5 Women No. 1s Up Friday at French; Connors to Coach Roddick?

Turning the three upsets on the day were Serb comer Novak Djokovic who outlasted (9) Fernando Gonzalez 6-1 in the fifth; Frenchman Julien Benneteau who likewise outlasted (19) Marcos Baghdatis in five; and unheralded Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello, who stunned the locals by taking out favored son (21) Sebastien Grosjean in five.

Winners in all-unseeded matches were Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (d. C.Rochus who retired with injury) and Al Martin (d. Kindlmann).

No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal vs. Kevin Kim was postponed until Friday due to darkness and rain pushing back the schedule, while contests postponed mid-match were Nicolas Almagro leading (8) James Blake 7-6(5); (15) David Ferrer leading Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 6-4; and (28) Fernando Verdasco tied with Juan Monaco 6-4, 4-6, 2-2.

Friday's highlights are (1) Federer vs. (32) Massu, (2) Nadal vs. K.Kim, (3) Nalbandian vs. (31) Tursunov, (6) Davydenko vs. Moya, (7) Robredo vs. Dlouhy, and (10) Gaudio vs. (24) Ferrero in a battle of former Roland Garros champs.

Henin Wins; All-Star Line-Up Friday at French Open

Justine Henin-Hardenne beat the rain and an opponent serving for a set Thursday to move into the third round at the French Open, defeating Belarus' Anastasiya Yakimova 6-2, 7-5.

The 19-year-old Yakimova held three set points at 5-4, 40-0, but the Belgian saved all three and the set to get out of the wet and cold conditions.

"It's like Belgium in November," Henin-Hardenne said. "The conditions were awkward today and that created some highs and lows in the match. The balls were very heavy at the end so I'm happy to be in the third round."

Other seeded winners on a day without upsets were former champ (10) Anastasia Myskina (d. Melinda "The fifth Element" Czink), (15) Daniela "The Walking Stick" Hantuchova (d. Gagliardi from a set down), (19) Ana Ivanovic (d. Loit), (20) Maria Kirilenko (d. M.Johansson), (21) Nathalie Dechy (d. Castano in three), (31) Shahar Peer (d. Pironkova), and (32) Gisela Dulko (d. Fedak).

Winners in all-unseeded match-ups were American Shenay Perry (d. Morigami, bagel in the second) and Italian Tathiana Garbin (d. Cornet).

Three matches were postponed due to darkness and the rain-delayed schedule, and two were halted with Viktoriya Kutuzova in a shocker leading (6) Elena Dementieva 5-1, and (13) Anna-Lena Groenefeld tied with American Jamea Jackson 6-7(8), 6-2.

Friday's highlights include five former or current No. 1s and six Slam winners in (1) Mauresmo vs. Jankovic, (2) Clijsters vs. Martinez Granados, (4) Sharapova vs. Molik, (8) Kuznetsova vs. Li, (11) Venus vs. Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem, (12) Hingis vs. Ondraskova, (14) Safina vs. Srebotnik, and (16) Vaidisova vs. the Frenchwoman Rezai. 

