The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 32

I THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, ZOOS Canadians disappoint in singles stows Myi in miccy 7: 1 jy t-J LSV J-L 1 1 1 All-Spanish tilt Teen sensation ousts countryman PAT HICKEY THE GAZETTE When Rafael Nadal was younger, he had the privilege of practising regularly against one of the top players in the world, a fellow Mallorcan named Carlos Moya. Nadal, 19, has acknowledged his debt to his mentor, but yesterday, Moya said those training sessions might have meant more to him. "He helped me a lot because he was 14, 15 and you don't want to lose to a kid during the practice," Moya said after he lost to Nadal, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 in the opening round of the Rogers Cup men's tennis tournament at the Jarry Tennis Centre. "He forces you to improve. The same way I think I helped him a little bit, he helped me a lot." Their relative positions in the tennis world have changed in the past year.

Nadal came into this event as the No. 2 player in the ATP rankings and as the No. 1 seed. Moya, who was No. 1 in 1999, is No.

32. Moya said he had no doubts that Nadal would be a top player, but he is surprised at how quickly he has risen. "He was 40, 50 in the rankings for a year, year and a half. Suddenly, everything happened," Moya said. "I think there was a beast in him and I think the one who woke up the beast was (Andy) Roddick in the Davis Cup tie." Moya was referring to Nadal's win over Roddick that propelled Spain to victory over the U.S.

in last year's Davis Cup final. Nadal gave tournament organizers a scare yesterday when he called for the trainer with the score tied 2-2 in the third set. "I had a cramp in my finger, but after a few minutes, it was no problem," Nadal said. Moya showed his determination and courage as he fought off break point after break point to stay in the match. "I was starting every game losing the first point on my serve," Moya said.

"Then I had to do a miracle to win the game. I was playing well, but I played one bad game in the third set and that was the difference." The telling statistic in the match was that Nadal enjoyed 15 break points and converted two of them. Moya had only one break point and failed to convert the opportunity "I was surprised that I didn't tennis muscle yesterday after winning point during third set en route PIERRE OBENDRAUF THE GAZETTE to victory over Carlos Moya. PAT HICKEY THE GAZETTE Frank Dancevic is an ambitious young man, but his ambition might not match his ability Dancevic, who has been bothered by hip and back injuries this year, said his goal is to reach the top 100 in the ATP Tour tennis rankings by the end of the year. But Dancevic, who came into the Rogers Cup men's tournament as the top-ranked Canadian at No.

173, hasn't been higher than No. 141 and he hardly looked like a top-100 player yesterday as he dropped a first-round match to Xavier Malisse of Belgium, 6-2, 6-2. "Obviously, I made too many unforced errors," Dancevic said. "I just didn't match it today with Xavier. He played a pretty solid match.

He served pretty well. He didn't make too many mistakes. I think I pretty well beat myself out there." Dancevic has been regarded as the top Canadian prospect since he followed a promising junior career by winning the $50,000 Granby Challenger in 2003 as an 18-year-old. But he has been treading water ever since and his career has been marked by injuries and inexplicable absences from the ATP Tour to work on his game. He played a light schedule after representing Canada in Davis Cup play last fall, but he'll have to play more this year if he hopes to reach his goal.

He said yesterday that he will decide on his schedule after consulting with his coach, John Sor-bo. He has two choices the European indoor circuit, where he would have to go through qualifying to reach the main draw, or a series of minor-league challenger events in the U.S. The latter offers less in terms of ranking points and money, but Dancevic would be guaranteed a chance to play Dancevic said he had mixed feelings about his play in this year's Granby event and in a $100,000 challenger last week in Vancouver. He won a couple of rounds in each event, but expected to do better. He'll continue to receive medical treatment as he prepares for the U.S.

