WTA Oct 27-Nov 2 Advanta Championships, Philadelphia, PA Tier II $585,000 - 28 players - indoor: hard draws & schedule .pdf Philly Weather s3 # 9 Anastasia Myskina s2 # 7 Amelie Mauresmo s5 # 11 Ai Sugiyama s4 # 10 Chanda Rubin Bell Challenge Quebec City, CAN Tier III     site in French     English via AltaVista $170,000 - 30 players - indoor: hard draws & schedule .pdf s1 # 35 Mary Pierce s2 # 37 Maria Sharapova s3 # 49 Laura Granville s4 # 57 Marion Bartoli

Tourney pages: Philly & Quebec: 2005 - 2004 previous other tourney pages next Quebec: #32 Maria Sharapova 6' 0", 130 lbs, RH, 2H-BH Quebec: #91 Milagros Sequera 5' 8¼", 134 lbs, RH, 2H-BH

    In Sunday's Final in Philadelphia, 2nd (top) seed Amelie Mauresmo of France defeated 3rd-seeded # 9 Anastasia Myskina of Russia 5-7, 6-0, 6-2. Both will be at the WTA Championships in LA next week. Yahoo! Advanta photos

    Amelie said: "As the match was going on, I could feel my game was going better. I could feel she was getting a little tired. She was not adjusting as well... I really wanted revenge today [for a loss in Sept to Anastasia in the Kremlin Cup Final at Moscow 6-2, 6-4]." story
    Anastasia said: "I wasn't ready to beat her today. I completely lost concentration and couldn't keep focus."

    Amelie now leads Anastasia 3-1 in career meetings.
    22-year-old Anastasia is now 6-4 in WTA singles finals, having won 4 of her titles this year. The WTA website says that the stick Anastasia hits the ball with is a Prince, but by looking at the photos you can see that she has quite clearly switched to a Head racquet this year. Anastasia is coached by Jens Gerlach.
    24-year-old Amelie is now 10-9 in WTA singles finals. Amelie has won 1 title this year, wielding a Dunlop "300G" bat, and is coached by Loic Courteau. Both young ladies wear Nike attire and shoes; they probably know nothing about Bill Bowerman's wife's waffle iron.

    The main draw for Philadelphia had 8 seeds, with 4 1st-round byes. There were 4 qualifiers, 3 lucky losers, and 3 wild cards in the main draw.
    Sunday's Final in Philadelphia began at noon ET (that is 1700 the same day GMT, UCT, ZULU, or 9am PT).

    In Sunday's Final in Quebec City, 2nd-seeded (but highest-ranked at the tourney this week) 16-year-old Maria Sharapova of Russia defeated 4th seed 23-year-old # 91 Milagros Sequera of Venezuela the unfun way, 6-2 retired, to win the 2nd WTA singles title of her young career. By the 1st set score, Maria appeared to be heading for a solid victory (photo shown), but the match was cut short when Milagros broke her left ankle while running for a ball at deuce in the first game of the second set (Milagros, supported by WTA physiotherapist Louise Viens, is shown congratulating Maria before she was wheeled off court). It was a sad way to end a match, but Milagros was clearly happy she had reached the 1st WTA singles final of her career.

    Maria said: "I wanted to say that I am happy for this win, but now I just want to say that I am sad for Milagros. I wish her the best and I want her to know that she should be very proud of the great week that she had... It's good to finish the year with a title win, but I didn't want to win like that." story

    Both players are currently at the highest singles ranks of their careers. They had never played each other before.
    Although now 0-1 in WTA singles finals, Milagros has won 7 ITF singles titles. Milagros has spent most of her career playing in ITF tourneys and failing to make it through qualifying to WTA main draws. This year she improved considerably, making 7 main draws prior to this event, and winning the Pan Am games women's singles title. She also reached the SFs in mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2003, teamed with Jordan Kerr of Australia.
    Maria is now 2-0 in WTA finals (she won 3 ITF finals last year when she was just a kid). Her prize money for the year 2002 was $23,100, up to last week she had made $194,393 in 2003 (does not include endorsement contracts or appearance money). She should top $500,000 next year, and might make much more. Maria was born in Nyagan, out in the Siberian boondocks. She attended Nick Bollettieri's Academy and resides near it in Florida, but also travels to California for coaching by Robert Lansdorp. They did not teach her to hit the ball quietly; her "grunt" is more of a very loud yelp, and she tends to stick her tongue dangerously between her teeth while running around the court (ala MJ), but Nike & Prince should already be very happy with their investment.

