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by Prip Top seed Gustavo Kuerten became the biggest casualty of the tournament thus far in a controversial loss to Greg Rusedski on Rod Laver Arena. Guga had an extremely up-and-down first four sets, but the competition only really heated up in the final set. The charismatic Brazilian had break opportunity to go up 4-2 in the final set, but couldn’t capitalize, and paid dearly for the mistake. With several great opportunities to come to net, he kept moving back to the baseline, and failed to keep the ball consistently in play. Both players held on stubbornly to their service games, and refused to give the break away. The biggest controversy came at 5-all, with Guga serving at deuce. Opting to go for the wide serve, the ball landed about a foot out, but wasn’t called. Even the umpire should have been able to see and make the call, but the call never came, and Guga squeaked through with his service game. Another bad line call against Rusedski came at 0-15, with Guga serving. Greg hit a backhand clearly on the line, but the shot was called out. Perhaps the two bad line calls would make up for Guga being called on foot-faults at least 5 times during the match, which clearly wasn’t the case. Holding 3 game points at 7-all, Kuerten lost 5 points in a row to lose serve, and that became the deciding moment. All credit to Greg, who’s played his best match in Australia, and who persevered despite the bad calls, blisters on his hand and very untimely double-faults. A very disappointed Guga will spend the night thinking about why he never came in to net despite the many opportunities he had before the end of the fifth set. Most of the other seeds in the top half of the men’s draw turned in much more convincing wins than their bottom half counterparts, with an exception being Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Things got a little out of control for the Russian, who got impatient against the steady play of Nicholas Kiefer. Nevertheless, the fifth seed got his act together, and cruised in the final two sets to win 6-2 3-6 3-6 6-3 6-0. Maintaining a high level of confidence for most of the match, Yevgeny is not worried by having to play a 5-setter so early in the tournament. The one seed (besides Kuerten) to fall was dirt demon Franco Squillari, who served 18 double-faults on his way to a loss against Daniel Nestor, the man who knocked Patrick Rafter out of the Olympics. Between Nestor and Rusedski, it certainly was a good day for Canadian-born lefties. Once again, the women’s seeds had an easy time getting through to the third round. Martina Hingis, Amelie Mauresmo, Mary Pierce and Amanda Coetzer all took out their opponents in straight sets, losing only 14 games between them. The Williams sisters on the other hand had a little bit more trouble. Despite Venus having close to no preparation coming into Melbourne, and Serena taken out of Sydney early by Martina Hingis, the girls expressed no concern whatsoever, and casually brushed off the matter. However, it continues to show in their games, and they struggle to get going on court. Facing the same opponents from just the previous Grand Slam, Venus Williams once again found herself pushed by fiery compatriot Meghann Shaughnessy. Meghann was coming into the match with full confidence, and felt she had a good chance to take the third seed out. Coming close to getting a code violation, she put the pressure on Venus’s serve, and took advantage of less than ideal serving from Venus. Keeping consistent and playing her percentages, Meghann managed to get the errors off an impatient Venus, and once again (as she had at the US Open) took a set to a tie-break before losing in straight sets. Sister Serena had an easier time against Nadejda Petrova, who actually went down 1-3 but got the break back (after holding 5 break points and going through 8 deuces) to even it up at 3-all. She couldn’t keep up her game, though, and simply made too many errors to throw the match away 6-3 6-2. With a tendency to lose her head very easily if things don’t go her way, Nadejda will have to get her temperament under control if she is to stay focused long enough to close out a match. Sabine Appelmans was given her farewell match today, losing to Denisa Chladkova 6-2 6-2. Finishing the match with a great point, the Belgian feels satisfied with her career and the legacy she has left her country in the way of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. The tennis world will not totally lose the charming player, though, as she intends to do a little bit of commentary on television before settling down with a family. Rita Grande scored a second straight win over sixteenth seed Amy Frazier, winning 6-4 6-1 in under an hour. The Italian, who has been contending with a thigh injury, capitalized on a barrage of errors from the American, and looks good to get through to the fourth round. Waiting for her in the third round is wildcard Evie Dominikovic, who has turned in the best performance of her career. By taking out Patty Schnyder and now Holly Parkinson, Evie's broken her streak of four consecutive first-round losses here in Melbourne. Another surprise today came with the recipient of the wildcard exchange programme Virginie Razzano taking out Anne Kremer. Both players played a sloppy match, with a total of 22 double-faults between them, but Virginie managed to hold it together better in the end and came out on top. Iva Majoli has presented herself as a dangerous floater in the draw, playing a very focused game against Karina Habsudova. Except for a little incident which resulted in her failing to capitalize on 3 break points and double-faulting twice to open her service game, the Croat showed form not displayed since her stunning Roland Garros win. Taking her game a lot more seriously now, Iva will look to take out thirteenth seed Amelie Mauresmo, who has been turning in solid performances so far, in the next round. "Player to Watch" Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues fell to Daja Bedanova despite turning in an encouraging performance. She had a break to open the final set, but couldn’t hold on, and simply lacked the experience to get her through three sets. The youngster simply needs to develop some physical strength, as well as get some matches under her belt, to get through matches like these. Slovenian talent Tina Pisnik held match point in her match against Marlene Weingartner, but blew an easy over head to lose the set, and from there, simply lost her head. Throwing away countless opportunities, Tina will need to get some control over her temperament and not let missed opportunities run wild in her head. Watched by boyfriend Andrew Ilie, Marlene moved into the third round, her best Grand Slam appearance so far, despite battling injuries for a year now. |