Roddick, Davenport, Myskina, Venus Advance; Hewitt Wins Spitting Contest Saturday at Australian Open

The tension came to a head in the fourth set when Chela, who had enough of Hewitt's "C'mon!"s and "vicht" hand gestures, stared down the Aussie after a few points then appeared to go headhunting during the next rally.

Hewitt screamed out another "C'mon!" while walking to the chair after breaking to go up 3-2, then appeared to say something to Chela before the Argentine spat at Hewitt.

"He spat in my direction," Hewitt said during his post-match conference. "He apologized at the net after the match, and I accepted his apology. I don't think it's the right thing, no. But it's unfortunate because we're having a good dogfight match out there. We're both competitive blokes out there. We were going for it."

Chela denied spitting at Hewitt.

"I was spitting but not in Lleyton's direction," Chela said after the match. "Lleyton thought it was at him and I apologized for that at the end of the match. But I was not spitting at Lleyton."

Chela did admit Hewitt's screaming and gesturing were getting to him during the match.

"There was one mistake I made and Lleyton made his sign and I was a bit upset about that because the match was very tense," Chela said.

In other seeded play, (6) Guillermo "El Fragile" Coria crushed the confidence-challenged (31) Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, (26) Nikolay Davydenko upset the fire-less (7) Tim Henman 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, (9) David Nalbandian weathered the forehand storm of (23) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2, 6-3, and sleeper-pick (12) Guillermo Canas rolled unseeded Czech Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

"I think I heard (fellow Brit Elena) Baltacha say she got her ass kicked yesterday, and unfortunately I fall into the same bracket," Henman said. "If you make unforced errors, you're obviously going to lose the point. But, you know, there were times when I was coming in on some, you know, really good balls, I was serving some serves in the right place, and he came up with the, you know, came up with the answers."

Un-seeds advancing Saturday were Spain's Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. American Bobby Reynolds "Wrap" 6-1, 6-1, 6-3), and the German surprise Kohlschreiber (d. Lisnard 7-5, 6-3, 6-2).

Nadal, at 18 the youngest remaining player on the men's side, achieved a career-best result in a slam Saturday by reaching the round of 16. Nadal likes his chances in the next round against Hewitt if he can catch the Aussie off his game.

"Last year I lost against him here, and I play in Australia and in Toronto," Nadal said. "Here I lost 7-6, 7-6, 6-3. And in Toronto I lost 6-1 for me, 6-4 for him, and 6-3 for him, no? It's very, very difficult match, hard. But I am playing good. I am in the fourth round. Is my best result in one Grand Slam. I have confidence with this match, no? I want play very good match. If I play very good match and Hewitt not his best match, I think I have one chance."

In men's doubles the No. 2-seeded Bryan brothers crushed Roko Karanusic/Uros Vico 6-0, 6-2, while the draw lost three more seeds Saturday in Aussies (8) Wayne Arthurs/Paul Hanley (l. to Berdych/Pavel), (9) Cyril Suk/Pavel Vizner (l. to Fisher/Parrott), and waffles (12) Xavier "X-Man" Malisse/Olivier "The Roach" Rochus (l. to Moodie/Zimonjic).

On Sunday's schedule in Melbourne are (1) Federer vs. Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis (Fed leads meetings 1-0), (11) Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. (8) Agassi (first meeting), Israel's (13) Erlich/Ram vs. (2) Bryan brothers, (4) Safin vs. Olivier "The Roach" Rochus (Safin leads 3-1), (3) Bhupathi/Woodbridge vs. unseeded Spaniards Al Costa/The Prodigy, and (20) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty vs. (30) Thomas "Tommy the J." Johansson (Dominator leads 5-2, including the last five meetings).
 

Davenport, Myskina, Venus Move On at Australian Open

The favorites pressed on Saturday on the women's side at the Australian Open, while a handful of former greats and young challengers continued to announce their intent.

Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport led the charge, fighting off a potentially difficult challenge in her first meeting with next-in-line teen Nicole Vaidisova 6-2, 6-4.

"I was expecting a tough match in the third round, knew she had done well to get there," Davenport said. "From what I was told, she was a hard-hitter, had a pretty good hard serve. You know, that's what I was expecting and that's what she did. I mean, I think she hits some great shots. She made some errors that probably some inexperience played a role in that. But she's so young and obviously has a big game and has many, many years to improve on that."

No. 3 seed Anastasia Myskina benefited from a walkover against Lisa Raymond, who sustained an abdominal injury in a previous doubles match, and who will likely be out until March.

No. 8 seed Venus Williams continued to defy critics of her resurgent rise to the top ranks again, rolling No. 27 seed Anna Smashnova 6-3, 6-0.

"I wouldn't say it was just a slow start," Venus said. "But she just played a different-pace game, so I pressed a little too much and was hitting the balls a bit long. I needed to add some spin because, you know, she's the kind of player where you don't want to get caught up playing her game. That's when things can really get kind of strange." 

Other seeded winners into the round of 16 were (6) Elena Dementieva (d. Hantuchova in three), (10) Alicia Molik (d. Panova), (12) Patty "Handshake" Schnyder (d. Spears), (13) Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem (d. (18) Likhovtseva), and in the only upset on the day, and a mild one at that, (19) Nathalie Dechy defeating (14) Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-3.

"I feel a little bit tired," said Dementieva, who was a slam runner-up twice in 2004, after edging Hantuchova in three. "It was a tough match. You know, three sets. I feel like I didn't play my good game. But I think it's pretty much impossible to play your best tennis during two weeks. So sometimes, you know, it can be, you know, bad day that you have to go through this. I think even that I was playing, you know, very bad today, was very defensive, you know, I still could do it. I'm just happy to be in the next round."

The result for the Aussie Molik matches her career-best result at a slam.

On tap for Sunday are (5) Kuznetsova vs. Douchevina in an all-Russian (Kuznetsova leads meetings 2-0, dropping a total of five games), (7) Serena vs. (11) Petrova (Serena leads 4-1 with the lone loss last year on clay at Amelia Island), (15) Farina Elia vs. (4) Sharapova (Italian won their only meeting last year on clay at Rome), Linetskaya vs. (2) Mauresmo (first meeting), in doubles Hantuchova/Navratilova vs. (14) Asagoe/Katarina "Robotnik" Srebotnik, and China's (10) Li/Sun vs. Russians (7) Myskina/Vera "The Crying Game" Zvonareva.
 
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
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