Schnyder Advances to Second Round at Seat Open

Fourth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland advanced to the second round of the WTA SEAT Open with a 6-1, 6-2 victory Monday over Jennifer Hopkins. Schnyder was the top seed in action on the opening day of the $170,000 tournament. 

Top-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France and second-seeded Russian Anna Kournikova received byes into the second round. Eighth-seeded Justine Henin of Belgium beat Cristina Torrens Valero of Spain 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). Henin will play Germany's wildcard entry Barbara Rittner, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Sweden's Asa Carlsson of Sweden. Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova rallied to beat France's Virginie Razzano 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 and earn a second round match against Tauziat.

Safin is New No. 1

Marat Safin, the new U.S. Open champion, has replaced Pete Sampras atop the ATP Champions Race standings. The 20-year-old Russian, who followed his victory over Sampras in the U.S. Open final with a victory in the President's Cup in Tashkent, edged Sampras by two points in the rankings. Having earned his fifth title of the year, Safin has 639 points in the Champions race. He has won 16 of his last 17 matches. "It is one step forward where nobody is better than me, at least for week," Safin said. "But I don't want to be there for just one week." Safin's next outing will be in Sydney, Australia, in the Olympic tournament.

McEnroe: Williams Sisters Have No Respect

John McEnroe says the Williams sisters, while playing winning tennis, lack respect and humility. The mellowed bad boy of the sport took the sisters to task in a column in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper. "What they have achieved is great, but they have no respect for anyone in the game," McEnroe wrote. McEnroe objected to comments by Serena Williams, who last year said she would like to play in a couple of men's tournaments. "Do women golfers say they could go out and beat Tiger Woods?" he asked. McEnroe also accused Venus Williams of displaying a lack of humility while winning Wimbledon this year. "Enough is enough," wrote McEnroe. "Would it kill them to say hello to people in the locker room?" McEnroe restated his opinion -- earlier expressed to the New Yorker magazine -- that "a lot of male college kids and members of the seniors' tour could beat the sisters."

Last Updated 9/15/00. To contact us, please email to: webmaster@tennisone.com

TennisONE is a registered trademark of TennisONE and SportsWeb ONE; Copyright 1995. All rights reserved.