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09/04/10 11:20:00
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09/04 23:14 CDT No love lost: Sharapova blanks Capra 6-0, 6-0
No love lost: Sharapova blanks Capra 6-0, 6-0
By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Maria Sharapova knows the story all too well: An unknown
American kid shows up at the U.S. Open, upsets a seeded player, gains some buzz
and belief, then gets a shot at Sharapova in the third round.
In 2009, that kid was Melanie Oudin, who beat Sharapova en route to the
quarterfinals.
In 2010, that kid was Beatrice Capra and, well, let's just say that Sharapova
fared a little better this time around.
Overwhelmed by the stage, the circumstances, the 25 mph wind that knocked the
neon lime visor off her head during a point, and - most of all - a solid
Sharapova, the 18-year-old Capra didn't win a game, let alone the match.
Instead, 2006 U.S. Open champion Sharapova set up a fourth-round showdown with
No. 1-seeded Caroline Wozniacki by blanking the 371st-ranked Capra 6-0, 6-0 on
Saturday in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"This was a new day," said Sharapova, the first woman to win love-and-love at
the U.S. Open in the third round or later since Martina Navratilova did it in
the 1989 quarterfinals. "And what happened last year - I didn't really want to
go into the match thinking about it."
On her very first serve of the afternoon, Capra nearly sailed the ball all the
way to the opposite baseline. That might have been a result of nerves and the
ever-swirling wind, which made the U.S. flag above the stadium flap loudly and
caused four midpoint stoppages in play when debris rolled onto the court.
Plenty of brown, concession-stand napkins and one plastic sandwich bag floated
out of the stands; even two white towels made like tumbleweed.
"This is probably the toughest conditions we're going to get," Sharapova said.
Actually, other than whiffing on one serve return, Sharapova handled the
conditions rather well; others did not. Fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic, the 2008
runner-up at Flushing Meadows, shanked one serve straight up in the air off the
top of her racket frame and finished with 41 unforced errors in a 6-2, 7-6 (1)
loss to No. 31 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.
"You get frustrated with the wind," Jankovic said, "because you want to hit
balls in (a) certain direction, and they go everywhere except where you want
them to go."
There were no such surprises in men's action. Five-time U.S. Open champion
Roger Federer reached the fourth round by beating Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-3,
6-3; No. 3-seeded Novak Djokovic had no trouble getting past American wild card
James Blake 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3 at night; No. 5 Robin Soderling, twice a French
Open finalist, defeated Thiemo de Bakker 6-2, 6-3, 6-3; No. 19 Mardy Fish
outlasted 32-year-old Arnaud Clement, the oldest man left, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 1-6,
6-3. Fish now takes on Djokovic for a berth in the quarterfinals.
Also, No. 13 Jurgen Melzer beat 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero
7-5, 6-3, 6-1; No. 21 Albert Montanes advanced when qualifier Ken Nishikori
quit in the second set with a groin injury, two days after winning a grueling
five-setter; and No. 17 Gael Monfils picked up a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4 win
over Janko Tipsarevic, who knocked off 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick in
the second round.
Asked to describe the weather, Monfils said: "Awful. I mean, for me: awful."
Capra, who's from Ellicott City, Md., and trains at the Evert Academy in
Florida, acknowledged struggling with the wind. She also acknowledged feeling
jitters, and who could blame her, really? She won a U.S. Tennis Association
playoff in August to earn a U.S. Open wild card; not only was this her first
Grand Slam tournament - it was her first tour-level, main-draw event, period.
She became the lowest-ranked woman since 2002 to reach the U.S. Open's third
round by beating 95th-ranked Karolina Sprem in the first round, then
18th-seeded Aravane Rezai in the second.
And now she found herself going up against the 23-year-old Sharapova, someone
Capra said she looked up to "when I was younger." They never had met until
Saturday.
So what was that like?
"Before the match, she would just walk past me and kind of, like, give me a
glare, which is kind of intimidating," Capra said. "After the match, when we
shook hands, she was really nice."
Oudin, who knows Capra from her junior days, sent a text message after the
victory over Rezai, offering advice.
"I should have talked to Melanie before the match, because I was wondering - I
was like, 'Was Melanie this nervous before she played?'" Capra said. "I didn't
get the chance to, but I probably should have."
Then again, the Capra of 2010 is not exactly the Oudin of 2009, a player who
already had risen to 70th in the rankings before the U.S. Open, thanks to a run
to the fourth round at Wimbledon that summer.
And, to be fair, the Sharapova of 2010 is not exactly the Sharapova of 2009,
either.
"She doesn't give you anything," noted Capra, whose exit leaves Venus Williams
as the only U.S. woman in the field. "Even though she's beating me that badly,
she's still so focused."
A year ago, Sharapova was still figuring things out after having right shoulder
surgery in October 2008, still working her way back into match shape after
missing the start of the season.
Against Oudin, Sharapova double-faulted 21 times, more than any woman had in
any tour match all year.
Against Capra, Sharapova double-faulted five times, but otherwise was in strong
form.
"I mean, I could have done better, and, you know, it was close in some of the
games," said Capra, whose parents, sister, grandparents, aunt and two friends
were in the stands. "Plus, when you're, like, losing that bad, it's just in
your head, like, 'Just please let me win one game.'"
That's what 2009 U.S. Open runner-up Wozniacki's opponents might have been
thinking: She has won 36 of 39 games so far, including Saturday's 6-1, 6-0
victory over Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan. That followed a 6-0, 6-0 shutout - known
in tennis as a "double bagel" - in the second round.
Other women advancing Saturday included No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, the runner-up at
Wimbledon in July; No. 11 Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion, who
beat No. 23 Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-4 at night; and No. 15 Yanina Wickmayer, who
lost to Wozniacki in the 2009 semifinals in New York.
The three games Wozniacki has lost so far this year are the fewest through
three completed matches at any Grand Slam tournament since Mary Pierce dropped
only two at the 1994 French Open.
"I have been feeling good out there," Wozniacki said, the understatement of the
week. "It just says something about how I've been playing, and the level I've
been playing on."
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