Seles and Sampras Pushed on Friday
by Prip
Anna Kournikova only barely
survived her match against doubles partner Barbara Schett today,
winning 2-6 6-4 6-3. Making unbelievable errors and acting like a
brat on court, the Russian got lucky, and will get to wear her golden
shoes for at least another singles match here in Melbourne Park. Her
fourth round bout with Barbara Rittner should be a little less testing, although the former top 25
player has been turning in solid performances after dropping down the
rankings last year from injuries.
Justine Henin, as expected, took out Sandrine Testud easily in
straight sets despite suffering from blisters on her foot. The
Belgian will next meet Monica Seles, who struggled against fellow lefty Emilie
Loit in the night match. The Frenchwoman has been
very good about keeping her cool lately, and managed to move on from
several close calls. Playing very smart tennis to move Monica around
and open the court up, Emilie did an extremely good job of exposing
Monica's glaring weakness. Seles won her only previous encounter with
Henin, which was played on carpet at the Fed Cup final on the American's
home turf. This time, however, the Belgian is likely to perform far better, and
should at the very least take the match to three sets. I think Justine
will come through against the American, particuarly if she watched the
Loit match and picked up a few tips. Meanwhile, the other talented young
Belgian -- Kim Clijsters -- moved easily into the next round, and
will play against Lindsay Davenport.
The surprise of the day in the women's draw came from Marta Marrero
of Spain, who defeated Emmanuelle Gagliardi in four tough sets. The
Spaniard has a mature build for her age, and has nearly equaled her career
best Grand Slam performance in reaching the fourth round here at the
Aussie Open. At only 17 years of age, she reached the quarterfinals
of Roland Garros, which, incidentally, was her debut Grand Slam event,
before finally falling to Conchita Martinez.
Semifinal predictions: Martina Hingis (1) to come through against
Serena Williams (6), only to meet her sister Venus (3) in the semis.
In the bottom half, Justine Henin will get through Monica Seles (4) to
take on Lindsay Davenport (2).
Pete Sampras once again turned in a very questionable performance,
against Juan Ignacio Chela of Spain. Barely showing any effort on the
court, the American was lucky to take the fourth set, but when he did,
he smelled blood and went for the kill. His luck seems to be running
good, as Todd Martin will be waiting in the next round instead of
Cedric Pioline. The Spanish thirteenth seed played a sloppy match
against Todd, but would have posed a serious threat to Pete had he
gotten through this match.
Marat Safin rolls on in the men's draw, whipping Michal Tabara
6-1 6-1 6-4. Andre Agassi again turned in a solid performance, despite
blowing a small lead and having to save 1 set point in the first set.
With temperatures soaring around 36 degrees, his opponent David
Prinosil simply couldn't keep up, though, and had to retire at 0-5
down in the second set with heat exhaustion. Pat Rafter also cruised
into the next round, ending his 6-4 6-1 7-5 win over unheralded Michel
Kratochvil on an ace. Finally getting his rhythm and his service going, the Aussie signed
as many autographs as he could reach up comfortably for, but looked
like his shoulder is still giving him problems. Always a nice guy, he
gave his t-shirt to one of the ballboys to give one of the fans in the
stands.
Aside from a hiccup in the third set, Tim Henman had little trouble
disposing of Wayne Arthurs in the men's night match. Henman will meet his
second Aussie in as many rounds, taking on Patrick Rafter next.
Meanwhile, Andrew Ilie continues to amuse the fans with his
shirt-tearing and post-match antics. Walking into and even
accidentally hitting a ballboy with the ball with a service return,
the Aussie cruised past Mikhail Youzhny after pulling
through the first set in a tie-breaker. Ilie's sure to get a Rod Laver
Arena showcase in the next round, where he'll be playing a fellow
named Andre.
Semifinal predictions: with Greg Rusedski taking out top seed
Gustavo Kuerten and Lleyton Hewitt looking less than 100%, the first
semifinal should end up between fifth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov and
unseeded Carlos Moya. In the bottom half, Andre Agassi (6) and Marat
Safin (2) will battle it out.
Day 5 saw the first of the mixed doubles teams in action. One notable
change in the draw is the withdrawal of prominent couple Lleyton
Hewitt and Kim Clijsters. With both still in contention in the singles
draw, the move was probably the smart thing to do. Another couple
still in contention in the singles is Marlene Weingartner and Andrew
Ilie, but that pair will give the mixed doubles a go. One seeded team
has already been taken out. Nicklas Kulti and Asa Carlsson, seeded
eighth, lost to wildcards Scott Draper and Lisa McShea in straight
sets despite a tough fight at the end. To the delight of the local
crowd, the Aussies won 6-3 7-6(10).
# 1 seeds Rennae Stubbs and Todd Woodbridge will play '99 French Open
champions Piet Norval and Katarina Srebotnik in the first round,
while second seeds Anna Kournikova and Max Mirnyi will play Amanda
Coetzer and David Adams. Tough first-round matches, but the top two
pairs look good to reach the finals. Other teams of note: Lisa Raymond /
Leander Paes, Joshua Eagle / Barbara Schett (4), Mahesh Bhupathi /
Ai Sugiyama (7).
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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