Agassi, Rusedski Out at Queens; Federer Eyes Borg Record

Qualifiers also had a good opening day, with three advancing into the second round in Spaniard Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco (d. Greul), Frenchman Anthony Dupuis (d. Rusedski who retired in the third set with a hip injury) and Canadian Frank Dancevic (d. Carlsen from a set down).

Highlights for Tuesday at Queen's includes (5) Blake vs. Gimelstob in an all-American, Murray vs Tipsarevic, (Q) Dancevic vs. (3) Roddick, (WC) J.Baker vs. (WC) Fish, Goldstein vs. (9) Ginepri in an all-American, (10) T.Johansson vs. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, and Moodie vs. (WC) Philippoussis.

Pavel Bags Seeded Baghdatis at ATP Halle

Unseeded Romanian Andrei Pavel continued No. 4 seed Marcos Baghdatis' season slide in the first round of the ATP grasscourt event at Halle Monday, defeating the Cypriot 7-6(5), 6-3.

Baghdatis has yet to win a career match on grass.

Seeded winners Monday were (3) Jarkko Nieminen (d. Kohlschreiber), (7) Olivier Rochus (d. Waske from  set down), and (8) Kristof Vliegen (d. Wawrinka).

Winners in all-unseeded matches were Czech Jiri Novak (d. Pashanski), Italy's Andreas Seppi (d. countryman Sanguinetti), and Swede Robin Soderling (d. Schuettler).

Highlights of Tuesday play are (Q) Bastl vs. Gasquet, the former No. 1 Safin vs. Serra, Simon vs. (6) Haas, (5) Berdych vs. (Q) B.Becker, and Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro vs. Youzhny.

Three Seeds Ousted, Qualifiers Flourish at WTA Birmingham

Three seeds were bumped on the opening day of lawn play Monday at the WTA stop in Birmingham, with American Jamea Jackson ousting No. 10 Klara Koukalova, Slovak Martina Sucha defeating No. 11 Catalina Castano, and China's Yan Zi surprising Laura Granville, all in straight sets.

Three seeds also moved safely into the second round in (9) Sofia Arvidsson (d. (Q) Czink in three), (12) Mara Santangelo (d. Laine), and (13) Li Na (d. Washington).

The well-practiced qualifiers enjoyed success in the first round, with four players through in Russian Olga Poutchkova (d. (Q) Kutuzova from a set down), Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi (d. Nakamura), and Americans Meilen Tu (d. Brandi) and Ahsha Rolle (d. Foretz).

Highlights of Tuesday play is Mirza vs. A.Bondarenko, Molik vs. Zvonareva, and Sharapova vs. Rolle.

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
If Roger Federer wins Halle this week he will tie Bjorn Borg's record of 41 consecutive wins on grass. The Swiss has not lost on grass since a 2002 loss to Mario Ancic at Wimbledon...Taylor Dent is making his first tour appearance since February this week at Queen's, returning from back surgery...The Bryan brothers are attempting their third consecutive Queen's title this week...From the ATP: "Former No. 1 doubles player Alex O'Brien has launched an online steak store, Littlefield Ranch, which delivers USDA Prime steaks to customers' door steps."...Lleyton Hewitt in 2002 is the last player to win the Queen's/Wimbledon double in the same year...American Sam Querrey won the Yuba City (California) Challenger over the weekend, beating countryman Sam Warburg in the final...Boston Globe writer Bud Collins says Rafael Nadal is the No. 1 player over Roger Federer, contrary to the ATP Rankings...Justine Henin-Hardenne rose from 5 to No. 3 on the WTA Rankings with her French Open win...From X-Discussion boarder ChrisM: "I'd say Fed vs Nadal cries out for the return of bonus/quality points. I didn't think it was such a great idea when they took them away. Rafter defended his U.S. Open title in 1998, and actually garnered fewer ranking points because the bonus points were gone. He just happened to beat the world #1 at the '98 Open, and didn't get the 100 extra points for that. Nadal has beaten the world #1 four times this year, but because of the time of year and his points load from last year (defending titles), he has absolutely nothing to show for his trouble in the race for #1. In fact, he's fallen farther behind because Federer's made so many clay finals. Beating Federer four times would be 400 extra points...nearly as much as an extra Masters series event, and while this seems shocking (partly because it's UNHEARD OF to beat the #1 four times) it does reflect the status of the accomplishment."...Andre Agassi on Rafael Nadal: "I respect how much he's valued Wimbledon and what he's said about it. It shows you the competitor's heart he has. Any time you got a ticker like that, you got to leave room for some great things."...Greg Rusedski, who retired in the third set of his match, slammed Queen's organizers for putting him on Monday when he requested a Tuesday start after recovering from injury: "Last week I was playing...and just did the splits and hurt my hip. So coming into the event, I asked for a Tuesday start. We warned the tournament director that if they put me on Monday, there was a chance I might not be fully fit to go the whole distance. But he obviously ignored that, knowing that an extra 24 hours would have made a massive difference for me. So I'm absolutely disappointed that they wouldn't even listen to a word I said. I thought for one set I played a really good first set. Then after that, my movement started going a bit. Then that was it really. You'd think they'd want to help their British players do well here instead of hinder them."...Aussie Alicia Molik has received a Wimbledon wildcard along with Brits Sarah Borwell, Anne Keothavong, Katie O'Brien, Melanie South, Alex Bogdanovic, Richard Bloomfield and Jamie Baker...From tennis writer Peter Bodo: "In essence, [Rafael Nadal] said, "Roger [Federer] is the toughest guy I play, the best I lose to, even on clay." The translator tightened and brightened this up, saying, "Roger's the toughest guy out there except on clay, where I rock the world!" Or something like that. The crowd went nuts, and after the match the translator ran down to the locker room to apologize to Nadal, while Nadal's people were looking for Federer's people to apologize and see if their boy wanted to do lunch with their boy."...The French Open women's final between Justine Henin-Hardenne and Svetlana Kuznetsova drew a 1.7 overnight rating, down from a 1.9 rating in 2005...From Michael Powell writing for the Washington Post: "Cecil Hollins, the only African American among 30 or so gold badge tennis umpires in the world, was whacking tennis balls with another black umpire in the early morning hours before the start of play at the 1998 U.S. Open. White umpires played on either side. But a white groundskeeper walked straight toward the black umpires. Using a racial epithet, the groundskeeper ordered the black men to "get off the court," according to the sworn testimony of both umpires. Hollins had refereed matches with Pete Sampras and Boris Becker and John McEnroe -- and even the brattiest stars had praised him. He often questioned why the U.S. Tennis Association would not assign him to umpire a men's singles final, an honor never accorded to a black man. But he knew how to keep his cool. So Hollins walked off the practice court and reported the incident to the USTA. But in the years since, the USTA stripped Hollins, 50, of his gold, silver, bronze and white umpire's badges. Three years ago, the association terminated him as an umpire. Hollins and a black female umpire have responded by suing the USTA, alleging racial, sex and age discrimination. Now five members of Congress and several prominent civil rights and women's organizations have rallied to the side of the black umpires. They point to what they call a disturbing pattern."...Brad Gilbert writing for The Times Online: "I know my name has been linked with coaching [Andy Murray], but I feel very loyal to ESPN, the American cable television company, and although they know I will be back coaching some time in the future, I am very happy doing what I am doing."