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by Prip Melissa Dowse came close to following hot on the heels of her compatriot Alicia Molik (double-bageled by Silvija Talaja) today, losing 6-0 6-2 to, ironically, Silvia Farina. Farina led 6-0 4-0 before letting up her game a little to give the youngster a game. Spurred on by the huge crowd response and the rush of finally getting a game, Melissa started hitting the ball with confidence, and took another game off the Italian. Not wanting things to get out of hand, Silvia wrapped up the match and will be looking to take on second seed Lindsay Davenport in the next round. Lindsay has failed to display her best form after losing to Martina Hingis in the final in Sydney the previous week, and could get into trouble against the experienced Italian if she fails to pick up her game. Conchita Martinez became the casualty of the day when she fell to Emmanuelle Gagliardi. Looking like an earthquake victim with her shoulder and thigh injuries, the Swiss came into the match with a definite plan. Coming in to net as often as she could, Gagliardi took the game to her opponent, forcing Martinez to come up with difficult passing shots. Instead of trying to lob over her opponent’s head, as she is more than capable of, Conchita opted to play the full-topspin shots and tight angles. It worked for the first set, but Emmanuelle soon learned to expect the shots, and did a marvelous job of scrambling and diving around at the net. Her hard work and perserverence paid off and Emmanuelle won 5-7 6-3 8-6, scoring the biggest upset of the tournament so far. Kim Clijsters also played a terrible match, but was lucky that her opponent Alina Jidkova played an even worse one, and came out 6-3 7-6(5). Unhappy with her performance but confident of picking it up by the next round, the Belgian will use her doubles match tomorrow to help her get back on track. Dangerous floaters Barbara Schett and Justine Henin reinforced their threat to the top players, both winning their matches convincingly. Barbara got off to a slightly slow start against Maria Alejandra Vento, but soon found her rhythm and blasted her way to a 6-4 6-2 win. Meanwhile, Justine Henin is simply on fire, extending her match-winning streak to 12 now. The engaged-to-be-married Belgian is likely to take out fourteenth seed Sandrine Testud whom she beat in last week’s final on Friday. The seeds on the men’s seed failed to impress today. Pete, Pat and Marat all turned in questionable performances in their matches, but pulled through nevertheless. Marat had the worst possible first set-and-a-half against Andrei Pavel, and looked like he would go through 30 racquets in that match alone. Nikolay Davydenko was doing some fantastic returning on Pat’s serve, and the Aussie never managed to find the rhythm on his serve. Pete Sampras turned in the most disappointing performance, and struggled throughout his match against Bohdan Ulihrach. The former number 22 rose to the occasion, and pushed Pete to throughout the match, even saving one match point at 4-5 down in a tremendous rally. The three stars will have to get their acts together if they intend to make a lasting impression in the tournament. In the night matches, Anna Kournikova found herself down 0-3 in the second set, but got her mind back on the game to convincingly dismiss Rita Kuti Kis 6-3 6-4. Andre Agassi, showing up in black shorts reminiscent of Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe’s days, turned in the most convincing performace of the day, cruising to a 6-1 6-3 6-1 win over scrappy Paul Goldstein in a mere 77 minutes. If things go on as they did today, the American will be good to defend his title, or at least reach the final. In doubles action, Katarina Srebotnik and Yvette Basting saved 3 match points to come through 6-4 4-6 7-5. Eva Dyrberg and Angelika Bachmann continue to have trouble closing out matches, but Katarina saved the day when she found herself facing 3 match points on her serve, and walloped 5 huge serves in a row to save the day. Shinobue Asagoe and Yuka Yoshida combined to take out fifteenth seeds Karina Habsudova and Sonya Jeyaseelan, while the men’s draw lost two seeded pairs. Seventh seeds Donald Johnson and Piet Norval lost to Frantisek Cerman and Ota Fukarek in a 6-4 2-6 10-8 battle, while sixteenth seeds Simon Aspelin and Robert Koenig lost to Chris Haggard and Tom Vanhoudt 6-4 6-3, confirming the ridicule that is the allocation of seeds in both the men’s and women’s doubles draws. |