Agassi Out of MS-Canada; Sharapova Needs More Money
Posted on August 5, 2006
Agassi Opts for Cincy Instead of CanadaAndre Agassi has decided he will skip next week's Masters Series-Canada to rest for a week and guarantee his participation in the Masters Series-Cincinnati.
Last year Agassi lost in three sets to Rafael Nadal in the MS-Canada final, an effort which caused him injury and kept him out of the MS-Cincy.
"I regret to inform Toronto that I will not be playing in the Rogers Cup," said Agassi in a statement Friday afternoon. "I have many great memories in Canada and wish you continued success. It's a fantastic tournament."
Agassi won the MS-Canada title in 1992 (d. Ivan Lendl), '94 (d. Jason Stoltenberg), '95 (d. Pete Sampras), and lost his only final last year.
"Andre has been a champion his whole life and is a three-time winner of this tournament," said Tournament Director Grant Connell. "He was a finalist last year in Montreal and was not able to compete the following week in Cincinnati. This year he decided to switch events. We are disappointed that he will not be able to play one last time in Toronto but understand his situation. Andre leaves behind a legacy in Canada as one of the greatest players of all time and has served as a tremendous ambassador for the game of tennis."
This week in Washington Agassi admitted to tightening-up against Italian qualifier Andrea Stoppini, losing in straight sets then saying his announcement of a "farewell tour" ending at the US Open may have put more pressure on him than he realized.
"Breaking a racket for me has always been a sign of caring about something that you can't quite get over the hump with," Agassi said of his racquet-smashing fit during the loss. "I was very frustrated. I wanted very bad to get out there and be comfortable and hit my shots. But I felt like with every point, the court got smaller and smaller and I had a hard time keeping the ball on the court."
Rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal head the MS-Canada event, with nine of the Top 10 on the ATP Rankings in attendance.
Safin, Murray Win; Tursunov Dominates Henman Again
Marat Safin continued with his new-found form to advance to the Legg Mason Tennis Classic semifinals, following a 7-6(5), 7-6(9) victory against South Africa's Wesley Moodie on Friday.
It was the first ever meeting between the two players, and the win helped Safin to bring his 2006 singles record to 14-13. The Russian will play Arnaud Clement tomorrow. Clement beat the third seed, Lleyton Hewitt, for only the second time in his career. Hewitt, who lost 7-6(1), 6-4, had a strong 7-1 record against the Frenchman prior to the match.
Dmitry Tursunov, currently No.29 on the Indesit ATP rankings, continued his successful record against former Washington champion Tim Henman in the U.S. capital. Tursunov's 6-3, 6-2 quarterfinal victory means he leads the British No.2 by 4-1 in their overall encounters. It also stretches his 2006 match record to 28-21.
Tursunov will now face Andy Murray, the British number one, who defeated home favorite Mardy Fish in Friday's other quarterfinal. Murray, who extended his record for the year to 22-17, beat Fish 6-2, 6-4 in 77 minutes under the guidance of new coach Brad Gilbert.
-- ATP
Davydenko, Calleri, Mayer Into Sopot Semis
Top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko will play No. 7 seed Filippo Volandri in the semifinals of the Orange Prokom Open on Saturday.
Davydenko beat Carlos Berlocq 6-0, 6-4 in one hour and 18 minutes, winning the first set in just 22 minutes -- conceding five points.
Berlocq, playing the third Top 10 player of his six-season professional career, had his serve broken in the fifth game of the second set.
That was enough for Davydenko, currently No. 6 in the INDESIT ATP Rankings, to extend his match record to 42-20 for a place in his sixth ATP-level semifinal.
This season Davydenko has won the Poertschach title in May (d. Pavel) and finished runner-up in Bastad (l. to Ferrero) and Estoril (l. to Nalbandian).
Volandri knocked out Austrian Oliver Marach 6-2, 6-3 and will now look to back-up his Doha quarterfinal win over Davydenko in their fourth career meetings.
Buenos Aires finalist Volandri broke the Marach serve on seven of 19 opportunities for victory in 88 minutes.
In the bottom half of the draw, Germany's Florian Mayer will play Kitzbuhel champion Agustin Calleri for the first time in the semifinals.
Mayer knocked out fifth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4, 6-0 in 60 minutes, breaking the Argentine's serve four times.
