Kournikova and Tauziat among the Triumphant Seeds  Canadian Open, Wednesday, August 19 By Ed Toombs

  After today's action in sunny, cool and breezy Montreal, the third round matchups at the 1998 Canadian are now known. Most of the seeds have moved on according to form. The only seeded players no longer with us are Patty Schnyder (10), Dominique van Roost (12), Mary Pierce (13) and Lisa Raymond (17).

  The four surviving unseeded players, it should be noted, are hardly undistinguished. Anke Huber, whose ranking dipped to 21 during a recent injury hiatus, is the 1997 Canadian Open runner-up; Yayuk Basuki is a former top-twenty player who reached the semis here two years ago; young Magui Serna burst onto the scene this year with fourth-round appearances at both the French Open and Wimbledon; and Silvia Farina has fashioned an impressive 34-17 match record this year with three tournament finals.

  Two of the big-name seeds, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Anna Kournikova, gave the fans their money's worth by surviving three-set scares. In the morning match, Sanchez was served a breakfast bagel before coming back to edge an old foe, Karina Habsudova, 0-6, 7-5, 6-2. And in the match we highlight here, Anna Kournikova was quite hard-pressed to defeat the dangerous Ruxandra Dragomir.

Anna Kournikova (15) def. Ruxandra Dragomir, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
Second Round
First career match

  The much-photographed Anna Kournikova is still looking for her first tournament win in the pro ranks, but she is still treated like a diva by the local press. Her routine first-round win over modest doubles specialist Alexandra Fusai was greeted with banner headlines in today's papers here in style-conscious Montreal.

  Today promised to be a more serious test for Kournikova, as her second-round opponent was the accomplished Ruxandra Dragomir. Dragomir is not only a former top-twenty talent with three career titles, but also constituted a stylistic change compared to Anna's previous opponent. Whereas Fusai came to the net often and tried to end points quickly, Dragomir is a speedy baseline retriever who is patient, but also capable of hitting impressive winners on the run.

  Dragomir used her quickness to give Kournikova fits, running down blasts that would have been winners against most opponents. Anna also seemed thrown off by the gusty wind, and misjudged or mis-hit a number of balls. She got better as the match went on, but Ruxandra hung right with her, and the issue was decided in the third set.

  Dragomir put an immense effort into breaking Kournikova's serve in the eighth game of the final set, a long, three-deuce game in which Dragomir baffled her opponent with an array of lobs, passing shots and returns to even the set at 4-4. However, Anna returned the favour, breaking Dragomir back at love thanks to some impressive net play and a delicate drop shot on break point, to take a 5-4 lead. Serving for the match, Anna made no mistake, nailing a swinging forehand volley on her second match point to seal the three-set nailbiter.

  Kournikova now must face yet another stylistic change in the third round. Next, she must deal with the extreme spins of Conchita Martinez if she is to attain the quarterfinals. The two have played twice in 1998, with wildly differing results. Kournikova blitzed Martinez on hard courts at the Lipton, 6-3, 6-0, but Conchita came back to pound Anna 6-0, 6-1 on clay in Berlin. Anna, who thought she played "good in general" today, expects "an even match" with Martinez tomorrow.

Nathalie Tauziat (11) def. Kimberly Po, 6-3, 6-3.
Second round
Previous head-to-head: Po led, 3-2.

  My "upset sensors", which always beep annoyingly inside my head in the first few days of a tournament, sent me to this match. The sensors were suggesting that Tauziat was ripe for an upset at the hands of Kimberly Po. They were obviously were set off by Tauziat's so-so results since her surprising run to the Wimbledon finals (quarterfinals at San Diego and Los Angeles), her losing career record against Po, and her unimpressive three-set win over qualifier Sandra Cacic in the second round.

  Alas, my sensors were malfunctioning as they so often do. They neglected to account for the fact that the Po we saw today is in the early stages of her return to tennis after shoulder surgery last November. Po was on the shelf for six months, until May of this year. Author of a 6-8 record this season, she is obviously far from the form that had her in the top 15 as recently as the summer of 1997. Her ranking has dipped to #70, and she appears nowhere near as fit or as sharp as she was last summer.

  Kimberly, perhaps because of her recent surgery, seems to have lost some of the pop from her shots, particularly from her serve. Tauziat was jumping on Po's first and second serves, and either clocking return winners (Tauziat's excellent return game was a key to her Wimbledon success this year) or coming to the net behind them. As a result, Po was only able to hold serve three times in the match. A shame for Kimberly, as Po's own return game was giving Tauziat fits: Nathalie was broken three times. But Tauziat's ability to attack the American's serve consistently was the key to the match.

  So Po, who when last seen in Montreal was a surprise Canadian Open semifinalist, is back to the drawing board as she attempts to climb back up the rankings ladder. Meanwhile, Tauziat looks forward to tomorrow's third-rounder against a well-known rival, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. Sanchez looked a little flat in today's win over Habsudova, and quite out of sorts in a doubles loss later in the day (Arantxa and Mary Jo Fernandez were beaten by Yayuk Basuki / Caroline Vis, 6-3, 6-3, and Sanchez's serve was broken three times). So Nathalie might have a good chance to reach her third straight hard court quarterfinal. Hey, this quarterfinal run is starting to sound a little more impressive now!
 

Want to react to this report? Click here to send us feedback.