Tennis-X.com Notes: Federer 27 Straight Wins Over Americans

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Still no man has won the US Open without the loss of a single set...Roger Federer has now won five straight over James Blake and 27 straight over American players since falling to Andy Roddick in Canada in 2003. Federer has also reached a record-tying 10th consecutive Slam semifinal, matching Ivan Lendl's record...For just the second time in US Open history, two Russian men have reached the semifinals in Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny, matching the 2001 feat by Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin)...Andre Agassi appeared on CNN Larry King Thursday night from Los Angeles...Nikolay Davydenko has reached the same number of career Slam semifinals as his victim Thursday, Tommy Haas. Davydenko has also won 10 straight matches including a title in New Haven...James Blake broke Roger Federer three times, and after winning a set may have mentally broken through for more...This was the third time Nikolay Davydenko had overcome a two-set deficit...Maria Sharapova is the lone player left to not have lost a set...For the first time this decade four different nations are represented in the women's last four...A Russian woman has reached the semifinals or better now in 11 straight Slams...From the AP: "Drug testing at all WTA Tour events will be overseen by the International Tennis Federation starting in January, with the number of tests expected to increase by 150 percent." -- Which makes you question, how lax was the WTA's own internal drug testing, and will 2007 be a parade of doping busts?...Tatiana Golovin on Maria Sharapova's grunting: "It is kind of distracting. You don't need to be screaming that loud. I don't think the ball actually goes faster if she's grunting."...Now you can go to the ATP website to buy a Roger Federer bear: "Support the ATP's charitable efforts for UNICEF through the purchase of the "Feder-bear" beanie baby. The "Feder-bear," a take-home version of UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassador and ATP's #1 ranked player Roger Federer, will be available for purchase this holiday season. Proceeds from the sale of each bear will benefit the "ACE" program (Assisting Children Everywhere), a global partnership between the ATP and UNICEF to help ensure health, education and protection of children around the world. By joining the waiting list now, you will be the first to receive information and news on the launch date and availability of the limited edition Feder-bear!"...Marat Safin on why the Russian women are succeeding where the Russian men aren't: "With all due respect, you cannot compare the men to the women. Women's tennis is a little bit more simple than the men's, unfortunately, with all the respect to the women. It's a bit easier to become a pro, a top 100 player. Right now we have, I don't know how many girls, maybe 20, 30 girls, that make it. We have great players in Russia, juniors, but somehow nobody knows how to explain to them what to do All the time...they come with excuses, 'I'm not going here, I'm not going there.' You don't see them do anything in a year, they quit. The women are more consistent. They work much harder. They dedicate themselves fully to tennis and they can stay on the court forever. The guys, it's just way too many temptations."...Nikolay Davydenko playing down his anonymity while hammering Maria Sharapova: "If I was living in America or have a residence here it could be different. But I don't live here, not yet. That's why for Americans, Russian players are not important. Sharapova, she's Russian but she lives in America. She's famous in America, All the time she is talking about she's American. Russian passport but she's American already."...From the Australian Courier Mail: "Mark Philippoussis has dived into training in Florida for his Davis Cup return in Argentina this month with a commitment his friend and conditioner Brett Stephens cannot remember seeing. Philippoussis, beaten in the first round of the US Open by world No. 2 Rafael Nadal on August 30, has been practising and doing fitness training for the past four days, Stephens said in New York yesterday. In a promising sign, Philippoussis, ranked No. 113, is planning to play a number of US Challenger tournaments after the Davis Cup semi-final from September 22-24 and has engaged Stephens, who was in charge of Pete Sampras's fitness late in the great American's career, through the Australian summer." -- Flipper on clay against the Argentines? Better Peter Luczak, or bring Richard Fromberg out of retirement...Roger Federer said he will return to letting the Swiss Davis Cup team lose in the first round, then bailing them out in the World group qualifying round, when he participates against Serbia later this month: "I knew that if the team lost in the first round, that I would help them try to stay in the World Group. So we're