Calleri, meanwhile, extended his winning streak to eight matches in beating Michal Przysiezny 6-4, 6-2. Przysiezny was the first Polish player for 20 years to reach an ATP-level quarterfinal (Wojtek Fibak at Rotterdam in 1986).
-- ATP
Sharapova, Clijsters, Vaidisova Into San Diego Semis
SAN DIEGO, CA, USA -- After dropping the opening set and going down 2-0 in the second set of her quarterfinal match against Anna Chakvetadze, who had already sent Nadia Petrova and Ana Ivanovic packing earlier this week, things didn't seem too bright for Nicole Vaidisova. But she stuck around, toughing out a 36 64 63 win, a win that assured her of a Top 10 debut when the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Singles Rankings come out Monday.
Vaidisova, the No.7 seed at the $1,340,000 Acura Classic, was broken twice during the 37-minute first set, and again in the first game of the second set, but turned things around by cutting down on the errors and playing big points better, gaining the critical break in the fourth game of the final set and holding the rest of the way.
"I don't think it could have gotten much worse than that," said the 17-year-old Czech on the one-set, 2-0 second set deficit. "But I think it would have been even tougher and a little bit of a different story if I was down 3-0 and two breaks."
The victory not only sends Vaidisova into her career-first Tier I semifinal, her only other semifinal of comparable size being her final four showing at Roland Garros this year, it also gives her a projected No.9 ranking for next Monday, a Top 10 debut. She will be the 12th-youngest player since the inception of the computer rankings over 30 years ago to crack the Top 10, at 17 years, three months and two weeks old.
Also reaching the Acura Classic semifinals Friday were Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova and Patty Schnyder, all of whom won straight set quarterfinals.
Clijsters, the top seed, survived a tight first set but cruised in the second set of her match against No.8 seed Martina Hingis, 75 62. The Belgian squandered a 4-2 lead in the first set but clinched it on consecutive Hingis groundstroke errors serving at 6-5. After going ahead 3-2 in the second, she won 12 of 16 points to end the match; it was her third victory in three 2006 meetings against the recently-returned former No.1, a two-time champion here.
"When you play Martina, you have to win the points against her; she won't hit you off the court," said Clijsters, who is 23-0 in summer hardcourt matches since falling to Peng Shuai in this very match last year. "It's up to me to be aggressive, to go for the winners. It's why you take the risk and make a few more errors."
Sharapova had a much easier time in her match against Mary Pierce, cruising past the defending champion, 62 63, in one hour, eight minutes. The No.2-seeded Russian teen blasted eight aces and did not lose her service once the entire match, while Pierce, playing her first tournament in nearly six months, was nowhere near as impressive on serve, winning less than a quarter of second serve points and giving up four breaks.
"I thought I played solid," said Sharapova, now 3-1 against the Frenchwoman, having won their last three encounters. "First set I got up a break and felt I was returning really well. But she's always dangerous. She's a pretty big hitter."
"It was encouraging; it didn't feel too bad," Pierce said. "I'm confident that within a couple of weeks I'll be feeling pretty good about myself and my game. It would have been nice, of course, to defend my title and win here, but I did my best."
In a mild upset, a No.5-seeded Schnyder ousted No.4 seed Elena Dementieva, 64 63, in one hour, 21 minutes. The victory broke the head-to-head tie between the two players, with the Swiss now leading that series, 6-5. She is now through to her third straight semifinal on American hardcourts, having finished a semifinalist in Cincinnati two weeks ago and a runner-up last week in Stanford.
Saturday's afternoon line-up begins at 1pm local time, and includes the singles semi between Sharapova and Schnyder and a doubles semi between No.2 seeds Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs and No.7 seeds Dinara Safina and Katarina Srebotnik. The night session, which begins at 7pm, sees Clijsters taking on Vaidisova and top doubles seeds Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur facing No.4 seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Meghann Shaughnessy.
