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THE
SCOOP: SUNDAY, MAY 26
Venus the bookworm offers advise
on summer reading
World Cup rates for Guga; Picking a
practice partner; Missing
in action; Kournikova
still an item with Solomon
By
Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net
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Susan
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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FROM ROLAND GARROS –
For some players, preparation for a Grand Slam goes beyond being
fit and spending sufficient time practicing. Take Venus Williams,
for instance; Being ready to play at Roland Garros, which starts
here in Paris on Monday, requires having enough read material available
to fill all those extra hours.
Therefore, tennisreporters.net
was not surprised to find Mademoiselle Williams squirreled away
in the corner of an English language bookstore on the Rue de Rivoli
Saturday afternoon. Venus had her arms loaded down with books –
one for Serena – and was still skimming through the offerings.
After a chat about Venus’s book selections – some of her
choices were for light reading and some were of the more serious
vain – tr.net and Venus decided on a book suggestion
swap. Yours truly left the store with a copy of The Alchemist by
Paulo Coelho at Venus’s recommendation; Venus purchased tr.net’s
offering of The Human Stain by Phillip Roth.
Venus recently had to withdraw
from the Italian Open because she injured her wrist picking up her
gear bag. As far as tr.net could tell, Venus was having little
trouble holding onto the eight or nine books she had in hand at
the bookstore, so we’re expecting her to be in mint condition
when she takes to the court against little-known Bianka Lamade of
Germany in the first round.
World Cup rates for Guga
Defending champion Gustavo Kuerten
has a lot on his plate for this Roland Garros – defending his
title, continuing to mend from hip surgery at the end of February,
and following the progression of Brazil in World Cup soccer action.
“I hope that as far as
I’m playing (into the tournament), Brazil doesn’t lose,”
said Kuerten, claiming that fellow players are already teasing him
about whether his tennis or World Cup is more important. “I
think it’s going to be funny to watch. Maybe (I can) watch
while waiting for my match and then if it’s the deciding minutes
for the soccer, you don’t know what you should concentrate
on. It’s interesting these weeks – probably most of the
attention is gonna be on the World Cup. But we also have try to
concentrate on our big moment that’s just right here.”
Kuerten, who has won this
title three times in his career, has made a remarkably swift return
after arthroscopic hip surgery, reaching the quarterfinals of two
of the three tournaments he’s played the last few weeks at
Mallorca and Hamburg. Nevertheless, the Brazilian is not expecting
a miracle to deliver him to a third consecutive title here at Stade
Roland Garros.
When asked if his confidence
level was high on Sunday, Kuerten said, “Not really at all,
you know. I don’t see any chance; it seems like many guys are
playing better than me. I don’t know how my body’s going
to respond for a five-set battle, match to match, tough matches
in a row.. But in the same way, I’m optimistic about the practice
I played these few days that I was on court. And probably I will
be able to play some good matches. Maybe one of my goals will be
playing in the second week – I think that would already be
a good effort for myself.”
Picking a practice partner
When defending champion Jennifer Capriati searched for a practice
partner for Sunday, she looked no further than a familiar face –
Kim Clijsters, her final opponent from last year’s tournament.
It seems that Capriati and Clijsters often find that practice makes
perfect when they do it together.
“We practice a lot together and we practice at other tournaments,”
Capriati said. “You know, she’s a good friend. We always
have fun practicing together. It doesn’t matter if it was just
last year in the finals or if we’re on opposite sides (of the
draw) this year. She’s a good practice for me and I think visa
versa. It’s relaxing practicing with her.
Last year the two went well
beyond their practice sessions in the finals with Capriati finally
securing the title with a hard fought 1-6, 6-4, 12-10 victory. Once
again on opposite sides of the draw, the top-seeded Capriati begins
the defense of her title against fellow American Marissa Irvin.
In the bottom half of the draw, the fourth-seeded Clijsters starts
her French Open campaign with a match against Belarussian Tatiana
Poutchek.
Missing in action
Spaniard Felix Mantilla withdrew from the French Open because of
injured rib cage he sustained in a car crash. Also putting himself
on the sidelines was Chilean Marcelo Rios, who pulled out with a
knee injury. Russian Marat Safin is considered iffy for action at
the French Open after sustaining a back injury during last week’s
ATP World Team Championships. However, the second-seeded Russian
will monitor his situation and hope to be fit to play his first
round match against Michael Llodra of France.
Kournikova still an item with
Solomon
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Susan
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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Anna Kournikova was spotted
practicing with 1976 French Open finalist Harold Solomon out on
Court 9 Sunday afternoon. As tr.net revealed in April, Kournikova
had asked Solomon to come to the Charleston event with her, but
they had no formal relationship at that time. Solomon appears to
still be on board with the Russian tennis diva, whose still in the
hunt for a first career title.
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