Sharapova Taking No Prisoners at Wimbledon
Posted on June 24, 2005
Henman Wilts While Murray Blooms at WimbledonThe Wimbledon website breathlessly said it had "not seen anything like it since 2002 when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi both went out on the same day to relative unknowns." But to those who have followed tennis beyond the French Open and this year's grasscourt season, the upsets Thursday of No. 6 seed Tim Henman and No. 4 Rafael Nadal were nothing to reach for the asthma inhaler over.
While Nadal was stunning in muscling his way to the Roland Garros title, he was the first to tell you that this year's Wimbledon would not be his grasscourt coming-out party. After an exhaustive claycourt run and grasscourt preparation that amounted to one match, a first-round loss at Halle, Nadal himself was not shocked at being ousted 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 Thursday by unseeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, a former Wimbledon junior finalist.
"He played better than me," Nadal said. "I am playing good on grass. But any player, when he serves good all match, it's difficult. And Muller served at a very good level all the time. It's not easy."
For the time being Nadal will struggle to find players who get less juice on their first serve than he does, with his delivery in need of vast improvement before he can get deep into the second week at the All-England Club.
While the skillful Spaniard evokes images of past baseliners who've conquered the lawns such as Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt, Muller came off the court thinking Nadal has his work cut out for him.
"But still I think maybe Nadal is never going to win Wimbledon," Muller said. "He is not playing serve-and-volley, so I think it's tough for him to win Wimbledon."
Henman was living on borrowed time after coming back from 0-2 sets in his first-round match, and Brit fans were hoping rather than expecting a run from their man who has now failed to reach a semifinal in 11 tournaments played in 2005.
"I've certainly won my fair share of matches like that in that environment, and I got myself back into it," said Henman after losing 8-6 in the fifth to unheralded Russian Dmitry Tursunov, saying he couldn't have played much better. "To not be able to finish that off and not come out of that with a win is disappointing."
The 30-year-old Henman would not bear any talk of retirement, noting a sore shoulder he has not been able to shrug off.
"I don't think age played a part, but I would love to be able to serve 135 miles an hour into the corners and I probably can't do that now," Henman said.
For Tursunov it was a welcome return after a rash of injuries and a boating accident that sidelined him for a few months.
"Grass is a weird surface for me because I wouldn't say that I'm in love with it," Tursunov said. "I still prefer hardcourts, but it seems like I do really well on grass. You know, this tournament has been treating me well so far (smiling)."
But while the British bloom fell off Henman, another son of the empire shocked a seeded player to advance into the third round, with Andy Murray straight-setting No. 14 Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
"I knew that Tim had lost when I went on court," Murray said afterwards. "I wanted to keep the Brits going because I knew we'd get a bit of a pasting in the papers if we'd both lost."
The Czech Stepanek employed his trademark gamesmanship in the third set, trying to set off the Brit-Scot by delaying Murray when he was serving, but the youngster knew of Stepanek's tactics going into the match and persevered.
"I was a bit annoyed at him in the end, trying to put me off," Murray said. "He knows I'm young and he tried to put me off. But it didn't work and he looked a bit stupid in the end."
The other lone upset on the day was orchestrated by Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, ousting No. 33 seed Olivier Rochus in straight sets.
Seeded winners through to the third round were (9) Sebastien Grosjean (d. Hanescu), (12) Thomas Johansson (d. Pavel in four), (15) Guillermo Coria (d. Malisse in five), (18) David Nalbandian (d. Kucera), (27) Richard Gasquet (d. Elseneer in four), and (28) Jiri Novak (d. Santoro in four).
Winners in all-unseeded match-ups were Austria's Jurgen Melzer (d. Calatrava), German Alexander Popp (d. Arthurs 14-12 in the fifth), Russian Igor Andreev (d. Sanguinetti in four), Serb Janko Tipsarevic (d. Lu in five), and Novak Djokovic (d. Garcia-Lopez in five).
No. 2 seed Andy Roddick's match with Daniele Bracciali was suspended due to darkness with the American leading two sets to one after failing to close the match out in the third-set tiebreak.
Roddick, apparently miffed at being forced to taste Bracciali for at least one more set on Friday, stormed off Centre Court in an agitated state without the tradition walk-off with his opponent.
Scheduled for Friday at the All-England Club are (3) Hewitt vs. Justin "Time" Gimelstob, (1) Federer vs. (25) Kiefer, (26) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. (5) Safin, (10) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. Gael "Force" Monfils, (11) Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. (21) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez, (23) Ferrero vs. Florian "Oscar" Mayer, (31) Youzhny vs. Bjorkman, (2) Roddick vs. Bracciali (to finish), and (24) Taylor "Acci-" Dent vs. Berdych.
