Blake Lets Hewitt Off the Hook, Davenport Avoids Upset at Australian Open

"I see that as a learning experience," said Blake, who will no doubt be in the running for the coveted No. 2 singles spot on the U.S. Davis Cup team in 2005. "I mean, I've been off tour for a while. So coming back and playing that, you know, that's what I missed, being in a tiebreaker with one of the best players in the world, the crowd at this point against me...That's a good feeling because when you're out for as long as I was with the kind of things I was (injury and the death of his father), you never know if it's going to come back at all."

Seeds joining Hewitt in the third round Thursday were (6) Guillermo "El Fragile" Coria (d. Ricardo Mello "Yello" in four), (7) Tim Henman (d. Hanescu), (9) David Nalbandian (d. Ventura in four, bagel in the first), (12) Guillermo Canas (d. Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco, bagel in the fourth), (23) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez (d. Andreev), (25) Juan Ignacio Chela (d. Carraz), (26) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Christophe "The Roach" Rochus), (31) Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Zabaleta, dropping only three games), and (32) Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer (d. the Aussie hope Healey).

"I was taken a little bit by surprise the way his serve was coming off the court," said Henman of his first meeting with Hanescu. "Obviously tall guy, rising up pretty quickly. I thought I was a little unlucky to lose my serve actually in the first set."

Upsets were orchestrated Thursday by Frenchman Jean-Rene Lisnard (d. countryman (14) Grosjean, coming from 0-2 sets down), Spaniard Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. (15) Youzhny, who had a match point in the fourth, coming from 1-2 sets down), American Bobby Reynolds "Wrap" (d. (17) Pavel), and Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber who received a gift when (18) Nicolas Massu retired with an ongoing ankle injury after losing the first eight games.

In the only all-unseeded match on the day, Radek Stepanek outlasted Czech countryman Jan Hernych 6-0 in the fifth.

In the last match of the day, (2) Andy Roddick recovered from a second-set hiccup to defeat unseeded Brit Greg Rusedski 6-0, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, setting up a third-round meeting with Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer.

There were also three doubles upsets on the day choreographed by Karol Beck/Sargis Sargsian (d. (10) Damm/Palmer), Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze/Roger Wassen (d. (11) Cermak/Friedl), and Italians Giorgio Galimberti/Filippo Volandri (d. (14) Knowle/Pala in three).

With Friday's line-up the seeds start to meet in Melbourne in (4) Safin vs. (28) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, (1) Federer vs. Nieminen, (29) Dent vs. (8) Agassi, (10) Gaudio vs. (20) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, (11) Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. (24) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez, (30) Thomas "Tommy the J." Johansson vs. K.Kim, Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis vs. (13) Tommy Robredo, Olivier "The Roach" Rochus vs. Beck, in doubles Spaniards Al Costa/
The Prodigy vs. Frenchmen (15) Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau/Nicolas Mahut, and Argentines Chela/Prieto vs. Americans Blake/Fish.

Davenport Survives Scare to Advance to 3rd Round at Australian Open

World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport showed up for work unprepared Thursday at the Australian Open.

Looking sluggish in the early-afternoon heat, the American received a wake-up call after finding herself a set down against No. 99-ranked Czech Michaela Pastikova, eventually recovering to advance 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

"I just wasn't ready to be at my very best at the beginning," said Davenport, who next faces another Czech in teen sensation Nicole Vaidisova. "She was very aggressive and caught me on the back foot...In the second and third sets, I got off to good starts, and that carried me through."

Other seeded winners Thursday were (3) Anastasia Myskina (d. Obziler), (6) Elena Dementieva (d. Chakvetadze), (8) Venus (d. Peng), (10) Alicia Molik (d. Nakamura), (12) Patty "Handshake" Schnyder (d. Michaella "Little Sis" Krajicek, coming from a set down), (13) Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem (d. Garbin in two tiebreaks), (14) Francesca Schiavone (d. Perebiynis 6-0 in the third), (18) Elena Likhovtseva (d. Dominikovic in three), (19) Nathalie Dechy (d. Mashona "Little Sis" Washington from a set down), (25) Lisa Raymond (d. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova 0-and-1), (26) Daniela Hantuchova (d. Barbara "Like I Give a" Schett, bagel in the second in her last Australian Open), and (27) Anna Smashnova (d. Tanasugarn).

"I learned a lot of things from last year, that my emotions don't really help me on court," said Myskina, who weathered a few mini-meltdowns before moving into the third round. "I saw myself on TV, and I don't really like it."

More of the chaff was separated from the fine grain Thursday with three additional lower seeds eliminated in (20) Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin (l. to American Abigail "Hit Me Baby" Spears), (23) Jelena Jankovic (l. to Russian Tatiana "The Pocket Baseliner" Panova), and (31) Jelena Kostanic (l. to the next-in-line teen Vaidisova, bagel in the first).

