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by Prip More third round action, and the matches today would have to be a little more interesting than yesterdays. Martina Hingis played an atrocious (by her standards) first set, making very uncharacteristic errors against wildcard Virginie Razzano. Perhaps finding it still a little too early in the day, Martina only really got started at 5-all in the first set, and from there, lost only 1 in taking the next 8 games. Up next for her will be Rita Grande, who took out the last remaining Aussie in the women's draw, Evie Dominikovic. The Williams sisters had absolutely no problems in their matches, losing only 10 games between them. Meanwhile, Iva Majoli failed to take advantage of a slow start by Amelie Mauresmo, and lost 6-4 6-2. Had the Croat made a bigger effort and played a cleaner game at the beginning, the results might have been rather different. Mary Pierce became the upset of the day, losing to Paola Suarez of Argentina. Hampered by a hamstring injury, Mary was pretty much limited to moving in a 2 meter radius, just as Henrieta Nagyova was against Jennifer Capriati days earlier. Unlike Henrieta, though, she couldn't just block out the pain, and Mary played through the match with a grimace on her face after nearly every point, perhaps simply so that she wouldn't have to default her doubles match later in the day. (Pierce and Testud went on to win that match, surviving a close three-set challenge from Amy Frazier and Katie Schlukebir.) In the men's draw, Roger Federer failed to make an impression against Arnaud Clement. Playing a lackluster game and simply unable to execute winning shots, the Swiss went away meekly after coming close to taking the first set. Greg Rusedski, Sebastien Grosjean and Rainer Schuttler all cruised through their matches, while Yevgeny Kafelnikov had another hard time getting started in his match against Chris "Country" Woodruff. Arguing extensively with the umpire and letting his emotions affect his tennis, the Russian had few problems once he managed to calm down a little. Andreas Vinciguerra scored the upset of the day in the men's draw, taking out Wayne Ferreira in four sets. Wayne made 58 unforced errors in the match, but only 7 in the second set, and that pretty much told the story. Later on in the press conference, the South African revealed that he had injured a finger on his left hand while trying to catch a ball during practice (don't tennis players ever learn?), and not only could not bend his finger to hold the racquet but was in a lot of pain. Disappointed but resigned to the loss, Wayne has not ruled out continuing in the doubles with Yevgeny Kafelnikov, whom he would have met in the next round of singles had he won. In the doubles, Martina Hingis and Monica Seles played a highly entertaining match against Jennifer Capriati and Jelena Dokic despite the easy looking 6-3, 6-3 score. With all three other players being big-hitters, Martina's tactic was to get in to net as quickly as possible, and with Martina, there's always a way to get into net. Monica herself did a pretty good job of holding up with her volleys, although once again her reflexes were the slowest of the four. The difference came on the big points, when Martina made an extra effort to dominate play. Next up for them will be another tough pair, Kim Clijsters and Laurence Courtois. With so many top singles players making up good doubles teams, it turns out that the doubles draw has ended up as one tough competition, and whether this discourages the top women players from playing in the future is yet to be seen. The women's night match turned out to be the best one of the tournament so far, with Daja Bedanova playing an excellent match to take out the ninth seed Elena Dementieva. The men's match turned out to be yet another thrilling 5-setter, with another pair of former number ones having to play each other early in the draw. Carlos Moya ended up getting the win over seventh seed and local favourite Lleyton Hewitt, and continues his bid to get to at least the semifinals here in Melbourne. In the mixed doubles, sixth seeds Kimberly Po and Don Johnson were replaced by Ashley Fisher and Louise Pleming, with Don leaving the tournament early. Top seeds Rennae Stubbs and Todd Woodbridge took out Katarina Srebotnik and Piet Norval almost too easily, and will most likely play the finals against second seeds Anna Kournikova and Max Mirnyi. However, there is still a long way to go between now and then in the mixed doubles competition. |