THE SCOOP: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17

Myskina: Yuri Sharapova should stop yelling at Maria
Justine vs. Kuzy: 'I like the revenge;'
Coria vs. Agassi & the ultimate Club Fed vacation

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA

Too many voices cloud Sharapova's performance.

FROM THE PACIFIC LIFE OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS – Maria Sharapova perhaps played her worst match as pro on Tuesday in her zany and erratic 6-2, 6-1 defeat to fifth-ranked Anastasia Myskina. The 16-year-old couldn't keep a ball in the court – not with her serve, volley, returns or especially her forehand. It was flat-out embarrassing defeat to her good friend, who seemed to know exactly where she was going with ever shot.

"I definitely have a big advantage because I know her better than I think anybody," said Myskina, who has practiced with Sharapova a ton. "I know her game better than I think anybody else on the tour."

But what was more embarrassing for Maria was her father Yuri screaming order at her from the side of the court. tennisreporters.net doesn't speak Russian, but it was clear he was telling Maria where to return serve. For whatever reason, the chair umpire didn't say a peep. But Maria was clearly distressed. At 4-1 in the second set, Yuri was so disgusted with his daughter's play that he took off, leaving her hitting partner for the tournament, Jeff Tarango, staring downward. Her coach, Robert Lansdorp, sat quietly in another section of the stadium.

Myskina, who has known the Sharapovas for quite some time, says that Yuri needs to put a lid on it.

"She was down like 4-1 when he start yelling at her," Myskina said. "He tried to change something, but it didn't help a lot. My father used to yell at me, and I just know how to feel because it's lot of pressure. Of course, we all want to win. All coaches want us to win. But you don't have to yell at the player. [It] just puts [us] down more, that for sure."

In many ways, Sharapova's defeat should have been expected, considering how much mental energy she spent fending-off the "ass-kicker," 14-year-old Sesil Karatancheva.

Even though Sharapova is a gamer, she's not a mental rock yet. Yuri and Lansdorp are not getting along and Tarango, who was recommended by Lansdorp, doesn't seem to be speaking to Yuri either – at least during matches. Maria is caught between a tornado of a coach, a hurricane of a hitting partner and a tsunami of a dad. It's not wonder she couldn't put together a three-shot combination against Myskina.

"I think the coaches put pressure on her because they think that she have to beat everybody right now," said Myskina, who will play Conchita Martinez in the quarters. It's a situation that is sure too come to a head in the next couple months.

Justine vs. Kuzy: 'I like the revenge'
No one like revenge matches better than top-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne, who will get a chance to avenge her first loss of the year in Doha last week to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Indian Wells quarters on Thursday.

"I like this kind of situation," said Henin-Hardenne. "In Doha, it was a difficult match for me in the sense that I started to play in the second set, and I wasn't ready to play this kind of match. I played really good in Dubai [which she won], but it was tough. Kuznetsova is in confidence right now. She's playing a great tennis in the last few weeks. It's going to be a very good test for me. It's going to be a different situation, in a big tournament. But I like the situation. I like the revenge."

The Belgian No. 1 player has spent a lot of time in practice working on her net game and is sure to attack Kuznetsova at the cords, instead of allowing the swaggering Russian to pound her with her inside-out forehand.

"In Doha I, for sure, didn't play my best tennis in the sense that she dominated the match from the first point until the end," Henin-Hardenne said. "And I had many, many opportunities, but mentally maybe I was a little bit tired," she said "And I wasn't supposed to go to Doha. When I'm not ready to play a tournament in my head, sometimes it's hard when I'm in the situation that I have to play well in the important points. Here it's different. I feel good in the tournament. I really enjoy my time here. I'm very excited about this next round."

Coria vs. Agassi & the ultimate Club Fed vacation
A nice mini-rivalry between hero and hero-worshiper has popped up between Andre Agassi and Guillermo Coria, who will face each other in the quarters. Agassi is 3-1 lifetime against Coria, having lost to him at '04 Roland Garros and Agassi having beaten him at the '04 Australian Open, where Coria was hamstrung by a hamstring injury and a cut finger.

© Mark Lyons

Andre goes up against fleet-footed Coria.

Coria said at Roland Garros he was able to put the poster in his head that had Andre's smiling mug on it on the back of his mind. Like he did in overcoming Seb Grosjean in the last two sets, Coria is going to have to step in closer to the baseline if he is going to triumph on hard courts. Sure, these are awfully slow courts and the balls are fluffing up, but the Las Vegan Agassi has the physical advantage in the dry heat and in our tenth straight day of 90-degree-plus heat with no end in sight, even young players like Coria will feel his lungs burning.

Speaking of burners, Coria has greased lightening on his shoes. Agassi knows he'll be in for an awfully long day trying to wear him down.

"It's hard to tell the difference between sort of lightening fast and super lightening fast," Agassi said. "I can't make the distinction between him and a few other guys. Bu,t he's arguably the best. He moves incredibly well. Good weapons off both sides. I'll have to play a good match start to finish.

Roger is well on his way to the ultimate Club Fed vacation.

After torching Mardy Fish, Roger is 19-1 on the season going into his quarterfinal with Juan Ignacio Chela, who he's 2-0 lifetime against. "I watch I'm a lot and I'm very impressed," said Henin-Hardenne, who herself is 17-1 this year. "The confidence he has, he is the best for sure. He's playing unbelievable and believes in himself."

Fish echoed Heni-Hardenne's sentiments. "He's definitely the best player in the world and is obviously showing it," Fish said. "I'm ranked 19 and I didn't play that badly and he beat me four and one. He consistently beat guys that he should beat relatively easily every time."

Federer looks virtually unbeatable right now, although Agassi or Coria could have something to say about that in the semis. Has any No. 1 enjoyed the status more than Roger, who beams when he talks about it.

"What is my goal in my life? It's not to be walking down New York City and everybody starts screaming," he said. "What I'm doing is enjoying tennis. And I people enjoy watching me, that is more important than anything else. I have very many people coming up to me, where I'm staying around this week, who come to me and say, 'I love your game. My son admires you. You are his favorite player.' These are the things I enjoy hearing.

"I want to enjoy this moment while I'm No. 1 as much as I can, meet a lot of people, take it with me for also after tennis. I think I'm living a very exciting life right now. This is for me really what I've been working for hard. And obviously now that I've won Slams and become No. 1 in the world, it's trying to stay where I am and obviously reach the same emotions like I did in Wimbledon."

Federer has also had an impact in the locker room. Unlike some other No. 1 players, he's extremely approachable. He doesn't try to pass his admirers with a sharp glare down the line.

"More players speak to me now," he said. "I get along well with a lot of players. It's not guys who I didn't talk to before come up to me now and speak to me. It's just there's something to talk about because I think for every player it's a dream to become No. 1 in the world, then maybe just to be able to speak to me, and I can tell them, what I feel a little bit. I give them something they don't know. I think it's interesting for the players, for some of them. Other ones couldn't care less, which I can totally understand, too."

As of this writing, the four top-ranked players are Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Serena and Chanda Rubin. Apparently, the ITF is thinking of allowing two injury-exempted rankings, which will put the Williamses in the driver's seat if they don't post eight results by June. No. 16-ranked Venus may, but Serena certainly won't.