Will play younger brother, Olivier Rochus, in next round
Holland's No. 1 player Sjeng Schalken got off to a solid start at the
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam Monday with a straight
set victory over qualifier Christophe Rochus of Belgium. Schalken,
who has not had a blazing start to the season, evened his record on
the year at 3-3 and will look for his first quarterfinal of the year
with a win in the next round.
Schalken's victory prevented a possible match-up of the Rockin' Rochus
Brothers from Belgium after younger brother Olivier advanced earlier in
the day with a dominant performance over Austria's Stefan Koubek.
Instead, Schalken will see the name Rochus on the scoreboard for
the second consecutive match. After starting the season 7-0 and
briefly standing atop the ATP Champions Race 2003, Koubek has now
lost three consecutive matches.
Other winners on the day included Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, a 6-4,
6-0, upset winner over Alex Corretja, who has yet to record an ATP
victory on the season so far, and Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty, whose
consistent game took him to a quarterfinal appearance at the Open 13
in Marseille last week.
In the late night match, a pair of big hitting, serve-and-volleyers
faced off in qualifier Mario Ancic and Belarussian Max Mirnyi with
Mirnyi winning in three sets, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. Not surprisingly, Mirnyi
has now played five tiebreak sets in his past eight sets of tennis
going back to the first round in Marseille last week.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
Dominik Hrbaty: "I had problems to get into the game. I was a little
bit stiff. I felt like a machine that needed to warm up."
"The crucial game was the seventh of the first set. I broke his serve.
After this time, I started to play more consistently and Voinea began
to make mistakes. That was the match."
Alex Corretja: "I feel really bad for the fans out there today and the
tournament director. I came here with great expectations and I failed
to live up to them and I am sorry for that."
"I committed many errors off my right today. I had little time to adjust
from playing on clay courts in the Davis Cup to the indoor surface here.
I was really busy in Barcelona last week so I couldn't properly prepare.
When I saw things were going wrong, I couldn't turn things around."
"My goals are to drastically improve on my performance this season because
it has been pretty weak. I will need to but in some solid results. I look
forward in particular to the European swing following Indian Wells and Miami."
Jarkko Nieminen: "I felt really good on the court from the beginning and
I was soon leading 5-2 in the first set. He was missing more than I
expected, but then he started taking some risks on his shots and played
some good balls. For two games he didn't miss. I then managed to hold my
serve to take the first set. I knew the beginning of the second set was
going to be extremely important. I was surprised that he started missing
even more in the second set."
"I really like the stadium and the court surface. It really suits my game."
On his quick victory over Corretja: "At this kind of tournament, I never
like to speculate what the result of my match is going to be. Every player
at this level is so good and I expect them to be tough opponents."
Olivier Rochus "I played well and felt great. I knew Stefan was injured,
but I am still very pleased with the result."
Stefan Koubek On his rib injury that had prevented him from playing since
winning the ATP event in Doha: "I played my first practice session only
last week. I feel fit enough, but I still need to regain my form."
Sjeng Schalken: "I am so happy to be in the second round in Rotterdam. I
would describe last year's performance here as 'dramatic'. I have never
played well here so I have to show the fans and the country what I can do.
It really gives me great pleasure to be playing in front such a big crowd
on the first night of the tournament."
"Every round in this tournament is very hard to win. The setting of the
tournament -- it is one of the biggest indoor tournaments all year round
and the level of play is so high."
"At the beginning I had a little complaint with keeping my eye on the ball.
I was seeing so many different colours with the court and background. The
view on the ball is a problem with the fast serves and I found I was miss
timing some balls at the beginning."
On playing the second Rochus brother: "I like Olivier's type play more than
his brother's - he plays a faster game. However, the last time we meet was
in Mallorca where I lost to him."
TUESDAY PREVIEW Top-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero makes his indoor debut for
the 2003 season with a 10-2 singles record on the year and a quarterfinal
showing at the Australian Open. Ferrero also reached the final at the
adidas International in Sydney, where he held a match point against
Hyung-Taik Lee before falling in three sets. Ferrero last played an
ATP match indoors at the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai, where he played
a masterful match against World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in the final only
to lose in five tough sets. He faces hard-serving lefty Wayne Arthurs,
who served an amazing 36 aces the last time these two played at 2002
US Open, where Ferrero won in four sets.
Another player making a debut - a season debut - is Britain's Tim Henman,
who has not played an ATP match since the BNP Paribas Masters last November
in Paris. Henman had a busy fall. He underwent arthroscopic surgery on his
right shoulder November 14th and just a month earlier became a father, when
wife Lucy gave birth to Rose Elizabeth on October 19th. Henman has not lost
in the first round of an ATP International Series Gold or International
Series event since Nottingham in 2000 and was a runner-up in Rotterdam
one year ago. He plays red-hot Ivan Ljubicic, who helped lead his Croatian
team to victory with three wins in the Davis Cup tie against the U.S. last
weekend. Ljubicic retired in his first round match in Marseille against
Roger Federer with a sore right shoulder that was a result of over-exertion.
Several other exciting matches are set for tomorrow at the ABN AMRO World
Tennis Tournament, including a pair of local favorites. Martin Verkerk,
who won his first ATP title at the Breil ATP Milano Indoors earlier this
year, plays Raemon Sluiter, the only player to take a set from Federer
last week in Marseille. And Richard Krajicek, who recently split with
his long-time coach Rohan Goetzke, goes up against Spain's Tommy Robredo.
Robredo lost to a serve-and-volleyer last week, Max Mirnyi, in a match
where Robredo actually won more points, but lost the first and third set
tiebreaks to go down in defeat.
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