Nadal Loses Grass Debut, Ivanisevic Bankrupt

Posted on June 9, 2005

Roddick Pounds Philippoussis to Advance at ATP Queens

No. 2 seed Andy Roddick looked back at home on the lawns of the Queen's Club Wednesday, with the two-time defending Stella Artois champion dismissing former Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the third round.

"Mark's a very accomplished grasscourt player and I wasn't super comfortable with the draw but I felt I played as well as I could," Roddick said of defeating the wildcarded No. 189-ranked Flipper. "I felt like I lifted my percentages a lot in the second set and was putting a lot of first serves in. That put the onus on him to try and figure something out."

Roddick broke Philippoussis twice in a row in the first set, and in the second did not drop a single point on serve in a display that left the Australian scratching his head over the American's Babolat-powered delivery.

"It's the first time I've played Andy so it was just tough getting used to his serve," said Philippoussis, who looked rusty coming off a rib and back injury. "He's got a very quick service action -- throws it up, just lunges right into it. So getting used to that, it was tough."

Another Andy took center stage Wednesday to the delight of British fans when wildcard Andrew Murray upset No. 9-seeded American Taylor Dent 6-3, 6-3.

"I don't understand why people would get nervous playing in front of your home crowd," said the Scot Murray of the Brit support. "I play tennis to play in front of crowds like that, and anybody who doesn't, shouldn't really be playing. If you want to be one of the best, you're going to have to play in some big arenas."

Other seeded players into the third round were (5) Mario Ancic (d. Hernych), (6) Thomas Johansson (d. Muller from a set down), (10) Richard Gasquet (d. (WC) Delgado), (14) Greg Rusedski (d. Tursunov in three), (15) Max Mirnyi (d. Sanguinetti), and (16) Karol Beck (d. Mathieu 7-6 in the third).

Also with the upsets were Croat Ivo Karlovic (d. (8) Gonzalez) and Aussie qualifier Chris Guccione (d. (13) Andreev).

Czech Tomas Zib (d. K.Kim from a set down) and American wildcard James Blake (d. Hanescu) advanced in the two lone all-unseeded meetings.

On tap for Thursday are (2) Roddick vs. (16) Beck, (WC) Murray vs. (6) T.Johansson, (3) Henman vs. (Q) Chris "Penthouse" Guccione, (1) Hewitt vs. (15) Max "The Beast" Mirnyi in a meeting of former slam-winning doubles partners, (5) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. (10) Gasquet, (14) "Grinning" Greg Rusedski vs. (4) Stepanek, (7) Grosjean vs. (WC) Blake, and Zib vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic.

Nadal Loses in Grass Debut at ATP Halle

The good news? At least his 24-match winning streak on clay is still intact.

French Open champ Rafael Nadal was sent packing in his opening-round match on grass Wednesday at the ATP stop in Halle, ousted by homecountry German qualifier Alexander Waske 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Arriving from Paris only 24-hours before his match after besting Mariano Puerta in the Roland Garros final, Nadal looked out of sorts on the skidding lawns.

"I never found my rhythm due to his net attacks," Nadal said. "I felt very tired after the French Open and it was hard to keep up the concentration...I also had thigh problems."

No. 2 seed Marat Safin was spared a loss at the hands of French nemesis Fabrice Santoro, who was forced to retire at 2-3 in the third set with a muscle pull in his left thigh.

"The way I played today was pretty good, pretty clever," Safin said of his survival technique, entering the match with only one win in eight meetings versus Santoro. "I cannot become a serve-and-volley player because of my style to play tennis. So basically I have to be aggressive from the baseline, try to come in as much as I can and just keep on putting pressure."

Safin wasted 10 of 11 break points in the contest, while Santoro failed to convert a match point in the second set.

Other players into the quarterfinals Wednesday were Germans (7) Tommy Haas (d. Melzer in three) and Philipp Kohlschreiber (d. (Q) Wang 7-6 in the third), and Belgian Olivier Rochus (d. (8) F.Lopez).