Open qualifying and Canada's Davis Cup tie against Belarus next month in Toronto. The winner of that series will earn a spot in the 16-nation World Group for 2006, but Canada rates as a decided underdog. Meanwhile, the Canadian content in singles play was reduced to zero when Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark rallied to beat Rob Steckley of Oakville, Ont.5-7,64,6-3. Steckley is a former junior star who has never quite lived up to his potential. After a false start in university, he had a good small-college tennis career in the US.

and is getting a last kick at the can at age 25. His serve kept him in yesterday's match, but Carlsen's experience prevailed. One consolation for Steckley was the first-round loser's cheque for $7,500 U.S. Before this event, he had earnings of less than $4,000 this year. phickey thegazette.canwest.com SCHEDULE COURT 9 11 a.m.: Mario Ancic, Croatia vs.

Florent Serra, France; followed by Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic vs. Nikolay Davydenko (5) Russia; Younes El Aynaoui, Morocco vs. Tommy Robredo (11), Spain. Not before 4 p.m.: Andrei Pavel, Romania vs. Mariano Puerta, Argentina.

COURT 5 11 a.m.: Olivier Rochus, Belgium vs. Robin Soderling, Sweden; followed by Leander Paes-Nenad Zimonjic vs. Jonathan Erlich-Andy Ram; Jiri Novak, Czech Republic vs. Dominik Hrbaty, Slovakia; David Nalbandian (9) Argentina vs. Karol Beck, Slovakia.

Not before 4 p.m.: Cyril Suk-Pavel Vizner vs. Mahesh Bhupathi-Martin Damm; Bjorkman-Mirnyi (1) vs. Johansson-Mikhail Youzhny. It wasn't a particularly good day for seeded players. While 12th-seeded Thomas Johansson of Sweden, the champion here in 1999, weathered 6-foot-10 Croatian Ivo Karlovic's booming serves en route to a win, Hewitt and Roddick were joined on the sidelines by three other seeded players, which means on Virus hammers Mathieu Frenchman was last to beat Sampras Qualifier Serra benefits as weakened Aussie loses battle with stomach bug and retires Spaniard Rafael Nadal flexes his break him more because before this tournament, I had one of the best records for break points converted," Nadal said.

The victory raised the question of whether Nadal can win his first hardcourt tournament here. Moya and Nadal said it would be difficult, but the chances might have become better. the last few days, and appeared on the practice court for only about 20 minutes total since his arrival. When a committed baseliner like Hewitt hits a service return and tries to rush the net within a few moments of starting a match, you know something's up. But Serra, who appeared a little shell-shocked after being credited with a victory over the tournament's No.

2 seed, didn't suspect much. "I didn't see that he was hurting anywhere. In the beginning, wl haven't been able to eat anything the last three, four days." Australian Lleyton Hewitt I tried to play my game. He made a lot of errors, didn't serve well I don't know if that was related, but I really didn't see anything," said Serra, also 24 but getting his first taste of big-time tennis after logging long hours on the minor-league satellite circuit. Rogers Cup tournament director Eugene Lapierre was faced with a dilemma Monday.

"The doctor saw him, and said he was not in condition to play tennis (Tuesday). But he absolutely wanted to," Lapierre said. ly nine of the 16 seeds survived the opening round. Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain defeated seventh-seeded Guiller-mo Coria of Argentina, 6-3, 6-2; Taylor Dent of the U.S. outlasted 13th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 and Robin Soderling of Sweden ousted 14th-seeded Radek Stepanek, 6-3, 6-1.

Roddick was more irritated than frustrated at the loss. "I'm just a little ticked off that I wasn't able to click in," he said. "Sometimes if you get through the first one, you give yourself a chance, then you kind of hit your stride in the tournament. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that tonight." smyles thegazette.canwest.com TODAY'S CENTRE COURT 11 a.m.: Max Mirnyi, Belarus vs. Greg Rusedski, Britain.

I p.m.: Jonas Bjorkman, Sweden vs. Andre Agassi (4), U.S.; followed by Paul-Henri Mathieu, France vs. Arnaud Clement, France. 750 p.m.: Rafael Nadal (1), Spain vs. Ricardo Mello, Brazil; followed by David Nalbandian-Mariano Puerta vs.

