The Tennis Masters Series event @ Rome looks great. My favorite first round match-ups:

Enqvist vs. Norman
Sampras vs. Mantilla
Henman vs. Gonzalez
El Aynaoui vs. Blake (bad luck for the American...)
Federer vs. Gaudenzi
Kuerten vs. Sanguinetti

Don't forget Philippousis v. Spadea in the Battle of the Hotties!

Agreed with the battle of the hotties comment about Vince and Flip. The Enqvist/Norman battle of the Swedish hotties is also noteworthy.
Andy is already thru to the next round with a drubbing of Calatrava according to the website, which is acting pretty weird today.
GO ANDY!!!!

spadea - YES!

i was just about to comment about him being in the draw. this should be a good match; spadea has beaten a lot of the big guns in the past.

i'm glad he's back to a master's series event. i've missed him.

Also, if anyone wants to see the perfect couple, check out the "Andy Roddick and James Blake tour Rome" photo spread on the Rome Web site.

Blake is currently up a break in the third on Younes El Aynaoui!

YES! Mantilla defeats Sampras, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3!!!!!

Blake has scored a HUGE win, defeating El Aynaoui 4-6, 6-0, 6-3. Wow! What a great win for James Blake...

Other scores:
JC Ferrero d. R. Schuettler 62 43 ret. (right thigh injury)
A. Montanes d. G. Blanco 62 64
Y. Kafelnikov d. F. Squillari 61 20 ret. (illness)
A. Clement d. T. Johansson 64 64
JI Chela d. N. Davydenko 61 26 61
F. Gonzalez d. T. Henman 36 76(5) 60
T. Enqvist d. M. Norman 26 12 ret. (right calf muscle)
F. Mantilla d. P. Sampras 64 67(3) 63
T. Haas d. M. Mirnyi 62 62
W. Ferreira d. G. Gaudio 63 63

[quote]Originally posted by bridgeportjake:
Also, if anyone wants to see the perfect couple, check out the "Andy Roddick and James Blake tour Rome" photo spread on the Rome Web site.

---

Thanks for the link, bridgeportjake! I loved those pictures, one, because Rome is one of my favorite cities; and two, because James Blake looks so damn beautiful in those pix. Wowza, any news on how this guy's modeling career is going?!

Congratulations to Blake & Roddick for advancing to the second round here. Maybe the US Davis Cup team doesn't need Andre (or Pete, obviously) when they travel to France later this year. Maybe a team of Roddick, Blake, and perhaps the Bryans or Johnson/Palmer playing doubles could do the trick? I'm sorry to see Younes go (he's been going gangbusters in the small tournaments, but flaming out of the ones that "matter). Still, this isn't the French yet, Younes. You'll be fine!

Andy gets Pavel next. If you'll remember, Pavel won last year in Canada (he went on to win that tournament). He's had a so-so year to this point. Andy should win, even on clay. He'd face Kafelnikov or Ferreira in the third.

Blake gets Gaudenzi next, who upset Roger Federer in straight sets. This is a huge break for James, even though Gaudenzi is a local. Do not be surprised if we see Blake in the quarters, losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero. JB is the real deal.

Even as an "out" James Blake fan, I still worry about his encounter w/ Gaudenzi. Andrea is as talented as he is unpredictable. He's HOT, too... Anyway, I caution Blake fans to not underestimate AG.

Now, onto Andrea being sexy, check out this pic:


[ May 07, 2002: Message edited by: The B Man ]

Uh...are there a lot of Blake fans who are too ashamed to come out of the closet? Regardless, great win for Blake (though I wonder if Gaudio was a little tired). And yes, Gaudenzi is another dangerous opponent.

Lots of exciting second round matchups coming up with the Hewitt-Moya rematch (Hewitt must be cursing his draws), Grosjean-Nalbandian, Chela-Haas, Roddick-Pavel, Mantilla-Robredo...

Thanks B-Man, that's one sexy pic...

I'm a fully out James Blake fan. It feels so good to say it aloud. He's just gorgeous, that's all there is to it. I also think that he's capable of some great tennis and his friendship with Roddick only helps that. They seem to really respect one another and egg each other on. While Roddick has shot out of the gate rather quickly, Blake is improving slowly and surely and will certainly make his mark in time. Honestly, I'm not usually a gusher, but he's just an incredibly sexy guy.

Rome update!
Andy is in a pinch: he lost the first set to Pavel, 1-6, but bounced back to take the second set 6-4.

Yay! Roddick won in three, 6-3 in the third! Phew! Next up - Kafelnikov? Should be amazing!

Whoa! Andre smokes Kratchovil(sp?) 0 and 1!!!!!

GO ANDRE!!!!!!!