On tap for Thursday in Halle is (4) Canas vs. (Q) Zimonjic, (1) Federer vs. Mayer, (WC) Waske vs. (WC) Ferrero, and Schuettler vs. (Q) D.Norman.

Molik Loss Clears Way for Sharapova at WTA Birmingham

If there was ever a tournament set-up to showcase success for the WTA's "global icon" Maria Sharapova, it is the DFS Classic this week in Birmingham, England.

Russia's next-generation pin-up girl and product-shiller barely trails world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, and won't catch her during the grasscourt season with titles to defend this week in Birmingham and at Wimbledon. But the top spot should come with little resistance this summer, with Davenport playing a light schedule and likely retiring at the end of the 2005 season, not overly-concerned about retaining the top spot.

This week in Birmingham Sharapova shares the spotlight with only one fellow Top 10er, Alicia Molik, who was eliminated Wednesday in her opening-round match by unheralded American Laura Granville 6-4, 6-2, Molik's first match in two months after an inner ear infection.

Five other low-rent seeds joined the No. 2-seeded Molik on the sidelines Wednesday in (7) Daniela Hantuchova (l. to Parra Santonja 7-6 in the third), (9) Marion Bartoli (l. to Tanasugarn, bagel in the second), (10) Nicole Vaidisova (l. to Daniilidou), (11) Virginie Razzano (l. to Washington 6-1 in the third), and (15) Maria Kirilenko (l. to (Q) Jackson).

Seeded winners dodging the upset bug were (5) Tatiana Golovin (d. (Q) Grandin), (6) Shinobu Asagoe (d. (Q) Tu 6-1 in the third), (8) Ai Sugiyama (d. (WC) Pratt), and (16) Sam Stosur (d. Aussie countrywoman (Q) Dominikovic 7-6 in the third).

"I saw her play yesterday and I thought she was really good so I am just happy to get through," the defending runner-up Golovin said of her qualifier opponent. "It's my first day on grass and it's always a bit different. You have to change your state of mind. Hopefully, my game will rise as the tournament goes on. This is great preparation for Wimbledon and I want to get in as many matches as possible."

Other un-seeds advancing were qualifiers Rika Fujiwara of Japan (d. Vento-Kabchi) and Venezuela's Milagros Sequera (d. (WC) Baltacha), and France's Stephanie Foretz (d. Morigami).

Scheduled for Thursday on the lawns are Tanasugarn vs. Foretz, (1) Sharapova vs. (16) Stosur, Daniilidou vs. (8) Sugiyama, (5) Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin vs. (Q) Fujiwara, (Q) Jamea "Action" Jackson vs. Granville, Parra Santonja vs. Mashona "Little Sis" Washington, (Q) Sequera vs. (3) Jankovic, and Chakvetadze vs. (6) Asagoe.

