Ferrero, Nalbandian Make Early Exits at US Open

Tennis-X.com
Sept 4 2004

Four seeds were bounced from the men’s draw at the US Open Friday,
including last year’s runner-up.

Headed home is 2003 runner-up and No. 7 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero,
whose dismal year continued with a five-set injury-riddled loss to
Austrian Stefan “The Poor Man’s Tommy Muster” Koubek.

“This year is going to finish soon, you know,” said Ferrero, who will
drop out of the Top 10 to No. 15 or 16. “I want to forget this year.”

Also ejected were last year’s semifinalist (8) David Nalbandian (l.
to Youzhny in five), (12) Sebastien “The Skateboard Kid” Grosjean
(l. to Haas in four), and (23) Vince “Vincenzo” Spadea (l. to Jurgen
“Tuna” Melzer in five).

Nalbandian had to be consoled after his five-set loss to Youzhny after
a disagreement between the players over the courtesy of holding up
new balls that resulted in Nalbandian repeatedly smashing his racquet
on court, then a few more in the hallway inside the stadium.

Seeded winners on the day were (2) Andy Roddick (d. Rafael “The
Prodigy” Nadal in three), (4) Lleyton Hewitt (d. Arazi), (18) Tommy
“The R.” Robredo (d. Clement in four),(28) Joachim “The Jackhammer”
Johansson (d. Gambill), (29) Guillermo Canas (d. Volandri), and (30)
Feliciano “F-Lo” Lopez (d. Kohlschreiber in five, almost blowing a
2-0 set lead).

“He’s got a crafty kind of game,” Hewitt said of Arazi. “With
the left-handed serve, it’s always going to be a little bit more
difficult.”

Winners in all-unseeded match-ups were Olympic Federer-killer Tomas
Berdych (d. Ketola), Brazil’s Richardo Mello “Yellow” (d. D.Sanchez),
Russian Nikolay Davydenko (d. Soderling in four), Slovak Karol Beck
(d. Pless), Alexander Peya (d. Enqvist in four), and Frenchman Michael
Llodra (d. Seppi in four).

On court Saturday at the US Open for the men are (1) Federer vs. (31)
Fabrice “The Magician” Santoro, (6) Agassi vs. (25) Novak, (3)
Moya vs. Olivier “The Roach” Rochus, (5) Henman vs. Tabara, (19)
Nicolas Kiefer vs. Thomas “Tommy the J.” Johansson, Sargis “Sarge”
Sargsian vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu, (16) Andrei Pavel vs. H.-T. Lee,
and (15) Paradorn “The Thai Fighter” Srichaphan vs. (22) Dominik
“The Dominator” Hrbaty.