Slow-Starting Agassi Thrills in US Opener; Gilbert Sued
Posted on August 29, 2006
Agassi, Roddick, Fish Lead Americans at US OpenThe top Americans, counting one unseeded legend, did their jobs on the opening day Monday at the US Open where No. 9 seed Andy Roddick, unseeded Andre Agassi and fellow un-seed Mardy Fish advanced into the second round.
Roddick, invigorated by his partnership with part-time coach Jimmy Connors, rolled over France's Florent Serra 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.
"It felt clean," Roddick said after dropping only six games. "I didn't hit yesterday. I got a very short warm-up. You know, but I feel like I've been hitting the ball pretty well. I've maintained the way I've been hitting the ball since Cincinnati. It's a lot better than last year. Better start."
Fish defeated German Simon Gruel in four sets, while Agassi made for a nail-biting night session against Romanian Andrei Pavel, winning from a set down, then 0-4 down in the third set, eventually closing out the match in four sets.
"I wanna be here real bad for the whole two weeks so -- six more (matches)," Agassi said. "I really want to leave my best stuff on the court."
The biggest upset of the day occurred when Spain's Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez stunned world No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
"I really never got going. That's true," Ljubicic said. "It's really hard for me to explain what happened. Obviously, if I had an explanation, I would try to do something differently. Just not my day."
Other upsets were orchestrated by Belgian Xavier Malisse (d. (13) Nieminen), Russian Mikhail Youzhny (d. (19) Hrbaty), Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan (d. (24) Acasuso in five), and Swiss Stan Wawrinka (d. (31) Chela in four).
Other Top 10-seeded winners were (6) Tommy Robredo (d. Saretta) and (8) Marcos Baghdatis (d. Waske).
Additional seeded winners were (11) David Ferrer (d. Almagro), (20) Novak Djokovic (d. Young), and (25) Richard Gasquet (d. Simmonds). Young, the former junior world No. 1, commented that after seeing his opponent and draw, he was happy to just win a set off Djokovic, and complained of an arm injury and leg cramp during the match.
Unseeded winners into the second round were American Justin Gimelstob (d. Marach), Germans Bjorn Phau (d. Morrison) and Benjamin Becker (d. Volandri in four), Czech Jiri Novak (d. Clement), Swiss Marco Chiudinelli (d. Vicente), Chile's Nicolas Massu (d. Sanguinetti in four), Swede Robin Soderling (d. Karlovic), France's Gilles Simon (d. Bracciali), Denmark's Kristian Pless (d. A.Martin in five), Korean Hyung-Taik Lee (d. Ramirez Hidalgo), and Brazil's Thiago Alves (d. Zabaleta).
Highlights Tuesday on the men's side at the US Open will be (2) Nadal vs. Philippoussis, (5) Blake vs. Monaco, (27) Gael "Force" Monfils vs. Russell, (17) Murray vs. Kendrick, (30) Grosjean vs. T.Johansson, (22) Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco vs. Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro, (15) Hewitt vs. Montanes, (23) Tursunov vs. Kunitsyn in an all-Russian, Coria vs. Sweeting, and (28) Calleri vs. the former No. 1 Moya.
Henin, Unseeded Americans Advance at US Open
World No. 2 Justine Henin-Hardenne led the successful Top 10 seeds in action on opening day Monday at the US Open, breezing past Italian Maria Elena Camerin 6-2, 6-1.
Henin-Hardenne won the title last week in New Haven after skipping the major event in Montreal, citing an ongoing knee injury.
"It was the best preparation for me to go in Montreal and get a few matches; I couldn't have it, so I had to change my plan which I don't like that much," Henin-Hardenne said. "But when you have to, you do it. But now my knee is feeling fine. I just have to be careful."
Other Top 10 seeds into the second round Monday were (4) Elena Dementieva (d. Granville), (6) Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Kloesel in three), (7) Patty Schnyder (d. Smashnova), (9) Nicole Vaidisova (d. Rubin), and (10) Lindsay Davenport (d. Zakopalova).
"It's pretty much just my arm," said Davenport of the injury that forced her to retire last weekend in the New Haven final. "Like in fatigueness, soreness. It just feels really heavy. I've actually never had an arm injury. I think I've had every other injury known to a tennis player, but an arm injury. It's kind of the unknown dealing with it. You know, it was playable today. Now that I have every other day off, I think I'll be able to kind of make it better as the tournament goes on."
France's Aravane Rezai provided the only seeded upset on the day, coming from a set down to oust No. 15 Anna-Lena Groenefeld 2-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Other seeded winners were (14) Francesca Schiavone (d. Oprandi), (19) Jelena Jankovic (d. Dulko from a set down), (20) Maria Kirilenko (d. Schruff), (21) Shahar Peer (d. Bardina), (22) Katarina Srebotnik (d. Morigami), (26) Marion Bartoli (d. Poutchkova, bagel in the second), (28) Ai Sugiyama (d. Ondraskova, bagel in the second), (29) Jie Zheng (d. Peschke in three), and (33) Vera Zvonareva (d. Domachowska).
Unseeded American women went 3-for-1 on Monday, with winners Vania King (d. (WC) Molik), Jill Craybas (d. Benesova, bagel in the second), and 16-year-old wildcard Lauren Albanese (d. Savchuk from a set down).
