Sharapova Only Matches Away From No. 1 Ranking This Week
Posted on August 10, 2005
Roddick, Hewitt, Coria Exit at ATP Masters Series-CanadaAndy Roddick, coming off some of his best tennis of the year in winning last week's Washington title, was stunned Tuesday in his opening-round match 7-5, 6-3 by unseeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu at the ATP Masters Series-Canada in Montreal.
Roddick's former coach and current ESPN sideline commentator Brad Gilbert says the former No. 1 panics with his net game when under pressure, and sure enough that happened on a huge point with Roddick serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the first set. Instead of sticking with his meat-and-potatoes baseline game while down in the game, Roddick tried to surprise the Frenchman with a serve-and-volley attack, popping the ball up and allowing Mathieu plenty of time to throw a topspin lob over his head.
That point led to the break and the first set, with the wheels totally coming off in the second set for Roddick after Mathieu raced to a 3-0 lead over the frustrated American before eventually clinching victory.
"I thought he played great," said Roddick, who mustered only three aces to the Frenchman's 14. "I think he served really well tonight. You know -- a lot of credit to him. He didn't let me settle in and try to find my bearings. He really took it to me so I was playing reactive instead of active."
Roddick struggled with the faster conditions compared to those at his title-winning run last week in Washington.
"It just felt totally different out there than it did two days ago," Roddick said. "The court, the balls, they're all a little bit different. I just didn't adjust. It's a different ball. I just didn't feel like I was doing anything real comfortably out there."
Mathieu said Roddick isn't his top scalp, but is up there somewhere.
"I've already beaten (Pete) Sampras and (Marat) Safin, but it's definitely one of my best matches," Mathieu said. "The ball is really light and moves a lot here. You just have to adapt."
The event lost a total of five seeds on the day, with No. 2 Lleyton Hewitt retiring with a stomach illness against French qualifier Florent Serra, No. 7 Guillermo Coria held to only five games by former No. 1 and US Open runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero, No. 13 Ivan Ljubicic volleyed out in three sets by unseeded American Taylor Dent, and No. 14 Radek Stepanek straight-setted by Swede Robin Soderling.
Seeded players successfully navigating first-round matches were (1) Rafael Nadal (d. Spanish countryman and former No. 1 Moya in three), and (12) Thomas Johansson (d. Karlovic).
"I only have little bit cramps in the beginning of the third (set)," said Nadal who called for a trainer with hand cramps against Moya. "But after, I feel good. Sometimes I have this problem, but is not important problem. Normally (it) come for two games or little bit time, and after go out."
Moya was complimentary of the player he has helped along since his early days on tour.
"To be honest, I didn't expect him to be that good so early," Moya said. "I think there was a beast inside of him, and I think the one who woke up the beast was (Andy) Roddick in the Davis Cup tie."
Unseeded players into round two were Czechs Tomas Berdych (d. Melzer) and Jiri Novak (d. Andreev 6-1 in the third), German Nicolas Kiefer (d. Massu), Frenchmen Sebastien Grosjean (d. Srichaphan in three) and qualifier Arnaud Clement (d. Acasuso from a set down), Belgian Xavier Malisse (d. (WC) Dancevic), Dane Kenneth Carlsen (d. (WC) Steckley from a set down), Moroccan-back-from-injury Younes El Aynaoui (d. F.Lopez), and Spaniard Dave Ferrer (d. Santoro from a set down).
Scheduled for Wednesday play are Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. "Grinning" Greg Rusedski, (Q) Bjorkman vs. (4) Agassi, Grosjean vs. (15) Gasquet in an all-French old-guard-vs.-new, (1) Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal vs. Ricardo Mello "Yello," Taylor "Acci-" Dent vs. Kiefer, (6) Gaudio vs. Carlsen, Mathieu vs. (Q) Clement in another all-French old-guard-vs.-new, Ferrero vs. Ferrer in an all-Spanish, (12) T.Johansson vs. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. (Q) Serra, Berdych vs. (5) Davydenko, El Aynaoui vs. (11) Robredo, Pavel vs. (8) Puerta, Olivier "The Roach" Rochus vs. Soderling, Novak vs. Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, (9) Nalbandian vs. Beck, and in doubles highlights Argentines Nalbandian/Puerta vs. (3) Knowles/Nestor, and (5) Paes/Zimonjic vs. Israeli sleepers Erlich/Ram.