-- WTA
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
From ABC Sport on Maria "The Global Brand" Sharapova: "Maria Sharapova has never been afraid of speaking her mind and the Russian freely admits that a desire to build on a successful start to her career is fuelled by the prospect of an ever-expanding bank account. "It's never enough. I always look for more," Sharapova told reporters. "Bring on the money." According to a recent survey in Sport Illustrated, the 19-year-old world number four is the world's highest-paid female athlete, earning an estimated $33.4 million dollars a year. Sharapova is also ranked number four on the magazine's international top-20 list, behind Formula One driver Michael Schumacher, MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi and soccer star Ronaldinho. However, she has moved ahead of Real Madrid's David Beckham, baseball player Ichiro Suzuki and Swiss tennis player Roger Federer, who earns an estimated $29 million a year. Sharapova, who has endorsements from a string of multinational companies, says she will always find time for another major contract. "When I was working my way to the top of tennis, I didn't say I was number two, I said I wanted to be number one," she said. "There's not limit to how much money you can make."...What's the verdict on Sean McDonough in the booth with Patrick McEnroe for ESPN? Any good, or does it sound like he is reading the stock report?...During her week off before San Diego, Maria Sharapova chooses to go train in LA, where Andy Roddick is playing, and where she pops up to watch his matches -- Hmmm...Best irreverent tennis connection from the AP: "DAVENPORT, Iowa -- A man was charged after police say he threatened a detective with nunchuks. McCory J. Slemmons, 26, of Davenport, was charged Wednesday with assault while displaying a dangerous weapon and public intoxication. The detective was monitoring an area where officers were looking for a robbery suspect early Wednesday morning when Slemmons approached him and accused the detective of "looking at his wife," court documents said. The detective arrested Slemmons, who later admitted during a police interview that had been drinking vodka and beer, records show." -- Shocking, didn't see that ending coming...Another tough week for U.S. tennis. Last year there was an American in every final in every US Open Series event, now Washington is the second straight event without an American in the semifinals after LA...Andre Agassi has pulled from the Masters Series-Canada...Nicole Vaidisova will crack the Top 10 for the first time Monday after her results this week in San Diego...From Allan Hall writing for The Age: "It took him nine years, $A12 million, endless planning wrangles and battles with mice and local planning officials but Boris Becker finally has a home. The Wimbledon tennis legend threw a grand opening party for "Son Coll" ("Good Mountain") in Majorca this week that included a guest who surprised everyone. Dressed in a flamenco-style pink and black dress, Angela Ermakova, mother of Becker's love-child spawned during their infamous "quickie" sex romp in the broom cupboard of a top London restaurant -- met the cream of German society and Becker's mother when she arrived for the housewarming. Becker led her by the hand through the partygoers, patiently introducing her to all. But it is understood that they are just good friends -- there is no rekindling of their extremely short affair."...From the WTA San Diego website: "If there was an award for "The Good Deed of the Week," top-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium would be the clear cut winner. On Thursday night as part of the Acura Classic's fourth annual charity event to benefit the Scripps Polster Breast Care Center, a Black Labrador puppy was auctioned off in between the night session matches. During the charity dinner earlier in the evening at the La Costa Resort and Spa, Clijsters noticed the puppy had taken a liking to a woman attending the function. She met the woman, Jackie Morgan of nearby Cardiff. Later, Clijsters learned that Morgan's nine-year-old Black Labrador "Kimba" had died the year before. At the on-court auction, hosted by former tennis stars and current ESPN2 broadcasters Mary Joe Fernandez and Pam Shriver, the top seeded Belgian joined in the bidding, which had reached several thousand dollars, for the Black Labrador puppy named Ace. Finally, when the bidding reached $11,000, Clijsters made the winning bid. Upon receiving Ace, she called out to Morgan, who was in the stands, to come down to the court. When Morgan reached the court, Clijsters presented her with Ace. An overjoyed Morgan appropriately renamed the puppy "Kim.""...Venus Williams has pulled from the WTA stop in Carson next week with her ongoing wrist injury. Oft-injured players Serena Williams (knee) and Lindsay Davenport (back) are still scheduled to play the event...From Sky Sports: "Murray Hails New Coach"; from Reuters: "Murray Not Yet Ready to Call Gilbert a Miracle Worker."...ESPN is showing the ATP Washington and WTA San Diego semis today from 2-6pm on ESPN2, with The Tennis Channel picking up the coverage at night.
Also see:
Legg Mason Day 6: Rain, rain, go away
http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2006-08-04/79.php
Washington and Other Random Notes
http://www.tennis-x.com/story/2006-08-04/c.php