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
After a nice start to the day Thursday, rains again hit the courts of Roland Garros at 3:30pm local time, delaying play for roughly two hours. Weather is finally expected to improve starting Friday and continue through next week...Spain is already 2-0 against the U.S. in head-to-head play this week, and will look to make it a perfect 4-0 as Rafael Nadal will play Kevin Kim, and Nicolas Almagro, already up a set, will seek to finish off James Blake. Should Spain be successful, that would be no American men in the third round for a third straight year at Roland Garros. Is it any wonder why this may be ESPN's last year televising the event?...Props to Dick Norman for a stellar effort against Gael "Force" Monfils. The Force is quite the character, and with his emotion will likely be France's male star for many years to come...Roger Federer has won 23 straight Grand Slam matches, and Rafael Nadal has won 54 straight on clay...Argentine qualifier Martin Vassallo Arguello denied Sebastien Grosjean his 300th career match win...Frenchmen Sebastien Grosjean, Gael Monfils and Julien Benneteau all went five sets on Thursday, that's giving the home crowd their money's worth...Gisela Dulko and Maria Kirilenko playing (and winning) in doubles together? That's insanely all-Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition-worthy...What is up with little-known 17-year-old Viktoriya Kutuzova putting the early hammer down on Elena "I reached two Slam finals in one year" Dementieva, leading 5-1 before play was suspended? Sucks to have to sleep on that when you can't serve your way back into the match...Amelie Mauresmo is the only player from France to ever be a No. 1 singles seed at a Grand Slam in the Open Era...Kevin Kim had one career clay win entering Roland Garros. That was against Adrian Garcia at Houston this year...Justine Henin-Hardenne has won 17 of her last 18 matches at Roland Garros...Martin Vassallo Arguella is the lone qualifier to reach the third round...Justine Henin-Hardenne is attempting to become the first woman to repeat as French Open champ since Steffi Graf in 1996...From the ever-entertaining X-Discussion "ESPN Stinks!" thread: "poor p mac though. after roddick's loss, he looked like he got punched in the face. I really thought that seeing roddick's blue ankle and witnessing roddick getting booed off the court was going to do it; p mac was going to cry, but man, he held it together long enough to diss beeg. If roddick loses early @ wimbledon though, watch out. Another favorite moment: that suzy woman starting EVERY question directed toward gilbert with the phrase, 'as a former coach of Andy'...Of course the kicker at the end: 'How important is the coach really?' Priceless...The latest from Dick: "Federer now six points away from the third round." Score at the time: 3-2, 30-0...it's not just the announcers. yesterday, espn had a graphic calling roddick the 2005 USO champ...Also, today during Federer's match against Falla, they showed a list depicting his Slams won and the year in which he won them. The first one stated "US Open 2003". Nuh-uh. That was Roddick, hard as it is to believe now."...From the blogging Charlie "The Brick" Bricker: "There was a little more grey in the hair, but that's to be expected when you're pushing 50. But, yes, that was really super-coach Larry Stefanki sitting in Fernando Gonzalez's players box for the Marat Safin match late Tuesday, and it was great to see him at a Grand Slam again. It's been two years and eight months since the man who once coached three No. 1 players (John McEnroe, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marcelo Rios) was an ATP Tour fixture, and he's going to do a great job for Gonzalez, who justified his No. 9 ranking by whipping the big Russian in four sets. "This is not going to be one of those 30-weeks-a-year things," (Stefanki) said. "It's going to be 15 to 17 weeks, with two emergency weeks. I'll be there for the Slams. Any Slam, I'd never leave anyone, or Super 9 (Masters Series) event...I told Fernando I don't want 30 weeks and he said, 'No, no, I don't want that, either. I just want someone who knows what it's like to be in the Top 10.' He wants to play the net more. He wants to be multi-dimensional, and he did that today (in beating Safin)."...Jim Courier blogging on the Champions Cup senior tour website: "After Champions Cup Boston I played Johnny Mac in a one-night event in Atlanta (Mercedes Benz Classic) where we also played mixed with the Jana and Anna show. It was pretty fun, except for the losing part, and the crowd was into it which was sweet. Mac mooned me. Pulled them right down in front of women, children and yours truly. 2nd time he has directed the full moon to me in an event. I think we may be able to get him a new razor deal based on what we all saw....didn't he used to be sponsored by Bic? Anna almost took me out with a swinging volley in the mixed. I will remember that next time we are on opposite ends of the court...OK, picks for Paris: Mens-No surprise here. Rafa takes it over Fed in 4 sets in the final. I've caught most of their 3 matches this year (thank you, Tennis Channel)...Women-Can I get some help here? Gone are the days of the lay-up pick, for now. Who's healthy??? Hingis for one and she's back, big-time. For Amelie the pressure will be tough; probably too much to bear. Justine is my favorite if she is strong enough to grind for 2 weeks. What about Petrova? I like her getting to the semis. Bottom line is I like Clijsters-Justine in the final if the draw puts them on opposite sides with Justine taking it in 2 sets. But if you give me the right odds, I'll take Hingis just for fun."