Sharapova Begins March to No. 1 with Win at WTA Los Angeles
Maria Sharapova is for all intents and purposes guaranteed the No. 1 ranking either this week or next, and the top-seeded Russian showed she prefers the former with an error-filled 7-6(7), 6-2 win Tuesday over countrywoman and good friend Maria Kirilenko in her opening-round match at the WTA stop in Los Angeles.
"I was up 0-40 on her serve at 6-5 and she came up with some good shots," said Sharapova on edging out the first-set breaker. "The first set really could have gone anywhere, so I was really happy to win it...I've known her for such a long time, we're such good buddies. It's hard to play a good friend, especially in the first round, but I'm sure we'll have a lot of opportunities to play each other more."
With current No. 1 Lindsay Davenport sidelined with a bad back, Sharapova can take the top spot for the first time this week by reaching the semifinals if she has the requisite amount of bonus points from the rankings of her beaten opponents, or if not, definitely upon reaching the final. If Sharapova stumbles this week she would could take the No. 1 ranking without even stepping on court next week as Davenport has a large chunk of points dropping off and is not entered in next week's Toronto event.
"I think I played really good in the first set, one of the best in my life," said Kirilenko, who blew off the post-match handshake with the chair umpire after what she felt were some bad calls. "It was the worst umpiring of my life. Of course I was mad about it. I've never seen so many mistakes."
After the match Sharapova tried her hand at some American cliches.
"There was a lot of rustiness," the Russian said. "I was just trying to get in a groove, get my feet wet."
In the only other seeded action on the day, No. 15 Klara Koukalova outlasted American Amy "Down Goes" Frazier in three sets.
Unseeded winners on the day were Uzbek (LL) Varvara Lepchenko (d. (LL) Talaja), Greece's Eleni Daniilidou (d. (Q) Salerni), Czech Iveta Benesova (d. Mirza in three), Spaniard Conchita Martinez (d. Washington), China's (Q) Tiantian Sun (d. (LL) Alves 0-and-1) and Shuai Peng (d. Vento-Kabchi, bagel in the second), Croat Karolina Sprem (d. (Q) Fedak), The Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko (d. Linetskaya, bagel in the first), American (WC) Jill Craybas (d. Ruano Pascual in three), and Frenchwoman (Q) Tathiana Garbin (d. (LL) Mattek).
On tap Wednesday in L.A. are Haynes vs. Hantuchova, Dementieva vs. Stosur, Garbin vs. Pierce, Craybas vs. Petrova, Clijsters vs. Sprem, Daniilidou vs. Kuznetsova, Zheng vs. K.Bondarenko, Nakamura vs. Raymond, Peng vs. Schiavone, Dulko vs. Martinez, Sun vs. Bartoli, Fujiwara vs. Safina, and Benesova vs. Chakvetadze.
Myskina Leads 5-for-5 Seeded Winners at WTA Stockholm
All five seeds advanced Tuesday at the WTA stop in Stockholm in (2) Anastasia Myskina (d. (LL) Kutuzova 6-0 in the third), (3) Vera Douchevina (d. (Q) Lisjak), (6) Martina Sucha (d. (WC) Wozniacki), (7) Catalina Castano (d. Foretz), and (9) Alyona Bondarenko (d. Sfar).
Unseeded winners into the second round were France's Severine Beltrame (d. (Q) Kudryavtseva), German Julia Schruff (d. Birnerova), Spain's Arantxa Parra Santonja (d. (Q) Savchuk from a set down), Swedish wildcard Sofia Arvidsson (d. Strycova), and Finnish qualifier Emma Laine (d. Sanchez Lorenzo from a set down).
On tap for Wednesday in Stockholm are Loit vs. Santangelo, Laine vs. Castano, Parra Santonja vs. Medina Garrigues, and Srebotnik vs. Bychkova.
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
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