MariaWorld, if you haven't seen it, now has 593 photos of that Sharapova girl, plus articles, interviews, results, etc. Very nice.

    Quebec has results on their site, but they are not updated for hours after the matches are played.
    The main draw for Quebec had 8 seeds, with 2 1st-round byes. There were 4 qualifiers and 2 wild cards in the main draw.
    Sunday's Final in Quebec began at 1pm ET (that is 1800 the same day GMT, UCT, ZULU, or 10:00am PT).

    You cannot be serious! The websites for both tourneys this week are almost useless. Philadelphia has no results on their site, outside of a link to the .pdf drawsheet. Quebec has results on their site, but they were not updated for hours after the matches were played.

WTA SCOREBOARD: Philadelphia & Quebec City s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? From Philadelphia's WTA Photo Gallery: photo links may not function; in Jan 2004 the WTA discarded their original photo gallery Anastasia Myskina Teryn Ashley & Ashley Harkleroad Marissa Irvin Amelie Mauresmo Anastasia Myskina considering new tactics Alexandra Stevenson

Philadelphia, 1st Round, Mon-Weds: #12 s7 Nadia Petrova RUS d #61 Amy Frazier USA 6-4, 6-0 *#30 Lisa Raymond USA d #13 s6 Vera Zvonareva RUS 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 #19 s9 Meghann Shaughnessy USA d #123 Anna Lena Groenefeld GER 6-3, 6-2 #31 s10 Tina Pisnik SLO d #169 LL Janet Lee TPE 6-4, 6-4 *#50 Ashley Harkleroad USA d #37 Elena Likhovtseva RUS 6-0, 2-0 retired-- right shoulder strain) *#99 q Martina Sucha SVK d #48 Cara Black ZIM 6-0, 6-3 #51 Marlene Weingartner GER d #190 LL Angela Haynes USA 6-3, 6-4 #55 Nicole Pratt AUS d #131 Teryn Ashley USA 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(2) #66 Stephanie Cohen-Aloro FRA d #93 q Aniko Kapros HUN 6-3, 6-3 #83 Alexandra Stevenson USA d #87 Silvija Talaja CRO 4-6, 6-3, 7-5     Alexandra is playing while bogged down with bronchial pneumonia. Alexandra said: "It made me feel good I was able to get through it. I had to use every ounce of my body. It was good that I know I can do that when I'm not feeling well." #84 Tathiana Garbin ITA d #119 wc Marissa Irvin USA 6-1, 7-6(2) #90 q Jelena Jankovic YUG d #146 wc Shenay Perry USA 6-0, 6-3

Philadelphia, 2nd Round, Weds-Thurs: #7 s2 wc Amelie Mauresmo FRA v #66 Stephanie Cohen-Aloro FRA Thurs 7pm #9 s3 Anastasia Myskina RUS d #55 Nicole Pratt AUS 6-3, 6-2 #10 s4 Chanda Rubin USA d #83 Alexandra Stevenson USA 6-2, 6-4 #11 s5 Ai Sugiyama JPN d #84 Tathiana Garbin ITA 6-4, 6(3)-7, 6-3 #12 s7 Nadia Petrova RUS d #99 q Martina Sucha SVK 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 #30 Lisa Raymond USA d #90 q Jelena Jankovic YUG 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(5)     About fatigue in a long match, Lisa said: "You just have to think that it's the same for both players. It came down to who wants it more, and I think in the end I wanted it just a little more." story #19 s9 Meghann Shaughnessy USA d #50 Ashley Harkleroad USA 6-3, 6-1     Meghann fell behind 0-2 in the 1st set before taking command. Meghann said: "There was a big contrast between Anna-Lena [Groenefeld] yesterday and Harkleroad today, so it took a couple of games to adjust." *#51 Marlene Weingartner GER d #31 s10 Tina Pisnik SLO walkover-- right elbow sprain

Philadelphia, QFs, Fri: #7 s2 wc Amelie Mauresmo FRA d #30 Lisa Raymond USA 6-3, 6-3 #9 s3 Anastasia Myskina RUS d #51 Marlene Weingartner GER 6-3, 6-1 *#12 s7 Nadia Petrova RUS d #10 s4 Chanda Rubin USA 7-6(5), 7-5 #11 s5 Ai Sugiyama JPN d #19 s9 Meghann Shaughnessy USA 6-2, 5-7, 6-2

Philadelphia, SFs, Sat: #7 s2 wc Amelie Mauresmo FRA d #11 s5 Ai Sugiyama JPN 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 #9 s3 Anastasia Myskina RUS v #12 s7 Nadia Petrova RUS 6-4, 4-6, 7-5