Other un-seeds into the second round were Russians Alina Jidkova (d. Kirkland from a set down) and Ekaterina Bychkova (d. (Q) Skavronskaia), Czech Lucie Safarova (d. Stosur), Finland's Emma Laine (d. Tu), German Martina Muller (d. Yakimova), Croatian Jelena Kostanic (d. Asagoe), Italy's Tathiana Garbin (d. Meng), Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson (d. Martinez Granados), France's Severine Bremond (d. (Q) Dubois), India's Sania Mirza (d. Sprem), and qualifiers Varvara Lepchenko of Uzbekistan (d. Castano from a set down) and Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium (d. (Q) Chan).
Highlights of Tuesday play at the US Open are (1) Mauresmo vs. Barrois, S.Williams vs. Dominguez Lino, (3) Sharapova vs. Krajicek, (27) Golovin vs. Harkleroad, (17) Hantuchova vs. Mattek, (13) Pierce vs. Vesnina, and (8) Hingis vs. Peng.
DAILY TENNIS-X E-NEWSLETTER
A round-up of what's going on in the sport each morning in your e-mail box. Read what tennis industry insiders read each morning to get their heads around the latest news, insight and opinion on pro tennis. A year's subscription costs less than a meal and a pint. Less than a trip to Starbucks. The question is, how can you afford not to subscribe? Get the Tennis-X Daily Dish in your e-mail in-box, even before it's posted on the web, by signing up for the net's most complete daily e-newsletter at http://www.tennis-x.com/subscribe.php
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
A men's locker room attendant said that Andrei Pavel made his first appearance on site at the BJK National Tennis Center on Monday at 3 p.m., the day he played Andre Agassi?...Andy Roddick will reportedly be on his own in Europe after the US Open, without the services of coach Jimmy Connors unless he qualifies for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai...From Newyorkbusiness.com: "Creative Sports and Entertainment Inc. sued professional tennis coach and ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert for $788,000, after he allegedly cut his long-time friend and sports agent, David Bagliebter, out of a number of lucrative contracts. The tennis coach allegedly told ESPN last month to begin paying him directly and stop sending payments to Mr. Bagliebter, who negotiated Mr. Gilbert's three-year broadcasting contract with the sports network in April 2005. The contract called for ESPN to pay Mr. Gilbert $60,000 per Grand Slam event and additional fees for other broadcasting services, according to the suit. Under a 2003 contract, all payments were to be sent to Mr. Bagliebter's firm, which would take out 15% and send the balance to Mr. Gilbert. Mr. Gilbert is also accused of cutting Mr. Bagliebter out of negotiations with the U.K.-based Lawn Tennis Association to become Andy Murray's coach, and for other services, in a 3-1/2 year deal, for $1.3 million a year. Mr. Bagliebter claims that Mr. Gilbert had pulled him out of negotiations earlier in the month by saying he probably would not want the job because it would require that he spent a lot of time in England. The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, says that Mr. Bagliebter has been Mr. Gilbert's friend and manager for the past 20 years."...Monday was a sell-out at the US Open, with the night session attendance of 23K+ a new record...You know the video replay challenge system is creating excitement when journalists in the US Open media center are watching the Andre Agassi-Andrei Pavel match saying "Challenge! Challenge!"...Maria Sharpaova has signed a "lifetime" contract with Prince, worth approximately $25 million over the next 10 years, according to the AP...From smh.com.au: "Mauresmo has won Wimbledon and the Australian Open this year and held the sport's No.1 spot since March 30. She's the top seed at the US Open in New York, where play started on Monday. Yet Mauresmo, who is openly gay, lags her rivals in endorsements. "The corporate world wants this perfect female," said Mauresmo's agent, Micky Lawler. For now, that's Sharapova. At 1.88 metres tall and 60 kilograms with model looks, Sharapova is the world's top-paid female athlete, earning $US19 million ($25 million) a year, according to Forbes magazine. Offers rolled in after she won Wimbledon in 2004. Now the 19-year-old snaps pictures for Canon, chats on a pink phone for Motorola and poses for Sports Illustrated magazine's swimsuit issue. At least Sharapova, who lives in Bradenton, Florida, has 16 career singles titles. Winning wasn't necessary for Russian player Anna Kournikova to rake in sponsorship dollars. Mauresmo, 27, who introduced the press to her girlfriend at the Australian Open seven years ago, has endorsements only with a natural gas company and an eyeglass retailer in her native France. She also has equipment sponsors Reebok and Dunlop Sports."...Greg Rusedski speaking with The Sun on facing fellow Brit Tim Henman at the US Open: "There is not as much needle between us as there used to be. We are at the end of our careers and we have both been dealing with injuries. We want to win but it is not like we are coming through at a young age or in the top 10. We both have families now. I have a young daughter and he has two girls as well. Everything gets put into perspective and you're trying to enjoy that last bit. It's funny that we are playing against each other again. The mathematical probability is one in 127. Tim seems to end up with British draws lately. He nearly had to play Andy Murray for three straight weeks. We played against each other at the Australian Open but it's the first time we'll have played at the US Open, so we'll both look forward to it. I've seen Tim in the locker room. He gave a chuckle and just said 'It's another local derby.'"...Sony Ericsson will replace NASDAQ as the title sponsor of the ATP/WTA Miami/Key Biscayne event in 2007.
Also see:
Superstitious Henin Not a Big Fan of US Open, On-Court Coaching
http://www.tennis-x.com/story/2006-08-28/c.php