Mens, Womens Favorites Roll on Friday at the Australian Open

Posted on January 22, 2005

Federer, Safin, Agassi Advance to 4th Round at Australian Open

As if world No. 1 Roger Federer needed any assistance at this year's Australian Open, on Friday the Swiss was handed his career-best 24th consecutive win in the third round when Fin Jarkko Nieminen retired with an abdominal injury trailing 3-6, 2-5.

"I wasn't happy," said Federer, who was broken in his first service game. "That's clear. I was a little irritated after that, and just worried, you know, because I had the feeling this could be a tough match, and I knew that from the start. Then I ended up losing my first service game. That was bad...it's a left-hander. You know, totally different match to the match I played before. And sometimes that just takes a little bit of -- a couple of games to get used to it. You know, I had a bad start."

None of the winning seeds in action Friday on the men's side had it easy, with victors (4) Marat Safin (d. Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic in four, overcoming a twisted ankle), (8) Andre Agassi (d. (29) Taylor Dent 7-5, 7-6(3), 6-1), (11) Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson (d. (24) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez 13-11 in the fifth), (20) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty (d. (10) Gaudio, coming from 1-2 sets down), and former champ (30) Thomas Johansson (d. the American Kim, coming from 1-2 sets down).

"I'm a hard head," said The Dominator after hanging around for almost 4-1/2 hours in defeating Gaudio. "I'm not really a talented guy."

Kim led two sets to one over Johansson, who was spurred on a by a raucous group of face-painted Swedish supporters who did cheers and sang '80s songs in support of their man.

"I really enjoyed the atmosphere, even if they were mostly against me," Kim said. "I haven't heard that kind of cheering since playing in college."

Cyprus' Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis also produced an upset, ousting (13) Tommy Robredo in straight sets. Following Baghdatis' upset, Cyprus supporters in the stands lit flares producing an unnerving effect of smoke and flames amidst the spectators. Baghdatis has won 17 of his last 18 matches at the different tour levels of play.

In the only all-unseeded match of the day, Olivier "The Roach" Rochus of Belgium defeated Karol Beck after dropping the first set.
 
On tap for Saturday in Melbourne are (6) Coria vs. (31) Ferrero (Spaniard leads career series 2-0, both on clay), (32) Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer vs. (2) Roddick (American leads 2-0), (25) Chela vs. (3) Hewitt (tied 1-1, with Chela winning on hardcourt last year at Indian Wells), (7) Henman vs. (26) Davydenko, Stepanek vs. (12) Canas, (23) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez vs. (9) Nalbandian (Argentine leads 4-1, with all four of Nalbandian's wins going three sets), Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal vs. Bobby Reynolds "Wrap," and Lisnard vs. Kohlschreiber.

Sharapova, Serena Bully Forward at Australian Open

Wimbledon holder Maria Sharapova and former No. 1 Serena Williams rolled over opponents into the fourth round Friday at the Australian Open, moving closer to a potential semifinal meeting.

The No. 4-seeded Sharapova dropped only two games (bagel in the first) against China's Na Li, while Serena ended the run of Indian Sania Mirza 6-1, 6-4.

Mirza was first Indian woman to reach the third round of a grand slam, and was up a break in the second until Serena stormed back for the win in under an hour.

"I'm happy with my serve today. Finally, after forever it seems, able to feel my serve," Serena said. "I told her to keep up the good work because it was good to see someone from India for the first time do so well. I was excited to see someone particularly do so well from that country, and I told her to keep fighting."

No. 2 seed Amelie Mauresmo defeated hot-handed Serb teen Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 7-5. Ivanovic won her first WTA title at Canberra coming into Melbourne.

"I think I played a solid match, pretty consistent," said Mauresmo, who won 14 of her 15 net approaches. "I went a little bit more to the net, which I should do even more. No, you know, I think she probably, at the beginning, she was a little bit tense also so she probably didn't find her rhythm, or she found it after only one set."

Other seeded winners were (5) Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Diaz-Oliva, weathering 48 unforced errors), (11) Nadia Petrova (d. (22) Maleeva), and (15) Silvia Farina Elia (d. the Brit Baltacha, baking a breadstick and a bagel).

"The games were tight," said Baltacha of her 1-and-0 drubbing. "But, you know, she's been in the top, what, 20 for the last six years. She was awesome today. She's unbelievably quick. I didn't realize how quick she was and how patient she was, how comfortable she was with what I was delivering...I've had a great experience on show court 2 today. I got my arse kicked one and love. That's the only way I'm going to learn and I'm going to improve. I know I've got a lot of weaknesses. It's going to be really exciting going home and working hard on these kind of areas."

Two unseeded Russians also advanced into the fourth round, with Evgenia Linetskaya ousting (21) Amy "Down Goes" Frazier, and Vera Douchevina besting German Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

In doubles, American Lisa Raymond retired after the first game of her match with partner Renaae Stubbs against Marion Bartoli/Anna-Lena Groenefeld due to muscle strains in her back, putting her singles match against Anastasia Myskina in doubt.