Philadelphia, Final, Sun: winner's prize: $93,000 #7 s2 wc Amelie Mauresmo FRA d #9 s3 Anastasia Myskina RUS 5-7, 6-0, 6-2

Philadelphia, Doubles Final, Sun: s1 Martina Navratilova & Lisa Raymond d s3 Cara Black & Rennae Stubbs 6-3, 6-4 Philadelphia, Withdrawals: #6 s1 Venus Williams USA abdominal strain #17 Paola Suarez ARG rest & recovery

Quebec, 1st Round, Monday: #52 s7 Anca Barna GER d #126 Eva Fislova SVK 7-5, 6-3 #53 s4 Laura Granville USA d #77 Kristina Brandi PUR 6-4, 6-2 #56 s6 Marion Bartoli FRA v #194 wc Marie-Eve Pelletier CAN 7pm *#122 Antonella Serra Zanetti ITA d #62 s8 Klara Koukalova CZE 6-4, 6-0 #74 s9 Rita Grande ITA d #97 Adriana Serra Zannetti ITA 7-6(3), 0-6, 6-4 *#118 Maureen Drake CAN d #76 s10 Samantha Reeves USA 63 26 64 #78 Els Callens BEL d #260 Miho Saeki JPN 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 #91 Milagros Sequera VEN d #168 q Meilen Tu USA 6-4, 6-0 *#148 Iveta Benesova CZE d #95 Jill Craybas USA 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-2 #96 Jie Zheng CHN d #240 Melanie Marois FRA 6-2, 6-0 *#105 Alina Jidkova RUS d #100 Ansley Cargill USA 6-3, 6-1 #107 Lubimira Kurhajcova SVK d #108 Julia Schruff GER 6-3, 6-3 #121 Sofia Arvidsson SWE v #170 Mashona Washington USA 6(2)-7, 6-2, 7-5 #130 q Gisela Dulko ARG d #159 Sarah Taylor USA 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-2

Quebec, 2nd Round, Weds-Thurs: #32 s2 Maria Sharapova RUS v #78 Els Callens BEL Thurs 7pm #36 s1 Mary Pierce FRA d #148 Iveta Benesova CZE 6-4, 7-6(3) *#105 Alina Jidkova RUS d #52 s7 Anca Barna GER 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 #53 s4 Laura Granville USA d #130 q Gisela Dulko ARG 7-6(3), 6-3 #56 s6 Marion Bartoli FRA v #121 Sofia Arvidsson SWE 7-6, 6-3 *#107 Lubimira Kurhajcova SVK d #74 s9 Rita Grande ITA 6-3, 6-4 #91 Milagros Sequera VEN d #118 Maureen Drake CAN 6(4)-7, 6-1, 6-2 #96 Jie Zheng CHN v #122 Antonella Serra Zanetti ITA 6-3, 6-2

Quebec, QFs, Fri: #32 s2 Maria Sharapova RUS d #105 Alina Jidkova RUS 6-1, 6-2 #36 s1 Mary Pierce FRA d #107 Lubimira Kurhajcova SVK 6-3, 6-3 #53 s4 Laura Granville USA d #96 Jie Zheng CHN 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 *#91 Milagros Sequera VEN d #56 s6 Marion Bartoli FRA 1-6, 6-3, 6-1

Quebec, SFs, Sat: #32 s2 Maria Sharapova RUS d #53 s4 Laura Granville USA 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 *#91 Milagros Sequera VEN d #36 s1 Mary Pierce FRA 6-4, 6-0

Quebec, Final, Sun: winner's prize: $27,000 #32 s2 Maria Sharapova RUS d #91 Milagros Sequera VEN 6-2 retired-- left ankle fracture

Quebec, Doubles Final, Sun: *s4 Ting Li & Tian Tian Sun d s1 El Callens & Meilen Tu 6-3, 6-3 Quebec, Qualifying Finals, Monday: #121 Sofia Arvidsson SWE d #258 Diana Ospina USA 7-5, 6-2 #130 Gisela Dulko ARG d #280 Diana Srebovic CAN 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 #168 Meilen Tu USA d #250 Vilmaire Castellvi PUR 6-2, 6-2 #170 Mashona Washington USA d #218 Maria Fernanda Alves BRA 6-4, 6-2 Quebec, Withdrawals: #36 Alicia Molik AUS left foot #56 Emmanuelle Gagliardi SUI illness

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