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by Christopher Gerby Knowle/Kohlmann vs. Kuerten/Van Lottum Men's Doubles: First Round Court 13 For a laid back surfer dude, Gustavo Kuerten sure has been moody lately. He was berating himself and throwing rackets at the Hamlet Cup, then had a heckler ejected from Louis Armstrong Stadium on Tuesday. With that in mind, it makes sense that he'd join forces with the perpetually crabby John van Lottum. Falling behind 3-1 to little known Julian Knowle and Michael Kohlmann didn't help their disposition, but a winning lob by Guga on break point in Game 5 got them back on serve. At 5-5 in the opening set, Kuerten completely framed a return. It fell in for a winner, though, and he raised a hand in apology. Two points later, at 0-40, Van Lottum ripped a powerful backhand, forcing a Kohlmann error for the love break. Kuerten smiled broadly and put an arm around Van Lottum as they strutted to the changeover with a 6-5 lead. Attempting to serve out the set, Van Lottum double faulted for 15-30, giving their less heralded opponents an opening. Kohlmann then caught the baseline with a return...or at least appeared to. Van Lottum immediately held up a considerable space between two fingers, arguing that the ball was clearly long. "Pretty big point, don't ya think?" John rhetorically asked, to no avail. Left-handed Knowle then blasted a winning return of his own, sending the first set into a tiebreak...
Nearing victory at 4-3 in the third, Guga got into a 15-40 hole on his serve. He saved the first break point with an ace, but then Knowle smacked a two-handed winner to get the set knotted up at 4 games apiece. An enthusiastic fist pump from Kohlmann showed how much the German wanted to come out on top in this marathon duel. He held his own serve for a 5-4 lead. At deuce in Game 10, Kohlmann reached match point with a superb running forehand pass. Van Lottum answered right back with an unreturnable serve, punctuated with a fist pump of his own. Two more service winners followed, extending the third set to 5-5. Knowle held easily for 6-5, but Kuerten was even more convincing, putting in four consecutive first serves, none of them returned in play. For the third and final time, these four warriors were going into a tiebreak...
Luxa/Skoch vs. A Kim/Salzenstein Men's Doubles: First Round Court 15 I know, I know, you've had enough of the Czech doubles specialists. But while you might not give a damn about Martin Damm, you should care a skoch about David Skoch. Why? Simply because he has the worst hair in men's tennis. Mere words can't do it justice, but the two that come closest are mullet helmet. *shudder* Oh, and if you're keeping score at home, worst hair in women's tennis goes to Denisa Chladkova's too-short-for-military-service peach fuzz. There were a couple American wild cards in action here. Jeff Salzenstein hasn't played much doubles in recent years, but with a big lefty serve and considerable net skills, he's got the game for it. Alex Kim, on the other hand, is a steady retriever type whose skills are best utilized in singles. None too surprisingly, it was Kim making back-to-back volley errors in Game 3, more or less breaking his own serve. With his parents looking on from the third row, Salzenstein continued racking up free points in his service games. He and Kim even had a couple break chances against Skoch in Game 6, but the Czechs held firm, with David putting away a volley for a 4-2 lead. A love break of Kim followed and Alex dejectedly tossed his racket to his chair. Wrapping up the opening set in 27 minutes, Peter Luxa held at love. The Americans got off to a better start in the second set, but eventually fell 6-2, 6-4. (30) Magui Serna vs. Maria Sanchez Lorenzo Women's Singles: Second Round Court 6 Court 6 has been very good to Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo. She eked out a three set thriller over Janet Lee on that court four years ago and survived a stiff challenge from qualifer Yulia Beygelzimer on Tuesday. Now came the real test: a meeting with 30th seeded Magui Serna, a fellow Spaniard who shares Sanchez Lorenzo's preference for hard courts. Sanchez Lorenzo came out playing aggressive, confident tennis, winning her service games with ease. It was more of a struggle for Serna. Not a picture of peak fitness at her best, Magui looked downright roly-poly at the Open. More importantly, she was having trouble keeping her forehands in the court. Putting in clutch first serves when she needed them, Serna managed to save five break points on the way to 5-5 in the opening set. Sanchez Lorenzo got tight in Game 11, opening with back-to-back double faults and bouncing her racket. Serna looked headed for her first break at 0-30, throwing a nice lob over Sanchez Lorenzo's head. But Maria wheeled around, chased it down, and flipped an equally good lob over her shoulder, winning the point when Serna netted the resulting overhead. Sanchez Lorenzo ran off three straight points from there, holding to 6-5. Serna had a 40-0 lead in Game 12, but Sanchez Lorenzo defiantly hung around, staving off a grand total of seven game points. After the fifth deuce, a laboring Serna popped a drop shot wide, giving Sanchez Lorenzo the day's first set point. Maria cashed it in, driving a backhand winner into the corner, past the outstretched racket of Serna. The 7-5 first set had been a mentally and physically taxing war. Sanchez Lorenzo prevailed, but looked to be in genuine distress as she asked for a bathroom break and left the court. Sure enough, she dropped serve for the first time in the match upon returning. Another long game followed, with Serna saving four break points before throwing in a double fault and her latest wild forehand error for 1-1. Sanchez Lorenzo held easily to 2-1, seeming to have gotten her second wind. Serna, meanwhile, had lost the plot completely. She gagged on a routine smash to end Game 4, leaving Sanchez Lorenzo up a set and a break. Sanchez