playing in Switzerland in a few weeks' time, and we'll see how it goes." -- We dare you to try and sound more unexcited...Maria Sharapova is 0-3 against Amelie Mauresmo...From Tennis Week: "A week after the U.S. Open ends, championship tennis begins again in the United States. The Outback Champions Series, the domestic senior circuit, announced a series of new additions today including: a new television partner, new corporate sponsors, the additions of Wayne Ferreira and Jimmy Arias to the field and plans for expansion from its current schedule of five events. The Champions Series will conclude its inaugural season with three events this fall: Charlotte (Sept. 20-24), Memphis (Oct. 4-8), Houston (Nov. 8-12). FoxSportsNet -- through its regional affiliates -- will televise all three fall events for the first time and will broadcast all Outback Champions Series events through 2007. The Tennis Channel will also broadcast all remaining 2006 events on a tape delay basis. The network will produce nine hours of coverage per event, including live coverage of all singles finals. WorldSport, the Voom High Definition Network, will also broadcast each fall event in high definition."...From the blogging Charlie Bricker: "When I ran into Jeff Tarango here, I asked if he was still living in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and of course I wanted to know how the kids were doing. Jeff was happy to talk about them but he didn't look that bright-eyed. "And how's Benedicte?" I ventured. He frowned. "We're divorced," he replied. Yes, THAT Benedicte. The one who, in 1995 at Wimbledon slapped chair umpire Bruno Rebeuh because he had disqualified Jeff, and later told reporters: "I try to slap him once, just to tell him that's enough, because Jeff cannot do it. If Jeff slap him, he's out of tennis tour. So I do it." In those days Jeff was known in the locker room as Hair Trigger Tarango. I won't go into the well-known details of Jeff's on-court explosion, which began with Rebeuh overruling an out call on a serve. It was Jeff's and Benedicte's romance that I flashed on. It sounded so much like a Hollywood movie. But, then, I guess nothing is forever these days. Benedicte Carriere worked as a transport liaison to the French Open, arranging transportation for players and officials, when she met Tarango -- this wacky, antic, quirky American lefthander who had played at Stanford University."...From Richard Pagliaro writing for Tennis Week: "Clad in a plain white t-shirt lacking a sponsor's logo that billowed off his rail-thin body and a label-less vanilla baseball cap, Davydenko commanded the court with a physical presences that was as imposing as an over-caffeineted, undernourished bicycle messenger rather than one of the world's premier players. But Davydenko, who prepared for the U.S. Open by winning the Pilot Pen title in New Haven, scored his 10th consecutive victory today to advance to his second major semifinal. He outlasted Tommy Robredo in five sets to reach the 2005 Roland Garros semifinal where he fell in five sets to Argentina's Mariano Puerta, who was subsequently suspended from tennis for testing positive for the prohibited stimulant etilefrine after the 2005 French Open final. "I reach the semifinal of the U.S. Open on hard court," said Davydenko, a quarterfinalist at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros this year. "That's for me already something special. American hard court is different, completely different. Clay and hard court, different game.""...From the BBC on Tommy Haas speaking to the trainer during an injury timeout in the fifth set against Nikolay Davydenko: "It's just wasting time, man, like you do with your woman."...Lleyton Hewitt on if Andy Roddick stands a chance against Roger Federer if he gets to the final: "Probably not."...Mikhail Youzhny is the lowest-ranked semifinalist at the US Open since Karel Novacek in 1994. The Russian was on a six-match losing streak against Spaniards before beating David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Rafael Nadal...From Lisa Dillman of the LA Times: "WTA Tour Chief Executive Larry Scott met with a group of American reporters Thursday, and announced several upcoming changes. His organization experimented with on-court coaching at summer events in Montreal and New Haven, Conn., and will conduct such testing at indoor events this fall at Stuttgart, Germany, Zurich and Linz, Austria. There will be a slight tinkering with the system -- coaching will be limited to breaks between sets, and when an opponent takes a medical timeout or a bathroom break. Also, the WTA will test no-ad scoring in doubles the week of Sept. 25-October 1 at events in Luxembourg, China and South Korea. There are also plans to use instant replay at a tournaments in Beijing, Moscow, the season-ending Championships in Madrid and at Tier I events next year, such as Indian Wells."...Maria Sharapova is 0-5 in Slam semifinals since winning Wimbledon.