Sharapova Brutally Into Third Round at Wimbledon
Perhaps the reports of Maria Sharapova's demise have been somewhat exaggerated.
While the "global icon" has seemingly put at least as much effort into her off-court money-making promotions as her on-court training, her game nor will to win have not suffered in the least, evidenced Thursday by her 6-0, 6-1 absolute-thrashing of talented 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva.
Sharapova suffered through an almost-eight minute opening service game before holding, then things got considerably easier as the Bulgarian teen crumbled under the Russian teen's strength of shot and mighty screeches.
"I knew it wasn't going to be an easy match," said Sharapova, perhaps confusing her match with another. "Mentally from the first point on, even though I was down 15-40 in the first game, I was still mentally really tough. I just played great tennis today...Returning and serving was a big key today. It's always a big key on grass, but I think I did that really well."
Karatantcheva, the sometimes-delightfully petulant youngster who knocked Venus Williams out of the French Open last month, seemed overwhelmed by the Court 1 surroundings, blowing two break points in the first game then hardly getting a look afterwards.
Contrasting the swift advance of Sharapova was last year's runner-up Serena Williams, with the No. 4 seed struggling through another round with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Italy's Mara Santangelo.
Looking chunky and lacking confidence after pulling from the French Open and grasscourt warm-up events with a bad ankle, the former Wimbledon champ's problems were evident in her lack of proper footwork and a dour expression after falling behind 0-4 in the opening set.
"I'm working on playing through the pain," said Serena, whose father told her not to play Wimbledon with her ankle injury. "Some days it feels good. In general, as long as I tape it, it's OK. But I have to have pretty heavy taping on it."
Other seeded winners Thursday were (8) Nadia Petrova (d. Beltrame), (12) Mary Pierce (d. Vakulenko 9-7 in the third), (14) Venus Williams (d. Pratt), (16) Nathalie Dechy (d. O'Donoghue, bagel in the second), (19) Ana Ivanovic (d. Foretz), (20) Daniela Hantuchova (d. Peer in three), and (26) Flavia Pennetta (d. Dulko).
"I just felt like I was probably rushing a little bit because she was retrieving a lot of balls, not really making too many errors," Venus said on her tight two-setter with the Aussie Pratt. "So I felt like I needed to take my time and try to move forward."
Orchestrating upsets on the lawns were Czech Kveta Peschke (d. (11) Zvonareva in three), American Jill Craybas (d. (29) Bartoli), and Zimbabwe's Cara Black (d. (32) Razzano).
Winners in all-unseeded match-ups were former champ Conchita Martinez (d. Brandi), Greek Eleni Daniilidou (d. Granville, bagel in the second), Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik (d. Cho), and the Ukraine's Alyona Bondarenko (d. Panova in three).
On court Friday at Wimbledon are (15) Clijsters vs. Vinci, (1) Davenport vs. (30) Safina, (27) Vaidisova vs. (5) Kuznetsova, (6) Dementieva vs. Washington, (3) Mauresmo vs. Perry, (9) Myskina vs. (17) Jankovic, (13) Likhovtseva vs. (22) Farina Elia, and Ant. Serra Zanetti vs. Maleeva.
X-CORRECT
Mark Philippoussis won three matches in a row in the Netherlands before Wimbledon.
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
How fitting, when Tim Henman lost, Andrew Murray just walked out on the court. Murray is playing in his first career Grand Slam match...Alexander Popp has now reached the third round in all four Wimbledon appearances...Serena Williams is undefeated in Grand Slam play this year...This is the first time in 10 years that Tim Henman will not appear in the second week of Wimbledon....Dmitry Tursunov is a perfect 5-0 in five-set matches in his career...Don't forget, Conchita Martinez won Wimbledon in 1994...Maria Sharapova has won 19 straight on the grass...Sesil Karatantcheva won exactly ZERO points on Maria's serve in the second set. Nice effort...Guillermo Coria is enjoying his best Wimbledon...Brit comer Andy Murray is dating 17-year-old Russian Tatjana Priachin who he met while training in Barcelona...Maria Sharapova's 24-carat-adorned sneakers come through the bar code at $500 a pair...The X-Discussion nuts on giving ESPN their props: "I'm in the minority here, but I'll take ESPN's announcers over the deadly dull, cliche-ridden (what a brave shot!) BBC boobs any day. Those guys are an immediate cure for insomnia. This is by far the best ESPN has done since returning to French Open and Wimbledon coverage two years ago. And they do use quality as a basis for showing matches occasionally. The Blake-Hernych match was the best match I've seen so far, and they would not have stayed with it as long as they did if it had been crappy." And on ESPN's Chris Fowler melting down: "Chris Fowler critics, here is something that might interest you: Beginning of the coverage today Fowler addresses BG as "Brave Brad!" (don't ask me why!) and Brad goes "How did I become brave," Chris F says "I don't know what I am talking here!" He mumbled the last part of that, but he said it! May be time for ESPN to put Fowler and his victims out of their misery!" Wow, the in-studio wackiness not getting cut any slack with U.S. fans...Rafael Nadal says his scheduled events between now and the US Open are Bastad (clay), Stuttgart (clay), Umag (clay), and hardcourt Masters Series events at Montreal and Cincinnati...Venus Williams on playing mixed doubles with Mark Knowles: "I love playing doubles and I love playing mixed. I just haven't been that healthy in the past, or Serena hasn't been healthy. I couldn't have played at Australia because I was a little shaky still. But finally I'm starting to feel decent. So now I'm like I'm thinking I can play. He's always asking me a little bit. I'm like, I don't know; I don't trust myself. I've got a little bit of this going on, a little bit of that. Finally this time I was like I think I can do it. I think we're going to of course more than have fun, but I'm expecting him to carry the team, as I haven't played doubles in ages. I'll be the singles player on the doubles court, but I still have very good reflexes."...Maria Sharapova on banging balls with no need to scout unfamiliar opponents: "With every single opponent I play, I just go out and I just play my game. There's nothing specific that I'm going to go out and worry about something, you know, about her game. Just have to go and you just have to perform and just do the best you can. Serve well, return well."...Tommy Haas looks to be out at least six weeks with a torn ankle ligament after stepping on a ball...If you're a TennisWorld fan you have to be cringing with the substitution of Stephen Tignor, managing editor of TENNIS Magazine (who earlier this year wrote off Rafael Nadal as a non-threat for No. 1), who confuses blogging with writing an agate. Tignor on who he finds boring: "First, there's Feliciano Lopez, a long-haired lefty from Spain who's yet to show a discernible personality. He faces off against TennisWorld favorite (at least for this week) Marat Safin next. That would be another tough trade-off. And, of course, there's the eternal tournament killer, Max Mirnyi, a hard-faced, 6-foot-5 Belarussian who can barely be called a tennis player -- he's more like a tall guy who runs toward the net. He's lurking in a soft section of the draw, and I have him picked for the quarters. Fortunately, another perennial problem, Wayne Arthurs, he of the unbreakable lefty serve, was knocked out today in five epic sets by Alexander Popp. On the women's side, one name sticks out as an issue, and I think you know who it is: the venerable Conchita Martinez. The 33-year-old won here in 1994 and has promised to retire in the past. She won today and is also hanging around a soft bracket."...Jim White writing for the Telegraph: "We have many things for which to be grateful to John McEnroe. Not only is he as utterly fearless in the commentary box as he was out on court, not only is he one of the few former sportsmen comfortable with words including as many syllables as 'consequently,' not only is he invariably right, but at the start of this Wimbledon fortnight he became the first pundit in my experience ever to quote from the lyrics of a British heavy metal band. Asked by Sue Barker if Andrew Murray's victory earlier on Tuesday would lift the pressure on Tim Henman as he prepared for his first-round match, McEnroe paused for a moment, gave one of those familiar pouts of disdain and said: "If you think that, Sue, let me remind you of something Judas Priest said in the '70s, 'You've got another think coming'.""...Jimmy Connors on the super racquets changing the game, no longer requiring players to step into the ball or hit from a closed stance: "Footwork is a thing of the past, the bigger racquets brought that in."...American Laura Granville, happy to hear that Justine Henin-Hardenne was beaten and that she would be facing Eleni Daniilidou (before receiving a bagel set from the Greek): "Obviously, Daniilidou is playing well, but maybe she'll have a letdown." Guess not. Bad luck for Granville, who also missed the French Open when her dad forgot to enter her...Through the first couple days of its U.S. Wimbledon broadcasts, ESPN is averaging an 18% viewership share increase -- must be doing something right...Was it ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez or Pam Shriver who said, on Brad Gilbert correctly calling the Maria Sharapova romp over Sesil Karatantcheva: "He's annoying even when he's wrong." Funny stuff, about time some of that tension became verbalized. You know the former women players hate the former male player Gilbert, time to let it fly...Are the rumors true that the slams/tours will kill doubles further by reducing scoring to no-ad abbreviated sets before the end of the year?