06/07/2006
Williams Loses to Vaidisova at French Open
Teen sensation Nicole Vaidisova pulled off her second successive upset Tuesday at the French Open, beating Venus Williams 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3 to earn her first Grand Slam semifinal berth.
The score was remarkably similar to the 17-year-old Vaidisova's previous match, when she stunned top-ranked Amelie Mauresmo 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2.
Again Vaidisova staged a comeback. And when a Williams forehand sailed long on match point - her 70th unforced error - Vaidisova dropped her racket and threw up her arms in glee.
The German-born, Florida-based Czech has drawn comparisons to Maria Sharapova, who was 17 when she won Wimbledon in 2004. Vaidisova's opponent Thursday will be Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who reached the Roland Garros semifinals for the first time by overcoming an early 5-1 deficit and beating Dinara Safina 7-6 (5), 6-0.
Vaidisova, seeded 16th, pulled ahead to stay at 3-2 in the third set when Williams double-faulted to lose serve. The teen erased a break point to hold in the next game, won a series of brilliant rallies to hold again for 5-3, then broke serve for the sixth time to clinch the win.
Williams, the reigning Wimbledon champion, again came up short in her 10th try for a Roland Garros title. She was seeded 11th and playing only her 14th match this year after being sidelined 3 1/2 months with injuries.
The No. 14-seeded Safina, playing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, unraveled after blowing the early lead and won only three points in the second set against Kuznetsova. Safina finished with 13 winners and 36 unforced errors.
Kuznetsova, seeded eighth, is bidding for her second major title. She won the 2004 U.S. Open.
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10/21/2005
Looking to the future.
On the eighteenth hole at the 2001 US Masters two very significant things happened.
Firstly, Tiger Woods completed his "Tiger Slam" of four successive Major championships with a fantastic birdie three.
Secondly - and as we approach the 2002 Masters, perhaps equally significantly - the minds of the green-jacketed Augusta members were made up. Although they had made some changes to the course for the 2001 Masters, these were not sufficient.
They could not have lob wedges being hit into the final green for birdies. It just wasn't what Bobby Jones, founding father of the club, had in mind.
Woods is still the defending champion when the 66th Masters begins this week. Greg Norman has been offered another chance at a Green Jacket. Phil Mickelson still hasn't won a Major.
Apart from that, everything else at Augusta has changed ...
Soon after that historic final hole, the bulldozers moved in to reshape the course that millions around the world, through international TV coverage, have grown to know and love.
The affection for the Masters is not just some passing fancy, either. No, darn it, we adore Augusta National.
The changes have made the course into the third longest in Major Championship history. When coupled with the trademark greens that can make our golfing idols look a little silly, this is likely to change the nature of the tournament altogether.
"You've got to really play well now to break 70," Ernie Els said, after playing the new layout. "If we have a little bit of weather come through ... you could see even par winning if it's really tough."
"You don't want somebody slinging it around there and winning because he had a good week putting," said Mark Calcavecchia, runner-up in the 1988 Masters. "Whoever wins that tournament is going to have to have it all."
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10/20/2005
You'll get em' next time Andy.
Andy Roddick blew a match point and lost 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3) to Ivo Karlovic on Wednesday in the second round of the Madrid Masters in a contest between big servers.
Roddick, seeded second, was playing his first tour match since losing in the first round of the U.S. Open. "For two sets, I don't think I could have played better," Roddick, of the United States, said. "It was the highest quality match we've played."
He had an easy first set and held match point at 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker against the six-foot-10 Croat, the ATP Tour's tallest player. Karlovic won the tiebreak 9-7 on his second set point when Roddick's return went wide.
Both players had chances to break in the deciding set, but they served to another tiebreaker before Karlovic took a 3-1 lead.
"You're going to have two or three points per tiebreaker that's either going to go your way or it's not," Roddick said. "It didn't go my way tonight. In the second tiebreaker, I don't think I played a bad point."
Earlier, Rafael Nadal beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the second round, the top-seeded Spaniard's first match before a home crowd since his French Open victory.
Nadal, who received a first-round bye along with the 15 other seeded players, will next play Tommy Robredo, who outlasted Carlos Moya 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in an all-Spanish match that ended well past midnight.
"The match was not easy," Nadal said. "I was a bit nervous, a bit slow."
Nadal trailed 3-1 in the first set and 3-0 in the tiebreaker before rallying. In the second set, Nadal broke to lead 4-3 and broke again to win.
Other winners were third-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, fourth-seeded Guillermo Coria of Argentina, sixth-seeded Mariano Puerta of Argentina and eighth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.
Seventh-seeded Gaston Gaudio lost to Jose Acasuso 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the second round in an all-Argentine match.
Gaudio dropped his fifth straight match, hurting his chances of qualifying for the Tennis Masters Cup next month in Shanghai, China. Four already have secured berths: Nadal, Roddick, Roger Federer of Switzerland and Marat Safin of Russia.
Davydenko beat Slovakia's Karol Beck 6-4, 6-1, and Coria defeated Belgian qualifier Christophe Rochus 6-3, 6-4 to improve his chances of making the season finale.
"It was an ugly match, boring for spectators," Coria said. "But the important thing was to win."
Rochus' younger brother, Olivier, knocked out 12th-seeded Mario Ancic of Croatia 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5); Puerta edged Max Mirnyi of Belarus 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5); and Ljubicic defeated Alberto Martin of Spain 6-3, 7-6 (7).
Also, ninth-seeded Thomas Johansson of Sweden beat Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela 7-6 (2), 6-3; 10th-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic rallied past England's Tim Henman 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; and 14th-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia eliminated Germany's Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-2.
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