Mark Knowles-Daniel Nestor. GRANDSTAND COURT II a.m.: Taylor Dent, U.S. vs. Nicolas Kiefer, Germany. Not before noon: Gaston Gaudio (6), Argentina vs.

Kenneth Carlsen, Denmark; followed by Sebastien Grosjean, France vs. Richard Gasquet, France; Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spain vs. David Ferrer, Spain; Thomas Johansson (12) Sweden vs. Xavier Malisse, Belgium. Two of the proven hardcourt players in the field second-seeded Lleyton Hewitt and third-seeded Andy Roddick both lost and that clears out the field for Nadal.

Fourth-seeded Andre Agassi is still alive, but most of the other seeded players are, like Nadal, more comfortable on clay Hewitt Yesterday's afternoon matches featured Spanish-speaking players during prime television time in South America. And with his start questionable, Hewitt couldn't be scheduled as the only singles match last night. As well, No. 3 seed Andy Roddick, who cooked in the searing heat as he won a tournament in Washington, D.C., last week, asked for and was granted an evening start. Roddick lost to unseeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu A very large matinee crowd scurried around to the other courts until the Rafael Nadal-Carlos Moya match started at 1p.m.

Hewitt said moments before the match that the chances of him taking the court were 50-50. "Obviously, I haven't been able to eat anything the last three or four days, which just really hit me up because I've got no energy whatsoever at the moment," he said. Serra, who qualified for his first ATP Masters Series draw by defeating Erik Chvojka, 18, of Kirkland and 169th-ranked Takao Suzuki of Japan, faces Mario Ancic of Croatia in a quarterfinal of a draw that has lost all of its seeded players. No. 10 Tim Henman and No.

16 Fernando Gonzalez lost Monday No. 7 Guillermo Coria went down meekly yesterday to unseeded former No. 1 from Spain, Juan Carlos Ferrero. CONTINUED FROM CI Word is that the other Frenchmen in the dressing room and there are plenty of them in the draw, including Mathieu's next opponent, Arnaud Clement -were confident Mathieu, nicknamed "Paulo," could take it. And while the 23-year-old has struggled this year, he does have enough star turns in his pro career to justify the confidence.

Mathieu was the last player to defeat the great Pete Sampras, at a tournament in Long Island leading up to the 2002 U.S. Open. He also has beat Russian Marat Safin in Moscow, and came within a hair of upsetting Andre Agassi at the French Open in 2002, at age 20, before Agassi came back from two sets to one down. He was the ATP Newcomer of The Year in 2002. He was then, what promising 19-year-old Richard Gasquet is now the next great French tennis hope and the flavour of the month.

The crowd began to get behind Mathieu at the end of the first set. "Especially at the end, it helped," said Mathieu, who was not only buoyed by the likely several hundred fans named either Paul, Henri or Mathieu in the Montreal audience, but also one fan who yelled out in most bilingual fashion, "Allez Mathieu -you da man." STEPHANIE MYLES THE GAZETTE The blond Aussie who took centre court at Uniprix Stadium yesterday morning, a few moments late leaving the dressing room as he awaited a new pair of shoes, bore only a passing resemblance to Lleyton Hewitt. He was Nike-less for the first time in his career after the expiration of a five-year deal, wearing logo-less clothes and the checkered headband made famous by countryman Pat Cash two decades ago. The tennis produced by the former No. 1 in the 29 minutes he managed on court also was barely recognizable.

Felled by an illness almost immediately upon his arrival here from Australia last weekend and unable to keep food down, Hewitt retired from his match with French qualifier Florent Serra down 4-3 in the first set. "I've just been had some kind of virus, stomach virus, last three or four days or so. Just got worse and worse. Yeah, obviously out in the heat today, you know, I just felt like I had nothing out there," Hewitt said in a statement provided by the ATP The 2-1-year-old had cancelled a pair of news conferences during.