Now that he has beaten Andre Agassi, Jerome Haehnel figures he'll keep playing tennis. Might as well, since he's into the second round of the French Open.
At 23, Haehnel has contemplated retirement, but that was before he pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam history Monday. A qualifier playing his first tour-level match beat the winner of eight major titles, 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-3.
PHOTO: EPA
With no coach, a distaste for flying and a ranking of No. 271, Haehnel came to Roland Garros on the verge of calling it a career.
"I've thought about it," the Frenchman said. With a smile he added, "Now maybe I will go on."
The question is how long the 34-year-old Agassi will go on, and whether he'll return for a 17th appearance at the French Open next year.
"Hard to say," the 1999 champion said. "I don't know. It's a year away, and that's a long time for me right now. The chances get less every year, that's for sure."
The oldest man in the tournament, Agassi looked it. He was lethargic and tentative, especially on the biggest points.
"I probably got what I deserved," he said.
Agassi's defeat was by far the biggest upset on the opening day, but there was other drama.
Fellow American Vince Spadea overcame a 5-1 deficit in the fifth set and nine match points to beat Florent Serra of France. Ninth-seeded Tim Henman rallied from two sets down to defeat Cyril Saulnier. And Vladimir Voltchkov edged Radek Stepanek 11-9 in the fifth set.
On the women's side, Justine Henin-Hardenne returned from a six-week layoff and began her bid for a second successive French Open title by beating Sandrine Testud 6-4, 6-4.
The imposing Russian contingent started 6-0, including victories by No. 8 Nadia Petrova and No. 10 Vera Zvonareva. Also advancing were third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, France's best hope, and No. 5 Lindsay Davenport.
There were two seeded losers: No. 24 Jelena Dokic and No. 27 Elena Daniilidou.
Second-seeded Andy Roddick overcame an upset stomach to eliminate fellow American Todd Martin 7-6 (5), 6-4, 7-5. Roddick had lost in the opening round the past two years.
Other winners on the men's side included No. 3 Guillermo Coria and No. 5 Carlos Moya, the 1998 champion. Three seeded men were eliminated: No. 6 Agassi, No. 16 Fernando Gonzalez and No. 18 Mark Philippoussis.
Agassi was bidding for his 800th match victory, but instead Haehnel (pronounced eh-NEL) improved to 1-0 lifetime. The Frenchman closed out his victory with his third ace, then walked impassively to the net to shake hands with Agassi, showing the same poise he displayed throughout the match.
Naehnel finally cracked a smile after Agassi left the court to a big ovation.
"He's my favorite player," Haehnel said. "I was trying not to be overimpressed."
With aging legs, Agassi sought to help his chances at Roland Garros by preserving his energy with limited preparation. So he arrived after playing just one clay-court match, a loss last week in Austria to Nenad Zimonjic, a qualifier ranked 339th.
That result gave Haehnel hope.
"I spoke with many friends, and they told me I can win against him," Haehnel said. "He lost one week ago against a guy like me, a simpleton. A bad guy, a bad player."
Haehnel turned pro in 1998. His success has been modest in part because he prefers tournaments near his home in eastern France.
"It's true. I hate traveling," he said. "When you have to go to the other end of the world, it's difficult."
So he sent Agassi packing instead.
Martina Navratilova's return to Grand Slam singles after a 10-year absence is generating plenty of talk -- not all of it positive.
Amelie Mauresmo thinks a young French player should have received the wild card that organizers gave Navratilova, 47.
``We're lucky enough to have a Grand Slam in our country. Obviously, we want French players to get priority,'' the third-seeded Mauresmo said Monday after beating Ludmila Cervanova 6-3, 6-3.
"I think the tournament hoped Martina would create more of an event and would probably attract more people," said Mauresmo, France's top player. "It's obvious that this penalizes the young French players."
Still a top doubles player, Navratilova asked for a singles wild card at the French Open this year, which she has said will be her last on tour.
In her first singles match at a major since 1994, Navratilova faces teenager Gisela Dulko of Argentina on Tuesday. Navratilova won the French Open in 1982 and 1984, two of her 18 Grand Slam singles championships.
Mauresmo said she and Navratilova have talked tennis on several occasions but not much came of it.
"She has a very rigid way of looking at things. That didn't suit me very well," Mauresmo said.
FERRERO'S DECISION
After a practice session Monday, defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero planned to play in the French Open despite a rib injury, Spanish tennis federation spokesman Pedro Hernandez said.
Ferrero, scheduled to play his first-round match Tuesday against Tommy Haas, said Sunday there was a 60 percent chance he would withdraw.
Tournament spokesman Christophe Proust said organizers hadn't heard from Ferrero on Monday, and they assumed he was waiting until Tuesday to make his final decision.
Ferrero bruised his right ribs in a fall May 8 while practicing in Spain.
WAY OUT THERE
It doesn't get much farther from Center Court at Roland Garros than Court 17.
It was there, in the hinterlands of the vast 20-court complex, that Alex Corretja of Spain played his first-round match. Is that any way to treat a two-time French Open finalist?
"I'd prefer to play on a better court," Corretja said after beating Jan-Michael Gambill of the US 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. "It was very distracting, there were people walking around all the time, I could hear car horns beeping."
Corretja has slipped to 97 in the ATP rankings from a career best of No. 2 in 1999.
"I'm obviously not one of the favorites right now from a ranking point of view," said the Spaniard, who reached the finals here in 1998 and 2001. He was a semifinalist in 2002.
"My main motivation is to win," Corretja said, shrugging it off. "I can't say to myself, `I won't play my best because they put me on Court 17.'"
SLUMP CONTINUES
Mark Philippoussis is stuck in a rut. The two-time Grand Slam runner-up's dismal start to the year continued with a 6-1, 7-6 (9), 6-3 loss to Luis Horna of Peru. It means the Australian has won eight of his 20 matches in 2004.
The slump began in February at the Davis Cup, when defending champion Australia lost its first-round clash with Sweden. Philippoussis lost both his singles matches in straight sets and carried the burden of defeat.
The big-server, a finalist at Wimbledon last year and the 1998 US Open, lost his next five matches -- at Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Hamburg.
In last year's French Open, he knocked out current World No. 1 Roger Federer in the first round.
SICK CALL
To the list of injured players sitting this one out, add Dutchman Sjeng Schalken and American Chanda Rubin.
Both pulled out ahead of first-round matches Tuesday, No. 15 Schalken because of a viral infection and Rubin, seeded 13th, with a recurring knee problem.
Rubin injured her left knee at the Pan Pacific Open in February in Tokyo. Tzipora Obziler of Israel will take Rubin's place in remaining first-round matches Tuesday, while Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea will replace Schalken.
Earlier, Kim Clijsters, the 2001 and 2003 French Open runner-up, pulled out because of tendinitis in her left wrist, while Mardy Fish withdrew with a hip injury.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier