Canas Receives Two-Year Ban From ATP
Posted on August 9, 2005
Agassi Cruises, Henman Bruised at ATP MontrealTim Henman's malaise continued Monday at the Masters Series-Canada in Montreal where the No. 10-seeded Brit blew a set and a break lead in a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 opening-round loss to Dominik Hrbaty at the Rogers Cup.
"It's frustrating," said Henman, who is 0-2 since losing in the second round at Wimbledon. "I haven't played that much tennis and that many matches. I'd love to be winning and getting on a roll, but I'm not putting any extra pressure on myself."
Also sent home early was (16) Fernando Gonzalez, serve-and-volleyed off in straight sets by unseeded Max "The Beast" Mirnyi.
Seeded players safely into the second round Monday were (4) Andre Agassi (d. A.Martin), (5) Nikolay Davydenko (d. (WC) Niemeyer), (6) Gaston Gaudio (d. (Q) Sanguinetti from a set down), (8) Mariano Puerta (d. Horna in two tiebreaks), (9) David Nalbandian (d. Chela), (11) Tommy Robredo (d. (Q) K.Kim in three), and (15) Richard Gasquet (d. Youzhny).
"I was pleased with the way I improved over the course of the match," said Agassi, showing the even veteran champions get nervous with a 6-4, 6-2 win. "By the end of the match, I was much more comfortable. But I was a little nervous in the beginning and the ball was really flying. I was trying to go after the ball so it didn't play me, but I wasn't quite committed to letting my swing go, so I was sort of moving forward and not finishing my swing, and I was losing control of a few shots."
Other un-seeds into round two were Brazil's Ricardo Mello (d. (WC) Bester), Brit Greg Rusedski (d. (Q) Wawrinka from a set down), Croat Mario Ancic (d. Saulnier), Slovak Karol Beck (d. (Q) Okun), Romania's Andrei Pavel (d. C.Rochus), Belgian Olivier Rochus (d. (Q) Mahut), and Swedish veteran qualifier Jonas Bjorkman (d. Spadea).
On tap for Tuesday are (Q) Serra vs. (2) Hewitt, (1) Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal vs. the former No. 1 Moya in an all-Spanish, (7) Guillermo "El Mago" Coria vs. Ferrero, (3) Roddick vs. Mathieu, Kiefer vs. Massu, (13) Ljubicic vs. Taylor "Acci-" Dent, Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan vs. Grosjean, Xavier "X-Man" Malisse vs. (WC) Frank "You Can" Dancevic, (WC) Steckley vs. Carlsen, Soderling vs. (14) Stepanek, Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer vs. Berdych, (12) T.Johansson vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, (Q) Clement vs. Acasuso, Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. El Aynaoui, Novak vs. Andreev, and Ferrer vs. Fabrice "The Original Magician" Santoro.
Low-level Americans Take Stage at WTA Los Angeles
American qualifier Angela Haynes, who appeared briefly on the map when she won the first set before falling to Serena Williams at Wimbledon, advanced into the second round during a star-less Monday at L.A. with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Marta Domachowska of Poland.
"I'm feeling good this week, and plus, I'm home, so I have the crowd behind me, so that's nice," Haynes said of playing in L.A. "Sometimes, it's tough to be at home, and people expect so much out of you."
Seeded winners on the day were (12) Dinara Safina (d. Brandi), (13) Francesca Schiavone (d. Randriantefy), (14) Gisela Dulko (d. Zuluaga), (15) Klara Koukalova (d. Matevzic), (16) Anna Chakvetadze (d. Li), and (17) Marion Bartoli (d. Camerin).
On the upset tip were China's Jie Zheng (d. (11) Asagoe 6-0 in the third) and Japanese qualifier Aiko Nakamura (d. (10) Pennetta), continuing the summer of the Asian invasion on the U.S. hardcourts.
Other un-seeds into the second round were Americans Amy Frazier (d. countrywoman Spears, bagel in the second set) and Lisa Raymond (d. countrywoman (WC) Osterloh, bagel in the first), Russian Maria Kirilenko (d. (WC) Irvin in three, setting up a match with countrywoman Sharapova), Japanese qualifier Rika Fujiwara (d. Ant. Serra Zanetti, bagel in the first), Uzbekistan lucky loser Varvara Lepchenko (d. (LL) Voskoboeva), and Aussie Sam Stosur (d. Jidkova).
Scheduled for Tuesday in Los Angeles are Daniilidou vs. Salerni, Mirza vs. Benesova, Washington vs. Martinez, Linetskaya vs. K.Bondarenko, Sharapova vs. Kirilenko, Klara "Kouky" Koukalova vs. Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier, Alves vs. Sun, Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem vs. Fedak, Ruano Pascual vs. Craybas, Mattek vs. Garbin, Vento-Kabchi vs. Peng, and Talaja vs. Lepchenko.
Pous Tio Poops Out at WTA Stockholm
No. 4 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues (d. Pastikova) and No. 5 Katarina Srebotnik (d. Chladkova) advanced among the seeds Monday, while No. 8 Laura Pous Tio was ousted by France's Emilie Loit in play at the WTA stop in Stockholm.
Other un-seeds into the second round were Russian Ekaterina Bychkova (d. Cervanova), Italian Mara Santangelo (d. Kleinova), and France's Camille Pin (d. Cohen-Aloro).
The final round of qualifying was also completed with four more onto the main dance floor in Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS), Emma Laine (FIN), Olga Savchuk (UKR), and Ivana Lisjak (CRO).
Scheduled for Tuesday are Birnerova vs. Schruff, Laine vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, Douchevina vs. Lisjak, Wozniacki vs. Sucha, Kutuzova vs. Myskina, Arvidsson vs. Strycova, Parra Santonja vs. Savchuk, Foretz vs. Castano, Beltrame vs. Kudryavtseva, and A.Bondarenko vs. Sfar.
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
India's Sania Mirza has broken the Top 50 on the WTA Tour Rankings...WTA officials finally took the effort to do the math Sunday and figure that Maria Sharapova has to reach the semifinals and also needs to pick up 28 bonus points en route this week in L.A. to surpass Lindsay Davenport for the No. 1 ranking...Injury Update: Russian seed Vera Zvonareva pulled from L.A. at the last moment with a sprained ankle, while Akiko Morigami pulled with tendinitis in her right knee. Lindsay Davenport (back) and Serena Williams (knee) pulled earlier in the weekend. Justine Henin-Hardenne is out with sore hamstrings...USTA officials are bouncing in their cubicles as the Top 5 men's players on the US Open Series standings this week are all American...John McEnroe straight-setted Pat Cash last weekend in the senior tour stop at Algarve, and says he has another couple years in him on the senior tour...No. 1 seeds are 19-0 this year in finals on the ATP tour...A belated Happy Birthday yesterday to Roger Federer. What do you get the man who has almost everything? A replica of the French Open trophy? Andy Roddick's and Lleyton Hewitt's manhood in a jar?...Lleyton Hewitt is 5-5 career at the Masters Series-Canada, while Andy Roddick is 1-2 in MS-Canada finals...What a difference two years can make -- former Top 8 finisher Rainer Schuettler last week lost to unheralded countryman Michael Berrer in the quarterfinals at the Segovia Challenger. To his credit, Berrer also beat Karol Kucera and Daniele "Choppin'" Bracciali en route to the title...Among the first-round losers last week at the Vancouver Challenger were No. 2 seed Jan-Michael Gambill and wildcard Scoville Jenkins...Unseeded American John Paul Fruttero won the Belo Horizonte Challenger over the weekend...Brit-Scot Andy Murray has broken the Top 150...While everyone agrees Lleyton Hewitt needs to change his game and get more aggressive when playing Roger Federer, the Aussie says don't hold your breath, the baseline is still looking pretty good: "I'm not going to do it every point but I probably will throw it in to add another dimension to my game," Hewitt told ESPN. "But it's hard to practice and then not use it in the match. For now, I'm staying at the baseline mostly."...Wildcard entrant Yevgeny Kafelnikov will make his pro golf debut on Thursday when the Cadillac Russian Open begins at Moscow's Le Meridien Country Club. The Y-Man, hitting pro poker now golf in his Tour of Sports That Aren't Sports tour...27-year-old Guillermo Canas received a two-year ban for doping from the ATP, becoming the fourth Argentine to test positive after Juan Ignacio Chela, Guillermo Coria, and Mariano Puerta. "The ATP have made a mistake in my case," said Canas, who tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (HCT), typically used to mask other drugs, at the ATP stop in Acapulco in February. 'Whoops, who gave me that accidently!?!' Don't look for the Argentine on court until June 2007. "It was a lapse by the whole system at the Acapulco tournament. It was people from the tournament who went to buy me the medicines with the guarantees of the ATP. I never in my life thought they would give me the maximum sentence. They're trying to carry out justice with a system which is not 100 percent certain and efficient, and which makes mistakes. My career is not going to end, that's for sure. I'm suffering a great injustice."...Sania Mirza may pull from Toronto next week after pulling a stomach muscle (punter alert on her match today in L.A.)...Kim Clijsters says she is suffering from inflammation in her hip...Lleyton Hewitt is without a clothing or shoe sponsorship this week in Montreal after dumping Nike and currently considering his options (Target? Jockey?)...Maria Sharapova says she has added two inches to her supermodel stature since last year. The first 5,000 fans for L.A.'s Friday night session will receive a Maria Sharapova bobblehead doll...On Monday in Montreal en route to a first-round win, Britain's "Grinning" Greg Rusedski at one point threw in four doubles faults in a row...Arlen Kantarian, the USTA's chief executive of professional tennis and mastermind behind the US Open Series, was not happy with Venus Williams' plan to skip L.A. this week for a big under-the-table appearance fee in Stockholm, before she pulled from the event with the flu: "It's difficult to understand how a player can play a Tier III or Tier IV event in Stockholm." It's difficult to understand? Let us spell it out for you: c-a-s-h. The official language of the ATP and WTA tours. Like the MasterCard commercial says, 'There are some things money can't buy...for everything else, there's...the $500,000 guarantee to hop on a plane to Stockholm.' Priceless...The Washington Post's Michael Wilbon: "Tennis had its niche in America and gave it up. There's no problem with the popularity of tennis in Australia or Europe. There is a problem here. To that end, the USTA came up with this US Open Series. It only involves the six weeks leading up to the US Open, but it's a good start -- except for the dopey "reality series" concept and these nicknames (Serena "The Diva" Williams, Andy "Rocket Man" Roddick, Lindsay "Top Gun" Davenport) that make Roddick roll his eyes and the rest of us want to throw up."