...Justine Henin-Hardenne is 24-4 at the French Open...Martina Navratilova has won a doubles title over each of the last 21 years...Lleyton Hewitt apparently getting some good scouting on opponent Mathieu Montcourt from coach Roger Rasheed: "First set was pretty tough out there. I knew nothing about the guy, though, going into the match. It's always going to take a little bit of time to work him out."...Mario Ancic and Paul Capdeville were fined $3K each for their pushing match on Wednesday: "I talked with the umpire because all match he, for me, made so many mistakes," Capdeville said. "Ancic, he said, 'Shut up. What are you doing? All the match you spoke.' I said, 'Why you tell me that?' And he pushed me. I never have a problem with Ancic. I have problem with the umpire because in the points so important, he make mistakes."...Justine Henin-Hardenne: "Women's tennis is getting more interesting, because you never know who is going to win the next one." -- Let's be real, more like you never know who is going to be uninjured enough to play...Peter Bodo blogging on standing up for the web tennis fans: "BTW, I'm supposed to appear before a kangaroo court in Paris to explain why I went public with my complaints about the International Tennis Writers' Association's official policy of leaning on tournaments to embargo press conference transcripts and thing like streaming press conference video, in order to somehow "protect" the interests or jobs of reporters. I think it's wrong for a press group to lobby to keep information from the public and even tournament websites (if you want the backstory, just punch up my previous post "Whistle-Blower Me" via the "Search" window [at the TennisWorld website]). I'll let you know how it all turns out." Then this from Pete about liking Gael Monfils because he's an American-like lunkhead, and not-liking Roger Federer because he's too-full-of-himself sophisticated: "The second thing that strikes me as decidedly un-Frenchman-like about Monfils is his lack of sophistication. At some level, he's just a big dumb kid who loves to whale on a tennis ball, and he doesn't have any hang-ups about showing the world that he's any more than that. I like that in people. That particular kind of insouciance is relatively easy to find in Americans and comparatively difficult to locate in the French, or other western European folks. In fact, one of the few things that seems a little bogus to me these days about The Mighty Federer is that he seems too absorbed in showing the world that he is more than a tennis player -- that he's International Man incarnate."...Wasn't that a great passive-aggressive jerk-type story the other day, when Guillermo Vilas revealed he called Rafael Nadal on the phone to congratulate him on the phone for challenging his record in winning consecutive clay matches, but first started yelling at him to make him nervous before revealing it was him? Funny! Almost as funny as when he presented Rafa with an on-court award, yet alternately told Reuters that Rafa played easy tournaments to get the record, and that it was more difficult in his day. Way to cap that career Guillermo...From The Independent: "Andy Roddick, a first-round loser, is considering an approach to Jimmy Connors to coach him on a part-time basis. It is understood that Roddick, a former world No. 1 and US Open champion, would not require Connors to travel with him to every tournament on his schedule, but would like a working relationship similar to that between Federer and his coach, Australian Tony Roche, with face-to-face contact only at key times of the year, such as before the grand slam events. Connors, one of the great names of the sport, could become Roddick's fifth coach in three years. In that time Roddick has worked with Tarik Benhabiles, Brad Gilbert and Dean Goldfine, and is currently accompanied on the tour by his older brother, John. Connors is apparently already aware of Roddick's interest in him, and may be willing to mull over a future working arrangement. Connors has indicated that he might like to work with the younger generation, and two years ago he publicly flirted with the possibility of working as a coaching consultant for the Lawn Tennis Association."...Andy Murray and fellow Brit James Auckland won their first-round doubles match, and next face the top-ranked Bryan brothers...Tim Henman indulged in some fine Paris whine after losing his darkness-delayed match the following day: "It was just a shambles. The decision-making was nonexistent. I think the darkest point was at the beginning of the second set. I wanted that sort of quantified -- what is good light, what is bad light? (The supervisor) said: 'Well, we're playing on all the other courts'. So I said: 'Does that make the light acceptable?' He said: 'We use our experience.' And then at the beginning of the third set, it's the lightest it's been for three-quarters of an hour and then he says: 'No, we stop now, we've stopped on all the other courts.' I really wasn't that bothered whether we carried on. Not a lot was going right, so I was happy to stop. But then you come back in the locker room, and there's five courts that were playing for another half an hour, so it was just a bit of a circus really."