More scores (note the solid wins of Sebastian Grosjean and Tommy Haas, and that Yevgeny Kafelnikov has suffered another embarassing loss):
A. Roddick d. A. Pavel 16 64 63
T. Haas d. JI Chela 75 61
S Grosjean d. D. Nalbandian 57 64 75
A. Agassi d. M. Kratochvil 60 61
W. Ferreira d. Y. Kafelnikov 64 46 62 (yet another early round loss by Kafelnikov, who, as we all recall, recently sassed Pete Sampras for Pete's recent lack of luck)

Congrats to James Blake! What a comeback, down a set. He's got the winner of Gonzalez/Galvani next ... and now that Ferrero has been ousted, the only seed standing between him and the semis is Jiri Novak - a conquerable foe, to be sure. I don't mean to get ahead of myself, but hopefully he's feeling confident and ready to advance.

Right now, Moya & Agassi seem like the players to beat, with question mark behind Kuerten. Safin is currently down 5-2 in the first to the X-man.

GUGA lost the first set!

Go Albert Montanes!

I have mixed feelings about the results today. Most importantly, ANDY WON!!! and Tommy won too. James Blake's victory is equally as noteworthy.
But so are the LOSSES by Guga, Juan Carlos (!), Marat (!!) and the too-fine-for-words Arnaud Clement and Flip.
Blake and Andy both have good looks at the semis. We will have to see how it all shakes out. Gotta love the ever-unpredictable clay court tennis...

For you lucky bastards at home during the day, ESPN's gonna be showing some men's tennis Thursday & Friday:

Thursday LIVE 3-5 p.m. Eastern (I believe that's the Roddick/Ferreira match)

Friday 1-3 p.m. Eastern

The semis & finals will be shown on ESPN2, at 1 and noon, Saturday & Sunday, respectively.

Agassi took 43 minutes to beat Kratochvil. Holy.

This could be a huge coming out party for Andy. Wayne Ferreira is going to give him Hell, though. I might leave work early today to watch that match!

If Andy gets past Wayne, he still needs to contend with Xavier Malisse. Malisse has given Andy fits in the past...

I wish they'd show Gonzalez v. Blake, too, but they probably won't. As much as I love Blake, I'll have to give the advantage to Gonzalez, who has won a clay event earlier this year. I hope JB surprises us, though!

Haas has already defeated Grosjean, and Novak has beaten Ljubicic. Agassi is leading Calleri, and Albert Costa is up on Montanes.

Talk about uncharted territory! Prior to this tournament, James Blake had played exactly one match on Euroclay - losing in straight sets in Monte Carlo last month. Now all of a sudden he's a quarterfinalist at one of the biggest tournaments in the world, facing a beatable Jiri Novak for a trip to the semifinals.

If a star wasn't born before (at last year's US Open or in Davis Cup), he certainly is now. This guy's got uncommon poise, extreme smarts, and is the best advertisement for college tennis in a long, long time. I hope this guy's ready for what awaits him, because I have a feeling he's going to bust through big time.

I think it's fair to say that Andre's services at Davis Cup are definitely less necessary now.

So it's Andy's turn to make it three Americans in the final eight. Let's go Roddick. Woo!

Anybody watching this match who'd care to give update/analysis??

Ferreira is up 6-3, 2-2 at the moment.

Roddick took the second set 6-4! Go Andy!

The ATP site is slow...it just has the first set score... Help!!! What's happening in the third? Anyone watching? Is Andy playing well? What about Wayne?

[ May 09, 2002: Message edited by: The B Man ]

Apparently, Roddick's up 4-1 in the third. I think the site's intentionally slow to try to convince folks worldwide to tune in on TV instead of getting it for free (why buy the cow, after all??)! I suppose it makes sense, but GRRRRRR.

all I can say is Andy's better go! It's great for him to have a comeback against an experienced veteran like Wayne Ferreira. That's awesome. Let's see how much farther he and JB can go. Too bad that Calleri couldn't get rid of Agassi, but I won't get too greedy.

I watched most of it. Two impressions:
Ferreira got a little tired. Is being just over 30 that bad? I don't remember.
But what was more significant, Roddick got his confidence back at the end of the second set. He played the whole second set looking tentative, exasperated by cell phones, impatient with himself, etc. Then he got lucky on a couple of timely Ferreira errors and regained composure and finished him off in the second set like a champ. From then on, he looked a foot taller, the quick, vigorous, overpowering Roddick that's so exciting to watch.
Around the middle of the second set I thought Andy was about to turn into Mr. Hyde, after the ref ruled against him, or after the umpteenth cell phone interruption. But he got over it, never abused anyone, and I was impressed. Roddick is walking a fine line between being lovable and obnoxious right now, and I hope the good Andy keeps winning.
Are you reading this, Andy?

