Davenport in the Desert, Dokic on the DonutsPosted on March 8, 2005 Indian Wells Preview: Davenport, Mauresmo, Sharapova Head FieldWorld No. 1 Lindsay Davenport attempts a third career title this week at the WTA stop in Indian Wells, following up on wins in 1997 and 2000, and will benefit from the absence of defending champion and former No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne who continues to rehabilitate a knee injury. Henin-Hardenne defeated Davenport 6-1, 6-4 in the 2004 final. Davenport is joined among the Top 8 seeds by Amelie Mauresmo, a slew of Russians in Maria "Grunt-o-meter" Sharapova, Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Elena Bovina, and Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy. Thirty-two players are seeded at Indian Wells, with all receiving first-round byes. Potential second-round match-ups of interest are (1) Davenport vs. outspoken Bulgarian wildcard teen Sesil "The Mouth" Karatantcheva of Bulgaria, (11) Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem vs. Czech comer Nicole Vaidisova, (31) Lisa Raymond vs. Greece's Eleni Daniilidou, and (16) Shinobu Asagoe vs. the winner of former No. 1 Kim Clijsters and Aussie Nicole Pratt. Potential fourth-round meetings of interest are (3) Sharapova vs. (13) Daniela Hantuchova, (4) Dementieva vs. (14) Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin, and (2) Mauresmo vs. the unseeded Clijsters. If the seeding hold, you could witness some blockbuster semifinals in (1) Davenport vs. (3) Sharapova, and (2) Mauresmo vs. whoever comes out of the (4) Dementieva vs. (5) Kuznetsova quarterfinal. Main draw wildcards went to Karatantcheva, Czech Daja Bedanova, the Ukraine's Viktoria Kutuzova, Russian Alisa Kleybanova, and Americans Alexa Glatch, Jessica "Captain" Kirkland, Angela Haynes, and Jamea "Action" Jackson. Returning champs on the women's side are Clijsters (2003), Hantuchova (2002) and Davenport (2000,'97). The men's draw will be made at 4 p.m. EST today, with women's main draw play beginning Wednesday and the men beginning on Friday. From ATP: All-Star Rally for Relief Set for Friday Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and Indian Wells, California, U.S.A. -- An A-list cast of ATP players are set to unite for the ATP All-Star Rally for Relief, a special charity exhibition that will take place on Friday, March 11 during the Pacific Life Open to benefit UNICEF and other worldwide tsunami relief efforts. Defending Pacific Life Open champion Roger Federer has been working with the ATP Foundation to organize the first-of-its-kind event. Joining Federer at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden will be 2005 Australian Open champion Marat Safin, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Carlos Moya, Tim Henman, Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio and David Nalbandian. The Tennis Channel will produce and air a highlight show that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the charity event. The program will be similar to the network's production of the "Serving for Tsunami Relief" exhibition from Houston in January. A portion of proceeds from ticket sales will go to charity. For tickets, call 1-800-999-1585 (in U.S.) or log onto www.PacificLifeOpen.com. The event will begin at 6:00 p.m., March 11 prior to a Pacific Life Open tournament match. The ATP reacted quickly to the tsunami disaster in Southern Asia with a number of fundraising efforts, working closely with UNICEF over the past two months to direct funds to the most needy areas. "The relief effort to rebuild communities and lives devastated by the tsunami will be an ongoing process for many years," Roddick said. "That's why it's important to continue to support fundraising activities like the charity event at the Pacific Life Open. Tennis has made a significant contribution to the tsunami relief effort and will continue to do so in the future. I'm pleased I can play a small part in that." DAILY TENNIS-X E-NEWSLETTER Read what tennis industry insiders read to get the latest news, insight and opinion on pro tennis. Get the Tennis-X Daily Dish in your e-mail in-box, even before it's posted on the web, by signing up for the net's most complete daily e-newsletter at http://www.tennis-x.com/subscribe.php TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS Ivan Ljubicic leads all ATP players with 23 wins this year, with Roger Federer second with 20 "W"s...The ATP announced that Alison Lee has returned to the ATP as Director, Marketing/Promotions, International Group...After pushing the Netherlands in their Davis Cup loss, Swiss captain Marc Rosset made a public plea for Roger Federer to return and bail the team out of the World Group Qualifying round in September: "I hope Roger heard the call from his friends, who have the potential to go really far with the world No. 1 by their side."...Credit Slovak captain Miloslav Mecir with the upset over Davis Cup defending champs Spain, choosing the slick (if not uneven) home carpet surface and substituting No. 150+ ranked doubles specialist Michal Mertinak in for the clinching Saturday match rather than Slovak No. 1 Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty...This past weekend was the first time in the 105-year history of the Davis Cup that the U.S. lost an opening-round home tie. If you're going to go out, they say, at least set some kind of record doing it...Andy Roddick is 1-3 in his last four Davis Cup matches...If you recently married a drop-dead gorgeous hottie, perhaps you'd be playing the tennis of your life, not unlike a certain tall bald Croatian...Up for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award are six-time Tour de France cycling champion Lance Armstrong, 2004 three-slam champ Roger Federer, American swimmer Michael Phelps, Moroccan athlete Hicham El Guerrouj, MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi of Italy, and Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher. In the running on the women's side are athlete Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia, Briton Kelly Holmes and Carolina Kluft of Sweden, Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam, and Dutch cyclist Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel...Jelena Dokic, apparently on the couch eating donuts the last couple months, showing up a little pudgy and speaking to TR.net's Matt Cronin at Indian Wells where she is playing the qualifying: "I'm not a negative person, but I've really fallen back. Hopefully I can get a good break somewhere. Confidence has a lot to with it. I'm that kind of player. Physically I have gone back to zero. Mentally I feel better. But it takes so much to come back to a good level. I've had to suffer. When you don't play, it's difficult to do it again. But for me to say I'm going to do it is a big step." Doesn't exactly sound like the burn-out phase has ended, eh? Pass the donuts. The former world No. 4 is being coached by Borna Bikic rather than her crazy-insane father Damir, and is still dating Bikic's brother. Dokic barely won her qualifying opener, beating American Lilia Osterloh in three sets...Andy Roddick sucked it up after his Davis Cup defeat and appeared Monday on Jay Leno, joking about his serve making up for other deficiencies and cracking wise with Robin Williams. |
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