On Saturday's schedule in Melbourne are (10) Molik vs. Russian Tatiana "The Pocket Baseliner" Panova, (1) Davenport vs. the next-in-line teen sensation Vaidisova, (27) Smashnova vs. (8) Venus, (26) Hantuchova vs. (6) Dementieva, (3) Myskina vs. the ailing (25) Raymond, (18) Likhovtseva vs. (13) Karolina The Spreminator" Sprem, (19) Dechy vs. (14) Schiavone, and (12) Schnyder vs. Spears.
 
X-CORRECTIONS
The top-ranked women's doubles team of Meghann Shaughnessy/Nadia Petrova withdrew due to an injury to Shaughnessy...The team of Daniela Hantuchova/Martina Navratilova beat Maria Fernanda Alvez and Vanessa Henke on Thursday...Marat Safin played the Hopman cup exhibition before the Australian Open.
  
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Once Jarkko Nieminen retired with a bad back Friday, Roger Federer raised his personal-record win streak to 24, and his Slam streak to 16...What's with all the Russians in the bottom half of the draw? Five of eight remaining players are Russian on that side...Amy "Down Goes" Frazier was playing in her 17th Australian Open. Nicole Vaidisova, who plays Lindsay Davenport, wasn't even born when Frazier played her first in 1988...All three of Thomas Johansson's wins this week have come in five sets. Remind anyone of Albert Costa?...Serena Williams has won 10 straight matches in Melbourne...Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty has never missed a Grand Slam event, playing in a current tour-best 33 straight...Lisa Raymond has lost just two games in two matches ahead of her tussle with Anastasia Myskina, although the American did tweak her back, forcing her to pull out of doubles...Too bad Juan Carlos Ferrero is not right in the head, otherwise his showdown against Guillermo Coria would be a classic. Could be regardless...In a rematch of their 2003 French Open junior final, Vera Douchevina got revenge on Anna-Leon Groenefeld to advance to her first Slam 4th RD...Speaking of juniors, how good is Marcos "Bombs Over" Bagdhatis, who now gets to play a man he took a set off of at the US Open, Roger Federer...Alicia Molik has won seven straight matches...Upset pick: Nikolay Davydenko beats Tim Henman? Timbledon looking far from sharp...How long will Lisa Raymond and Anastasia Myskina have to wait to play their match. They have the dubious distinction of following what could be two lengthy baseline extravaganzas between Radek Stepanek-Guillermo Canas and Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez-David Nalbandian...According to the Herald Tribune: "This year's (Australian Open women's) champion will receive the equivalent of $900,000, 75 percent more than Jennifer Capriati got for her 2002 championship in Melbourne. Since then, the prize at Australia's biggest sporting event has increased by 20 percent and the local currency has risen 46 percent against the U.S. dollar."...At 19 years old, Elena Baltacha is the first teenage British No. 1 since Christine Trueman in the '60s...Serena Williams on her Friday fashion statement: "It is one of the outfits that I designed. It's a part of the Serena Collection. It's called -- it's about the agents of change because it's all about -- Nike wanted to do something with me since I was able -- you know, they see me as an agent of change. You know, in my sport, I kind of changed the sport. This actually comes off, this dress part, and it's a short. So this is actually a short. I can play in a short if I wanted to. The top is a top and then it's the bottom. Then this jacket, it's cool. I think it's sold out so far in Melbourne. We're working on getting some more here. But this is actually a part of a jacket that I wear. I was inspired to design it because I wanted it to look like kind of like a motorcycle neck. The zipper isn't a center-front zipper, it's actually a bit -- two or three inches on the side. It has a button here. But it comes off and then you can have this little piece here or you can wear it as a vest. I don't have the main part of the jacket on. I just have the vest part because it's so hot here that I can't wear the whole jacket, but I still want to have something to cover up my arms so I can stay warm. So this is perfect. I just wear this little sleeve part, but it kind of buttons up and it zips on the side to connect to the vest area. It's really cool. It's really like interchangeable; you can wear it so many different ways. Like you can wear this one outfit three different ways and no one would ever tell it's one outfit."...Boo-birds to Adelphia cable, gouging subscribers for $120 extra a year for The Tennis Channel...Tennis Australia is paying large groups of fans to wear the same shirts and cheer for Aussie players? That's weak...Congrats to SI.com (Sports Illustrated) for bagging tennis as one of their main sports web pages this week, nice timing too, during a grand slam...Marat Safin on junior tennis in Russia suffering on the boys' side: "They are. But it doesn't make any wake-up call to the guys, you know, to the juniors. Doesn't get there. They don't get it. We don't have any -- it's just sad to see that way, you know, the girls are little bit -- which is I am happy for them, they are doing so well. But also it should be a wake-up call for the guys, for the upcoming guys, to see what's going on. They have to at least try to give themselves a chance, but they don't do it. They choose the easier way, you know, like easy life for some reason, I don't know why."