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Andy Roddick has been beaten only twice over the last two years on grass, both times by Roger Federer...Mark Philippoussis, before getting pounded by Andy Roddick at Queen's, on being back on the grass: "I love the start of the grass. I get excited, you know, around this time of the year and pumped. All that time back in Florida I was actually hitting on Fisher Island every day on grass. They have two grasscourts there on Fisher Island in Miami. So I've been hitting on grass for the last, you know, month...with my dad and Andrew Florent. I've brought him over to -- you know, as a friend, also a hitting partner, just to help me out there."...Lleyton Hewitt on missing the dirt season with injury: "The first injury I couldn't do anything for...well, I couldn't get on the tennis court for about three weeks. I was on crutches for two weeks. And then the rib injury, I couldn't get on the tennis court for two weeks. So, yeah, obviously, then I couldn't hit a lot of balls in that time. But in the middle there I was actually training and training pretty hard on claycourts in Sydney. So that was a little bit frustrating, that I put so much time into practice and actually put my claycourt shoes away for another nine months or so now."...German Alexander Waske beats Rafael Nadal at Halle, and now faces another French Open champ, Juan Carlos Ferrero -- too bad the ATP did away with bonus points for beating highly-ranked players, Waske would be rolling in it, probably thinking 'Bring on the Spaniards with full-western grips.'...Justine Henin-Hardenne's coach Carlos Rodriguez on what the diminutive Belgian needs to do to lift the Wimbledon trophy, speaking to ESPN: "Justine needs to serve and volley more on grass. She has to go to the net more. Everybody knows it. She knows it, too. But you can't repeat it to her every day. She has the qualities to win the tournament, but hasn't put the game in place to do it yet. Players like Serena (Williams), (Maria) Sharapova, Venus (Williams) and (Lindsay) Davenport are bigger and naturally stronger than Justine is. But she has let those players take the game to her. Now she has to take the game to them...She also can't be thinking that it's the only Grand Slam she hasn't won, because if she does, after the first or second round, she'll be out. The pressure is already there. She can't put more on herself."...David Ferrer, Mariano Puerta and Mardy Fish have withdrawn from the ATP Nottingham event with injury, allowing main draw spots for Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri, Santiago Ventura and Gael "Force" Monfils...Maria Sharapova is the cover story for the upcoming June 20 issue of ESPN The Magazine...From SI.com's Jon Wertheim: "Quick story: last Thursday, the ATP communications staff shrewdly arranged a pre-match photo-op with (Rafael) Nadal and (Roger) Federer. In the middle of the day, they posed side-by-side on a gangplank at Roland Garros. The result looked like a boxing poster, and the whole thing was very cool. A lot of players in Federer's shoes never would have consented to this -- (Pete) Sampras and (Andre) Agassi come immediately to mind. 'I've won four Majors and you want me to pose with this upstart teenager like he's my equal?' Yet there Federer was, smiling and even placing his arm around Nadal. "See you tomorrow," he said cheerfully. Part of me admired Federer for being such a sport and "taking one for the team." Another part of me felt like telling him, "Dude, you're the king. Start acting like it!"" And then Wertheim fell off the shelf: "Here's an observation: Since there are no Majors played indoors or on carpet, you really tend to look at it as a less relevant surface. If you're a superstar indoors it means...what, exactly? You'll be gangbusters in Moscow or Madrid?" -- You should have prefaced that 'Here's an observation by someone who only covers the slams...' since Madrid (which is actually indoor hard) and Paris (carpet) are two Masters Series events, which make them about as relevant as you can get rankings-wise, especially since they are in October and annually determine who qualifies for the last spots at the year-end Masters Cup...Goran Ivanisevic says you will see a lot of him on the senior tour from now on trying to cash in as he is broke, facing bankruptcy after blowing his money in bad investments in Croatia: "Every thing in which I invested money in Croatia went wrong," Ivanisevic told the Globus weekly, adding that it was partly due to the corruption in the construction businesses in which he invested. "I don't belong to any (political) party, I'm not in any lobby or pressure group. I have not bribed anyone, and in construction business in Croatia, you cannot even build a house for a dog if don't give bribes." Ivanisevic will reportedly also have to sell the house he is currently building...From the ATP: "Tim Henman's 'Kids at Heart' Charity Wristband: Give ?1 and get a wristband. This is the message of a new promotion at French Connection this summer to support Tim Henman's Charitable Foundation's 'Kids at Heart' project. Henman, the world No. 8 in the INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking, said "I launched my charity foundation to try and help kids that are a lot less fortunate than I was when I was growing up. All the profits from the sales of these wristbands will go to Kids at Heart, so it would be great to see as many fans as possible wearing them throughout the summer." A green limited edition wristband which is complete with the "Give and Get" logo will be for sale in French Connection stores nationwide from the week commencing 13th June, just in time for Wimbledon. French Connection has successfully worked in the past with Tim Henman and Kids at Heart and are delighted to support its latest project."