Jennifer Capriati's finickiness reached new heights Saturday: She wanted the blimp hanging over Arthur Ashe Stadium moved.
And that was simply one of her concerns during a tight match at the US Open. She also was bothered by her racket strings, opponent Emilie Loit's style and the weather.
The blimp? Capriati thought it was closer to the court than normal, and found the noise distracting. Still, the three-time major champion persevered, eventually found a comfort zone and pounded out a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 victory to reach the round of 16.
"When you're playing worse, everything sort of becomes louder than when you're playing well," the No. 6-seeded Capriati said. "If something is bothering me, I try to stop it or focus a little harder."
She switched outfits because the weather chilled, and she switched rackets to try to account for swirling wind and heavy humidity. And then there were the problems with her serve -- Capriati was broken three straight times bridging the second and third sets. But her powerful strokes eventually took their toll on the light-hitting Loit, a Frenchwoman ranked 49th who likes to mix speeds during a point.
At least Capriati must have been thrilled to finish before the rain came.
She will make the Open quarterfinals for a third straight year if she can beat No. 11 Elena Dementieva, who got past Amy Frazier 7-6 (1), 7-6 (3) in another of the handful of matches completed before the first downpour of this Open made everyone put their rackets away.
Dementieva was joined by fellow Russians No. 7 Anastasia Myskina and unseeded Dinara Safina, the younger sister of 2000 Open champion Marat Safin. With Nadia Petrova and Elena Likhovtseva having won Friday, there are five Russians in the round of 16.
Without hitting a ball, Andy Roddick was a topic of conversation at the National Tennis Center on Saturday -- and not because it was his 21st birthday.
Rather, it was because Croatian Ivan Ljubicic lit into Roddick for his on-court behavior after losing to the rising star Friday night in a tight four-setter that ended shortly after midnight. As Ljubicic put it Saturday: "He is Andy Roddick, we are in the States, and if somebody says something bad about him, then it's a big boom ... I'm sorry if he's expecting everybody's going to like him," Ljubicic added. "He thinks he's the best, the greatest, the most beautiful. But that's not the case."
According to Ljubicic, he was in his hotel room when he got a call from Roddick at 1:30am Roddick wanted to know why Ljubicic didn't speak to him privately instead of airing his views through the media.
Ljubicic said he told Roddick: "Andy, why do you care what others think about you?"
Roddick called the comments "sour grapes" on Friday, but neither he nor coach Brad Gilbert would talk to reporters about the matter Saturday. Instead, Roddick issued a statement at night through the ATP Tour: "I had a good conversation with Ivan, both last night and again today. I think we both had the chance to clear the air, and I know that last night's incident is behind us."
James Blake came to Roddick's defense.
"Andy has proved himself over and over. He doesn't need to respond. He doesn't need to worry about this. What you saw out there was just his personality, Andy just being himself," said Blake, a Davis Cup teammate and pal of Roddick's since their days as juniors.
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