Mauresmo, Ferrer Upset at French Open; Coaching Controversy

Posted on June 3, 2007

French Open: Nadal, Hewitt to Meet

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal muscled past Spanish countryman Al Montanes 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 Saturday to complete third round play at the French Open, setting up a marquee meeting with former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round.

Hewitt, who has somehow found his claycourt legs in 2007 after floundering on the surface for much of his career, continued his march Saturday, coming back from a 6-1 loss in the first to defeat No. 20 seed Jarkko Nieminen in four sets.

"I just didn't feel sharp at the start and he's a tough player as he doesn't give you a lot of cheap points," Hewitt said of Nieminen. "I didn't come out of the blocks fast and had to go back to the basics to grind it out."


A couple weeks ago at Hamburg Hewitt narrowly lost to Rafael Nadal in three sets.

"I played a great first set, put pressure on him and it turned into a dogfight in the end," Hewitt said of the encounter. Hewitt has never been past the quarterfinals in Paris. "It definitely gives me confidence. [Nadal's] been the standout claycourt player over the last three years. Not many guys have come that close to him."

Spaniard Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco provided the only upset of the day Saturday, coming back from a first-set loss to defeat his No. 12-seeded countryman David Ferrer in four sets.

Other seeded winners on the day were (6) Novak Djokovic (d. Patience 6-3 in the fifth), (16) Marcos Baghdatis (d. Hajek who retired with injury two sets down), and former champ (23) Carlos Moya (d. Brzezicki).

In all-unseeded play Russian Igor Andreev helped usher out the last of the Frenchmen in the draw, straight-setting Paul-Henri Mathieu, 7-6(4), 6-0, 6-3, while Jonas Bjorkman put up an impressive 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-0, 6-1 win over Spaniard Oscar Hernandez to gain the fourth round.

"These days everyone is so good on hitting the passing shots, so I'm more patient," Bjorkman said. "Trying to get my opponents to not be aware of when I'm coming to net, trying to take them by surprise all the time. Today was a perfect example. I got him to the stage where he was very frustrated. He didn't know when I was coming to net. In the end, I got a lot of unforced errors from him."

On court Sunday at Roland Garros are (1) Roger Federer vs. (13) Mikhail Youzhny, (4) Nikolay Davydenko vs. (15) David Nalbandian, (9) Tommy Robredo vs. (29) Filippo Volandri, and an all-Argentine in (19) Guillermo Canas vs. Juan Monaco.

Mauresmo Exits, Sharapova Soldiers On at French Open

French fans will have to wait another year for a homecountry champion at top bet and No. 5 seed Amelie Mauresmo was ousted from the French Open draw Saturday by No. 25-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova 6-3, 7-6(3).

"The fact is that there's no miracle today," said Mauresmo, who's claycourt preparation was cut short by an emergency appendectomy. "I mean, I've been struggling for weeks now. Coming here at the French Open, I didn't really know what to expect."

Safarova was a first-round loser at the French Open in 2005 and 2006.

"I was very nervous at the beginning," Safarova said. "I tried to just concentrate on each point. I tried to come for each point, to play aggressive. I think that's why I won."

No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova is a double-bad bet to win this year's French Open between an injured shoulder and her poor movement on clay, but that didn't stop the leggy commercial global icon from passing fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-4 Saturday, setting up a meeting with No. 14 seed Patty Schnyder.

"I figured her out pretty quickly," said Sharapova, who nevertheless needed to come back from a 1-4 deficit in the second set. "I think I played a pretty solid first set, but I had a little bit of a letdown. It was a bit strange. I was making a lot of unforced errors in a period of a very short time and in a way I was happy that I was able to come back."

Another upset was performed by Spaniard and No. 24 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues who came back to defeat No. 12 Daniela Hantuchova 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-5.

Other seeded winners Saturday were (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Cibulkova), (7) Ana Ivanovic (d. Ralucca Olaru, bagel in the second), (9) Anna Chakvetadze (d. (21) Sugiyama), (14) Schnyder (d. Knapp in three), and (15) Shahar Peer (d. (17) Srebotnik in three).

Scheduled for Sunday play at Roland Garros are (1) Justine Henin vs. (20) Sybille Bammer, (2) Maria Sharapova vs. (14) Patty Schnyder, (6) Nicole Vaidisova vs. Tathiana Garbin, (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. (15) Shahar Peer, (7) Ana Ivanovic vs. (24) Anabel Medina Garrigues, and (9) Anna Chakvetadze vs. (25) Lucie Safarova.

TENNIS-X NEWS, QUOTES, NOTES AND BARBS
Jonas Bjorkman is in the fourth round of the French Open for the first time in 11 years...From the injured Mary Pierce: "I'll probably be back at the end of the year, or in time for the Australian Open. My aim is to play at the Olympics in 2008 before retiring."...Amelie Mauresmo has not reached the French Open semis in 13 tries...Happy 21st Birthday Rafael Nadal, now you're legal to knock a few back in a few months at the US Open...35-year-old Jonas Bjorkman is the oldest player to reach the last sixteen at Roland Garros since 39-year-old Nicola Pietrangeli in 1972. Bjorkman has also won his last five five-setters and 12 of his last 13...For the first time in the Open Era (since 1968), three Russians have reached the last sixteen of the men's singles at Roland Garros: Nikolay Davydenko, Mikhail Youzhny and Igor Andreev...From Tennis.com: "Patty Schnyder's husband Rainer Hofmann is coaching Anna Chakvetadze. "It was a long time ago. We did it just behind the scenes," said Schnyder. "And she was always wanting him to do it, but he never wanted to do it officially. We'll see what's going to work out. And she's always together with her dad. So we have to see how things work out, but I don't want to be too much involved in it. And I like Anna, and maybe we do some workouts together and hit sometimes, very few." Hofmann met Schnyder when he was hired by Schynder's parents to break up her relationship with a previous coach that had resulted in damage to Schnyder's health and tennis results. The private investigator has previously been convicted of fraud over a business deal and had no tennis background before taking a role as Schnyder's coach."...Here's Nadia Petrova on the anyone-can-coach-women's-pro-tennis mentality: "I'm very surprised because this is a very high-level sport. It's one of the most popular and there's so much publicity. But if you get a little bit closer there are absolutely just a few people who you can call a coach, who have enough experience and knowledge. The rest are just young guys who tried playing in the Futures (low-level competition). It didn't work out so they started as a hitting partner, now they call themselves coaches already. They're going a little bit too far. I think you can only really call yourself a coach if you take a child to the top level."