I had a nasty preMONItion about Monica's first-round match against
L'ubomíra Kurhajcová. Monica has never lost in the first round of a
Grand Slam, but it felt like there was `something in the water' as
defending champion Jennifer Capriati lost in the first round, and
Serena Williams (the only top player other than Monica never to lose
in the first round of a Grand Slam) came perilously close.

So I was very relieved when I got in at 10:30 GMT (23:30 AEST in
Australia), and checked out the scores on the Australian Open website
to find Monica leading 6-0 3-0!

I arrived just in time to `see' Kurhajcová win her only game of the
match as she held for 1-3. The bemused Slovenka saw the funny side of
it, beaming to the cheering crowd. As Monica once said, "If you can't
laugh at life, why are you living?"

Monica wasn't detained for long, though, as she raced to 4-1, broke to
15 for 5-1, and served out to 15 (the only blemish being a
double-fault at 30/0) to seal a 6-0 6-1 victory at 23:40 and 21 seconds.

The match had taken Monica just 43 minutes, after a long wait for a
men's five-setter to finish, which explains why they were still
playing when I got in.
"It was tough. We waited so long for the match and I didn't know what
to expect. She hits it so hard and I'm just happy I played
aggressively enough to win in two easy sets."
"I'm just at the very happy stage in my career where my body is still
letting me play. I'm still enjoying working hard and playing some
good, solid tennis."

As for Kurhajcová, it's better to be (b)eaten by Monica than fed by
anyone else! ;-)

Photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030114/168/31aie.html
(cute!)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030114/168/31ai1.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030114/170/31b5a.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030114/170/31b1o.html
http://www.ausopen.org/en_AU/news/photos/imagepages/0b5476fdc955586500256ca=
e0042d18e.html

Monica's Australian Open page is at:
http://www.ausopen.org/en_AU/bios/ws/wtas141.html

In the second round, Monica plays Czech qualifier Klara Koukalová
fifth on the Margaret Court Arena (well I suppose they couldn't call
it the Margaret Court Court! ;-) ) tomorrow.

I'm not going to jinx Monica with any arrogant predictions! ;-)

Other Selesian first-round results - women's singles:
+ Adriana Serra Zanetti beat Elena Likhovtseva, 7-6 6-4
- Marion Bartoli lost to MAGDALENA MALEEVA [11], 6-4 6-1
- María Antonia Sánchez Lorenzo lost to Vanessa Webb, 2-6 7-5 6-3

Men's singles:
+ Julian Knowle beat Ryan Henry, 5-7 6-4 6-2 7-5
+ FABRICE SANTORO [28] beat Björn Phau, 6-4 6-3 6-4
+ JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL [27] beat Michael Llodra, 6-2 7-5 6-7 6-4 6-2
- Raemon Sluiter lost to MARAT SAFIN [3], 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-4

I have uploaded new photos to the Photos section:
+ Monica Seles > 2003 (4 new photos)
+ Marion Bartoli (1 photo)
+ Adriana Serra Zanetti (1 photo)
+ Julian Knowle (1 photo)

I promise I'll get around to Sonya Jeyaseelan, Jan-Michael Gambill,
Fabrice Santoro and Byron Black eventually! ;-)

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/