Agassi is in, Haas is out
By Benjamin Waldbaum
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
With 5 days to go before the real action begins in Paris, the "qualies" are
in full swing and the tournament favourites are hitting balls out on the pra
ctice courts.
Getting down to business
The Roland-Garros practice courts were an autograph-hunters dream today,
Wedneday, with American Andre Agassi, Argentinian Guillermo Coria, a winner
in Hamburg last Sunday, French hopeful Sebastien Grosjean, Thai Paradorn
Srichaphan, Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov and 2000 champion Mary Pierce all
fine tuning their preparations on the practice courts.
Waxing lyrical about Amelie!
Question: What do Suzanne Lenglen, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and
Amelie Mauresmo all have in common? Answer: They are all on display at the
famous Grevin wax museum in Paris from this coming Thursday. Yes, Amelie has
come of age! A life-size image of the 1999 Australian Open finalist now
lines up alongside such French sporting legends as Jeannie Longo, Florence
Arthaud, David Douillet and Zinedine Zidane.
Grosjean does it for the kids!
Amelie Mauresmo was also guest of honour at another celebration this
Thursday: this time at Port-Marly in the Paris suburbs. The French N° 1
answered the call of her male counterpart, Sebastien Grosjean, to take part
in a "clinic" alongside Nathalie Dechy. The Marseille born champion
organised the exhibition to help two charitable causes: "Arc en Ciel", set
up to make sick children's dreams come true, and Set et match which fights
ataxia and helps research into genetic diseases. Grosjean, who runs the
second charity himself, partnered Christopher Papin, son of the ex- French
international centre-forward, in a doubles game against Arnaud Clement and
Mickael Jeremiasz, French wheelchair tennis N° 1.
The big draw
Who will play who in the men's and women's first round? Find out on Friday
23 May when an as-yet-unknown-celebrity makes the first round draw at the
Roland-Garros restaurant.
Haas pulls out
German ex-world N° 2 (May 2002) Tommy Haas has withdrawn from this year's
tournament. Haas has not played competitively since the Masters tournament
in Paris last November following a string of injuries, notably to his
shoulder. Haas will be replaced by a lucky-loser.
A N0.1 outsider
A modest Lleyton Hewitt declared today in Dusseldorf at the World Team Cup
tournament that he wasn't the favourite to win the French Open in Paris this
year. "Win Roland-Garros? Who knows. Maybe I have to work a bit harder on
clay said the Australian. It'll be a challenge but I've always liked a
challenge. Not having grown up on clay it takes me a little longer to get
used to it. But I enjoy playing on clay, the strategy and the patience you
need he was quoted as saying.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.csie.ntu.edu.tw)
◆ From: 61.217.124.187