James Blake and Jiri Novak have split sets. Blake won the first 6-3, but Novak eeked out the second, 9-7 in the second set tie-break.

It looks like they're on serve in the second, with Blake in the precarious position of serving from behind. Right now, Blake is behind 2-4...

Novak has defeated Blake, 6-4 in the third.

Agassi won his quarterfinal, 6-2 6-2. Damn I wish James had been able to pull his match out. He most likely had a least one match point! What a great semi that would have been for American tennis. Nobody cares about Jiri Novak! Everyday fans reclining in their barcaloungers in Tibet aren't going to stay up late to watch that match! But a Blake/Agassi matchup would have been awesome.

Oh well, go Andy! Beat Robredo (sorry Tommy)...

Dre's been cruising so far. A huge victory over a clay-court specialist.

Yeah, nobody cares about Novak, but everyone cares about Andre...

Way to go Andre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Roddick has taken the first set, 6-4

Turns out Blake biffed THREE match points ... sigh ... can you imagine how crazy it would be having THREE Americans in the semis of the Italian Open? I mean, don't get me wrong, I like other countries, too. But it would have been swell. Anyway, congrats to Andy, good luck against Moya (you're gonna need it). If Haas can somehow figure out a way to win, then Andy's got a better shot at an all-American final matchup against Agassi. Must-see TV to be sure.

Roddick won, 7-6 (7-2) in the second.

I just have to chime in about how excited I am that Andy is finally doing well in a TMS event. That will help him immensely ranking-wise and confidence-wise. I am very afraid about his next round against either Tommy's fine ass or Carlos' fine ass. Either way, it will be a gorgeous match for more reasons than one!

Haas beat Moya 6-3 6-4 to move into a scintillating matchup with Roddick. Haas won handily last month against Roddick in Monte Carlo, if you'll remember, 6-2 6-2. But Haas seems to have more of a problem than Andy of winning the pressure matches (or he did before his Masters Series victory in Stuttgart last year). Smart money would go to Haas, but it seems pretty silly to bet against Roddick these days, does it not?

[ May 10, 2002: Message edited by: bridgeportjake ]

Yeh, the semi's look great! Taking a quick look at the draw, an all-American final does seem possible, but I have to say that I like Tommy's chances on slow, European clay over Andy Roddick. Plus, I think Tommy would give Andre Agassi more of a challenge in the final.

Looking at the head-to-heads of the Final Four, it seems a Haas vs. Agassi final is most likely, with Andre claiming tournament victory...

Agassi leads Haas, 3-2 (they've never played on clay)
Agassi leads Novak, 3-0
Agassi leads Roddick, 3-0

Haas leads Novak, 2-1 (Novak won their only clay meeting in Rome two years ago)
Haas leads Roddick, 2-0

Roddick and Novak have never played (according to the stats on Tennis Corner...)

Haas is one tough customer. I think he'll give anyone a hard time on clay. But, from reading the reports, Agassi is playing zone tennis and reaching his best form. This is Andre's tournament. But, having said all that, GO ANDY!

I have to figure Agassi has the edge here, since he's looked unstoppable. But for an American-bred power player, Roddick has shown himself to be amazingly comfortable on clay. As far as results, it seems to be his best surface. I do think he'll win at least one French Open, though perhaps not this year. But Haas is no slouch on any surface--beating Moya on clay is very impressive.

Robredo seems to be coming around again after a shaky winter season. And kudos to Jiri Novak, too, who seems to have really pushed his game to a new level in the past year or so.

[ May 11, 2002: Message edited by: JC ]

Andre's in the finals!

Either way, Andre owns Tommy or Andy!

GO ANDRE!

An all-American final in Rome is possible, hey? Pretty cool! Roddick's obviously the real deal. Andre, of course, is amazing. Robreddo, by getting to the quarters, assured himself of a seed at the French, I think.

The men's final is set: Tommy Haas vs. Andre Agassi. Agassi's semi vs. Jiri Novak was pretty good. I only watched a little bit of the Haas vs. Roddick match. Tommy won kinda easily, 6-1, 7-5.

The CNN/SI story has a misleading, if not all-together wrong headline, but a pretty good report:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/ne...talian_open_ap/

Agassi has won the first set, 6-3

Agassi d. Haas, 6-3, 6-3.

Thanks for the info B-Man. As I don't have ESPN 2, which is carrying this, I appreciate it. Way to go Andre!!!!!!

I watched the match (while on the stairmaster so not that closely) but it sure looked like Haas quit early in the 2d set.

I forgot that the Tennis Masters Series finals went three sets. I'm glad Agassi actually won!