Lorenzo overcame a couple double faults to hold for 4-1, then broke at love to claim a 5-1 lead in the second set. Serna put up a brave fight in the following game, rallying from 30-0 to 30-40. But Sanchez Lorenzo uncorked a service winner and the game continued. Serna let a second break chance slip away on her umpteenth forehand error. Two points later, Magui misfired with one last forehand, making the 7-5, 6-1 final score official. It was definitely an off day for the 30th seed, but give all due credit to Maria Sanchez Lorenzo. She served well, hit the best overheads I've ever seen from her, and showed remarkable grit in some long, critical games. (6) Dementieva/Krasnoroutskaya vs. Molik/Serna Women's Doubles: First Round Court 8 Not very long after her disappointing singles performance on Court 6, Magui Serna was right back at it, playing doubles with hard serving Alicia Molik next door on Court 8. They'd be underdogs here, facing the all-Russian combination of Elena Dementieva and Lina Krasnoroutskaya. Simply pronouncing Lina's last name correctly was a victory for the chair umpire, who said it very slowly, then smiled and proudly gave thumbs up to a linesman. Three of the players opened with successful service games, but Serna was having a hangover from singles. She got down 0-40 in Game 4, fought back to 30-40, and lost the game when Molik knifed a backhand volley wide. Krasnoroutskaya was in a generous mood, though, double faulting twice as she handed the break right back for 3-2. A beautiful drop volley by the big Aussie ended Game 6 in favor of Molik/Serna. If you've seen Elena Dementieva play this year, you know she's developed a terrible mental block while serving. Particularly on second serves, she chases bad tosses and hits hideous, slow-paced, sidearm knuckleballs which either get pounced on or miss the service box altogether. That was the case in Game 7, an easy break for Molik and Serna. Magui just could not get it together on her own serve, though. She made multiple volley errors, getting broken again as this topsy-turvy set went to 4 games all. After a Kransoroutskaya hold, the pressure was on Molik at 4-5. She got down 30-40, but Lina missed an angled touch volley to blow set point. Another Krasnoroutskaya miscue (netting a forehand approach) took the score to 5-5. Dementieva finally had an uncomplicated service game, even thumping an ace on the way to 6-5. Now it was up to Magui Serna. 0-for-2 serving so far in the set, could she redeem herself? Down 30-40, 6-footer Alicia Molik smacked an overhead to save another set point. The game dragged on for four deuces, Molik and Serna each squandering opportunities to force a tiebreak. Another bad volley by Serna brought up set point # 3. Krasnoroutskaya made the most of this one, stepping into a textbook backhand return, lacing it down the line to win the opening set 7-5. Molik's vaunted serve was broken in the second game of the second set. The same happened to Serna (for the fourth time in four tries) as the Russians upped their lead to 4-0. Molik finally got on the board for 1-5, but there would be no miracle comeback on this day. Dementieva was a little shaky in closing it out, but got the job done. Deja vu all over again for Magui Serna, losing twice in one day by the same 7-5, 6-1 score. (6) Husarova/Friedl vs. Washington/Tarango Mixed Doubles: First Round Court 9 The 2003 US Open will be remembered as the tournament at which Pete Sampras and Michael Chang formally said goodbye. With much less fanfare, one of their American contemporaries (who regularly beat Sampras in the juniors) would make his own retirement official. "I sure hope you're fast," Jeff Tarango said to mixed doubles partner Mashona Washington during a pre-match practice session. Warming up for what -- barring an upset -- would be the final match of his professional tennis career, the fiery lefty was in good spirits. He could even be seen joking around with Ashley Harkleroad (sharing the practice court in preparation for her own doubles match) and Ashley's coach Jay Berger. A winner of 16 ATP titles (2 of them in singles), Jeff had the USTA to thank for this swan song. They had granted a wild card to the team of Tarango and Washington. No such exemption was required for Janette Husarova and Leos Friedl, two of the world's finer doubles players. They looked strong early on, breaking Mashona's serve for a 3-1 lead. Tarango pulled as many tricks out of his bag as she could in the latter stages of the set. He put some backspin on a nifty drop volley in Game 6 and poached out of the I-formation in Game 7. Husarova and Friedl were too solid at the net, however, and they had little trouble closing out a 6-4 win of the opening set. Tarango held to open the second set and got a golden 15-40 opportunity against Friedl's serve in Game 2. Washington lost both break points on errors, though, and badly missed a volley at the end of Game 4, dropping serve for the second time in the match. The Czech-Slovak team had a 6-4, 3-1 lead and was showing no mercy. Friedl nearly knocked Washington down with one big body serve and cranked a couple aces in a love hold for 4-2. Rather than exhibit his famous temper, Tarango continued thinking positively. "That's the one," he said, encouraging Washington after she opened Game 8 with a winning return. Yet Husarova pulled out of a 0-30 deficit to hold for 5-3, putting the next-to-last nail in Tarango's coffin. Jeff did manage to hold serve at love, forcing Leos Friedl to serve it out. Up 40-0, Friedl went for a big second serve, double faulting to extend the match. At 40-15, a Friedl forehand clipped the tape, hopped over, and bounced twice before Mashona could track it down. Jeff managed a rueful smile and shook hands with the deserving 6-4, 6-4 winners. There were no tears, no tributes, no standing ovation. Tarango cheerfully posed for a picture with Washington, signed a few autographs, and walked back to the locker room for the last time. |