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by Prip Day 2 of qualifying saw a little more spice, in both the men's and women's draws. Top seed Alison Bradshaw lost to Nirupama Vaidyanathan in straight sets. Janette Husarova lead 5-1 in the second set, but lost 4 games in a row before closing out the match against Kim Eun-Ha, while Lina Krasnoroutskaya had another comfortable win to set a date tomorrow against Italian Maria Elena Camerin, who took out Angelika Bachmann in three sets. Fourth seed Catalina Cristea was another casualty, losing to lanky Maja Palaversic in straight sets. The upset of the day came when Maria Emilia Salerni lost to Laurence Andretto in a remarkable match. The Argentine had taken the first set 6-2, and had little reason to have any trouble against the Frenchwoman. Then suddenly, Salerni started to make all sorts of errors, missing especially on her forehand. Laurence did a good job, not giving Maria many free points, and took the second set 6-3. Salerni got the early break in the third, going up 2-0, but had no success holding her own serve. The players traded breaks, with Maria going up 4-2 after finally managing to hold serve, but from there, things just became disastrous. With nearly all the Argentinian players and several other players, most notably Christina Torrens-Valero, in attendance to check out the junior number one, Maria totally tensed up. Arguing line calls and looking over to coach Mercedez Paz too often for comfort, her forehand crumbled. With her shoulder a little too tense, her forehands had become flatter and flatter, and were landing either long or into the net. Laurence took the last 4 games in a row to move into the final qualifying round against Saori Obata. The men's draw also lost a couple of their top seeds. Second seed Anthony Dupuis came up short against Guillermo Canas, losing 6-3 6-4, as did fifth seed Tomas Zib against big-serving Nenad Zimonjic. Most likely to come through to the main draw are Andrei Stoliarov, Guillermo Canas, Tommy Robredo, Cyril Saulnier, Nenad Zimonjic, Tomas Behrend, Edwin Kempes and Neville Godwin. The release of the main draw drew much controversy again for Jelena Dokic. This time, instead of playing a "nobody" in the first round, Jelena will take on second seed Lindsay Davenport, a most unfortunate draw for the Aussie. Other interesting first-round matches include Jennifer Capriati (12) vs. Henrieta Nagyova, Elena Likhovtseva vs. Barbara Schett, and Olga Barabanschikova vs. Tina Pisnik. In a freaky coincidence, Silvija Talaja will once again play Alicia Molik in the first round. The Croat will hope for a less nightmarish outcome this time. On the men's side, Lleyton Hewitt will have the crowd's support as he takes on Jonas Bjorkman, who's shown major signs of life in the early stages of 2001. Pete Sampras gets a rough draw in the form of "Cat Jr." Karol Kucera, who eliminated Pete from this tournament in '98 with a blistering four-set performance. Former Australian Open finalists Marcelo Rios and Carlos Moya will meet in another intriguing first rounder, while Tim Henman draws flashy Hicham Arazi and darkhorse contender Roger Federer goes toe to toe with fellow young gun Arnaud di Pasquale. |