Cañas has played very well since he returned in September, running
through the Challengers and, on the tour level, posting an 11-2 record.
He's close to his former Top 10 level, which he achieved in 2005 (the
same year he was busted for doping in Acapulco). He's never been nails
at the Slams, though, having reaching two Roland Garros quarters, both
times falling in five setters.
He does not believe he'll even become No. 1 and isn't sure whether he'll
even win a Slam, but he's content to get his teeth back into the tour
"When you start to play tennis, your goal is to go high as you imagine,
to be No. 1 in the world; you imagine to win one Grand Slam tournament,"
Cañas said. "But No. 1 in the world, when one starts playing
professionally, it's very tough to do it. Not many people have the chance
to be No. 1. But I think I pass my goal when I was Top 10, and I tried
to keeping that. I tried to thinking, maybe not this year. If I do,
it's good. Maybe the next year, to try to continue with this goal. But
I think when you getting old, you start changing your goals."
This year, Cañas' goal is to crack the Top 20. That sounds very
reasonable given what an excellent clay-court player he is and that he
has no points to defend. He's very fresh and if the 15 months off did
him any good, it was saving his legs for a little while longer.
Mal Taam/MALTphoto
Alona Bondarenko fell to Li Na
in straight sets.
"It was very hard, because in the beginning when really I start to
work, I was suspension, and I didn't know what day I gonna start to play
again, and it's tough to keeping practicing and keeping be focusing what
I do," he said. “Because, maybe I have two years to wait. But
I gonna say thanks for the people that was close to me because they help
me a lot - my family, my friends, physical coach and my coach. I think
I work very hard to feel great when it started. And the last five months,
or the five months before I started play again, I do very hard work physically.
Now I try to think what I live, not what I live before. Just I try to
enjoy the moment."
Federer, by the way, does think that Cañas has enough game to
re-enter the Top 10, although he wasn't thrilled when asked about it
and gave a clipped, irritable answer. Cañas owns a 2-1 record
against the Swiss.
"I think he can get back to the very top. For him, what happened,
he must feel a bit awkward, but he's dealing well with it. We'll see what's
going to happen this tournament and the rest of the season for him."
DRAWS AND DOPING
So now to the men's draws, which have been splattered with upsets.
Andy Murray is still in after he waltzed past South African
Wesley Moodie 6-3, 6-3. Ivan Ljubicic beat Alejandro Falla 6-7, 6-4,
6-4. Fernando Gonzalez and David Nalbandian also got through. But five
other seeds went down as Tomas Berdych, Tommy Robredo, Marco Baghatis,
Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt lost, as well as up-and-comer Sam
Querrey and US vet Mardy Fish.
Favorites in Federer's quarter include James Blake, Novak Djokovic and
Cañas. Murray, Davydenko, Tommy Haas and Fernando Gonzalez are
still alive in other side of the top half.
Andy Roddick looks pretty good in his quarter, but beware of Richard
Gasquet, Nalbandian and Ljubicic. Rafael Nadal now has a great chance
to at least push through to the semis, as no one save for JC Ferrero
should have enough game to threaten him, even Fernando Verdasco who he
plays next.
With Fed going down, it was men's day, but there's no reason to completely
ignore the women. Maria Sharapova's serve is still sporadic but she pushed
through Nathalie Dechy and will face the familiar Vera Zvonareva.
Shahar Peer played one of the matches of the day and bested Lucie Safarova
6-3, 1-6, 6-4, and will go up against Anna Chakvetadze in what should
be a great contest. Daniela Hantuchova continued her fine form and fought
past Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 7-6(3) and will have a re-match of her
2002 final round victory over Martina Hingis here in the fourth round.
In what was always going to be an intriguing contest between two terrific
runners, Li Na defeated Alona Bondarenko 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. She'll face
Jelena Jankovic.
More notes from all over
Lleyton Hewitt is hurt again. The Aussie No. 1 injured his back in the
first game of his loss to Janko Tipsarevic. The Las Vegas titlist believes
it's some sort of muscle strain, but it could be worse. Interestingly,
Australian Davis Cup coach Darren Cahill sat courtside-watching Hewitt,
the first time he's been in Hewitt's corner at an ATP match since the
two split six years ago. Hewitt has been without a coach since Roger
Rasheed split prior to the Aussie Open, but wouldn't say whether a re-union
is in the works. However, the two did practice together.
"I have no idea," Hewitt said. "I still have to work things
out and see where I want to go and see who the best person is to take
me there. Darren is doing TV commentary [for ESPN] here this week and
he came a couple days early to work with Davis Cup guys like me and [Chris]
Guccione and I was the only guy left so he was watching me."
Canon
Maria Sharapova and the eight wanna-bes.
Here’s Tipsarevic’s interesting and vital reaction to Cañas’
return: "I'm one of the guys who was, let's say, I had bad experience
with doping players because – I'm not saying nothing about guys who took
doping or not taking it. It's not good. That's the only thing. But when
they convicted [Mariano] Puerta, that he was doped, that summer when
the ATP events, I played two times against him in matches which I didn't
have a chance because he was taking substances. The thing is, with the
ATP, we're having discussions, and they are really reasonable about
it. It's a really flexible subject, , because I'm not really into doping
and how long the suspensions have to be. I just don't mess with that
stuff. The thing is that every time when we ask how many times does
a player have to be convicted in order to, let's say, ban him from tennis
or never play again, they say it's depending on the substance which
he is taking. I really don't know one substance because I'm not taking
anything except water.
More: “I'm a, a friend of Cañas and he's a really nice guy.
The thing is that he took doping. That's his own thing, and, of course,
now a lot of people are going to question this, is he really still doped?
Is he taking something to clean himself after the match or whatever?
The bottom line is, he played a great match; he beat a world No. 1. Let's
not put in question the win over Roger until he's convicted guilty, which
most of the people think maybe he is now because he beat the world No.
1.”
Nadal has r launched his website at rafaelnadal.com.
Wayne Ferreira defeated Aaron Krickstein to win the singles title at $142,000
The Oliver Group Champions Cup.
Maria Sharapova helped Canon introduce its brand new line of PowerShot digital
cameras. She was joined by seven participants in a "Maria Look-a-Like" contest.
Take a hard glance at the contestants. One looks like Nicole Vaidisova, another
a blonde Jelena Jankovic, another Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, another Vera Zvonareva
and another Teryn Ashley. But a Maria Look-a-Like? Not quite. That’s what
Photoshop is for.
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