...From the blogging Matt Cronin: "...in the past four days at RG, there have been two pushing and shoving matches, one between the camps of 19-year-old French qualifier Aravane Rezai and Russians Anna Chakvetadze and Elena Vesnina, on Wednesday, between Mario Ancic of Croatia and Paul Capdeville of Chile. L'Equipe reported that the spat came about because of a simple misunderstanding of who had a practice court at which time, with one camp believing that they still had the court an the other told that they were to share it. Things got very ugly, which is not surprising, considering that the Iranian-Frenchwoman's dad, Arsalan, has an awful reputation around these parts for being, well, (big surprise here), a bad tennis dad. The Rezais are not wealthy and, prior to RG, are said to have taken out a loan of some 8,000 euros to finance their daughter's play. They live in a mobile home in which they travel from event to event. Word has it that when Aravane qualified, they earned enough to pay off the loan and now after she upset No. 22 Ai Sugiyama 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to move into the third round, the family should have enough money to pay for new tires, or some brass knuckles. Here's what the LA Times Lisa Dillman reported: "There was no official complaint or report made to the WTA by the Rezais or by either Chakvetadze or Vesnina. But French Open officials are investigating, according to the tournament's sports director Stephane Simian. "We listened to both sides and we're investigating right now," he said on Wednesday. "So at this point, I can't give you much more information. We're still looking at it. Obviously, it's word against word. There's not a whole lot of evidence. It's difficult to make a judgment. We'll continue to investigate." Later, Chakvetadze held no such reservations after her second-round loss to Na Li. She was animated and replaying the incident through gestures with two Russian reporters in a small interview room and went through the story again with The Times. She said that when the matter escalated, Arsalan Rezai got physical with Sergey Vesnina, the father of Elena. "He hit him with his head to the nose," Chakvetadze said, adding that the elder Rezai inadvertently hit his daughter with a racket. "He make a backswing to hit someone, like my dad, and he hit his daughter with a racket to the face," she said. "...She started to cry and her mother, I think she thought somebody [one] of our dads hit her, and she started to scream." Chakvetadze said Rezai's father left and returned with two policemen and accused the Russians of starting the incident. The L'Equipe story noted that side of the story, "Arsalan Rezai said he had been hit in the forehead with a racket and that his daughter had also been hit." "He's crazy, actually," Chakvetadze said, laughing. "...Yesterday, he said to Vesnina's dad, 'OK, peace.'" -- That...is...so...good...From Tennis Week: "Roger Federer is losing his second hand. Federer is parting company with a near-constant companion that has marked time as he raised his last five Grand Slam championship trophies. The World No. 1 is parting company with Swiss watch brand Maurice Lacroix, ending a two-year relationship that has seen Federer serve as the watchmaker's ambassador since June 1, 2004. During this period, the Swiss stylist celebrated several career highlights in solidifying his status as the world's top player, claiming consecutive Grand Slam championships in back-to-back years at the 2004 and 2005 Wimbledon and U.S. Open tournaments and capturing the Australian Open in January. "Our collaboration with Roger Federer took a very satisfying and entirely successful course. We were able to achieve our objectives we established entirely by concentrating on a single brand representative," Philippe C. Merk, CEO Maurice Lacroix, said in a statement. "Now we will take the next important step with our brand." -- Dude, next step was you guys couldn't afford Rog anymore, the price went up...Hey Kevin...sorry...about...this...John McEnroe, Mary Carillo, Ted Robinson and Bud Collins will do the heavy lifting this weekend for USA NBC's coverage of the French Open...Hey Tim Henman, drop more screaming f-bombs at the French -- getting them out of your system before you head to the home Slam?...While everyone gets pumped over Gael "Force" Monfils actually making a tour impact after absolutely ruling the juniors, Tennis-X says congrats on beating "clay wizard" Dick Norman, all 35-year-old of him, to reach the third round...Here's the metrosexual Justin Gimelstob getting back on the of-actual-interest blog trail: "While everyone obsesses over the beauty/talent package that Maria Sharapova boasts, Ana Ivanovic from Serbia-Montenegro deserves due consideration. And in terms of value for the entertainment dollar, the doubles team of Gisela Dulko and Maria Kirilenko is hard to beat. They are undoubtedly the best-looking female doubles team in tennis history. The male equivalent? Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez." -- Maybe you can take those Spaniards out to dinner, never hurts to ask. They'll probably tell you they'll have to wash their hair.