Australian Open."...Nicolas Kiefer has pledged to donate $100 to UNICEF for each ace he hits during the four-week Australian tennis swing, including the Australian Open...According to the Houston Chronicle, former President Bush and Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale said they hope to generate $100 million in local donations for tsunami relief before the month is over. "It doesn't matter how much or how big the check you write...every cent counts," Bush said. "You see this devastation, and it's just overwhelming." McIngvale and his wife, Linda, presented the elder Bush with a check for $250,000, while the local offices of a Washington, D.C.-based law firm donated $1 million. Bush said he asked the McIngvales to spearhead local fund-raising efforts because they are known philanthropists in Houston. "All I know is that Mattress Mack can talk almost anybody into anything," Bush said. "American people are opening their hearts and pocketbooks. So far, it's been an easy job because people want to respond."...Mark Philippoussis sustained a groin injury in the Hopman Cup exhibition and is now a question mark for the Aussie Open...Justin "Time" Gimelstob, in his first tour quarterfinal in nearly two years: "My ranking suffered due to my long absence from the circuit after the surgery, and that's been the story of my career for a long time. This is my ninth year on the tour. I started young, but had a lot of stops through injuries."