On court Friday are Ivanovic vs. (2) Mauresmo, Li vs. (4) Sharapova, (5) Kuznetsova vs. Diaz-Oliva, (7) Serena vs. Mirza, Groenefeld vs. Douchevina, (15) Farina Elia vs. the Brit sensation Baltacha, Linetskaya vs. (21) Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier, and (22) Maleeva vs. (11) Petrova.

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Guillermo Coria, David Nalbandian, Juan Ignacio Chela and Guillermo Canas all advanced Thursday for the Argentine Army, only Mariano Zabaleta lost, falling to the not-injured Juan Carlos Ferrero...Nice comeback for Rafael Nadal, who saved a fourth-set match point to win over Mikhail Youzhny. Remember Youhzny melted down to Andy Roddick after leading 2-0 in sets back in 2003...Radek Stepanek joined Thomas Johansson and Jean-Rene Lisnard as players needing five sets to win both first and second round matches...American Bobby Reynolds "Wrap" had never won a tour match until this week, and now finds himself in the third round of a Slam...How close was Lleyton Hewitt from going out Thursday? James Blake was rolling the tight-looking Aussie until Hewitt overcame a couple second-set breaks and a set point...Nicolas Massu retired with a left ankle injury to Philip Kohlschrieber...Think Taylor Dent will put in a better effort against Andre Agassi than he did in the exact
same spot a year ago against Andy Roddick?...Including qualifying, Ana Ivanovic has won 10 straight matches on tour...Lisa Raymond has lost just two games in two matches...Try walking through the Heineken Beer Garden after the day session is complete. Without knowing where you really were, you would think the last place you would be is at a tennis event. Lots of drunkards and empty beer cups litter the ground with a strong smell of alcohol in the air, a unique slam feature...What is Chris Fowler doing in the ESPN commentary booth this week? Did he get lost? The man has skills at the desk but yikes, get him the hell out of doing commentary, that is like a magnifying glass for his surface knowledge of the game...American Bobby Reynolds "Wrap" played his college ball at Vanderbilt under head coach Ken Flach...James Blake was happy with his effort against Lleyton Hewitt Thursday, and happy to be back playing tennis after injury and the death of his father in 2004: "Every match right now feels a little different for me. It kind of feels new, like I'm starting over again. It's a good feeling. It's fun to be out there. I had a great time. Worst thing that happened to me all day is I lost a tennis match. So I can't sit around and mope and go cry in my dinner or anything. I'm going to try to have a good time and enjoy my time still here in Melbourne...As I told my mom and some others, the best thing that happened to me last year was breaking my neck. I got to find a positive. I got to spend the last six weeks of my father's life with him. I'll never regret that. I mean, I'm so lucky I got that time with him. You know, you can always find a positive. I was home for so long. I got to realize how much my friends cared about me when I'm obviously down a little bit, they're there to pick me up. They were there I'm sure they had better things to do than come over my house and cheer up a guy that's, you know, face looks mangled, probably isn't in the best mood. But they came over to hang out with me, play cards with me, watch some TV. Makes me appreciate the friends I've had since I grew up."...Austrian Barbara Schett on retiring at this year's Australian Open: "Well, the decision was made already kind of middle of last year. I thought if I'm not improving, if the passion is not coming back, then I definitely want to quit. I always thought that I should be ranked much higher than I was at the end now. Yeah, it was for me, it was a clear decision. Even if I would have played really well here, I would have stayed with that decision. I played Australia because it was my favorite tournament, favorite Grand Slam tournament especially. And, yeah, to escape a little bit from the winter in Austria. Yeah, I always loved it here. That's why I wanted to quit here."...What was up with those faux-jogging shorts Venus was wearing Thursday, is her new sponsor the K-Mart $5.99 bin?...Venus on the upcoming Fed Cup match for the U.S. and the love: "I heard, yeah, it's in Delray (Beach, Florida). I think I had a commitment before, but now I don't. I just found that out this morning. So I'm really excited. I love Zina (Garrison). She's a great person. I love Billie Jean King, too, though. It's kind of equal how much I love both of them. They're extremely motivating and it's nice also to work with someone a little bit different because I think a lot of time when you work with the same coach, you get a little bit numb, you don't listen as much. When I get to Fed Cup, it's like, 'You know, they're saying the same things, I think I need to listen now.' So it's nice to work with them, I love them both."...Roger Federer's current 23-match winning streak matches his best from last year...Bobby Reynolds "Wrap" shares a house with Robby Ginepri in Marietta, Ga...Boris Becker on Tim Henman bailing on Davis Cup: "In my opinion, Davis Cup is an incredible event. It is emotionally charged, exhaustingly beautiful and gives you goosebumps, but it is a taxing schedule if you want to succeed in tennis these days and there is an awful lot on players' shoulders. Roger Federer -- who would have played mixed doubles for Switzerland if the competition's rules allowed -- has decided to forfeit the first round this year; Carlos Moya, who won two singles to help Spain to lift the cup last month, is taking a year away and now Henman has lowered his personal Union Jack. I know how he will be feeling: like a load has been lifted from his shoulders, but wary of what the reaction is going to be if Britain continue to lose."