Davenport Withdraws, Guccione Stumbles
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday June 21, 2006
LINDSAY Davenport, a former Wimbledon champion, has withdrawn from this year's championships due to a back injury, while Chris Guccione, tipped by his Davis Cup captain as a potential Wimbledon winner, has failed to reach the second round of qualifying on an otherwise encouraging opening day for the Australians.
Only three former women's champions - Martina Hingis, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams - remain in the Wimbledon draw after Davenport, the 1999 titleholder and current world No.6, advised organisers she would be joining fellow American Serena Williams (knee) on the absentee list. Former men's No.1 Carlos Moya also withdrew on Monday citing a shoulder injury, as did Taylor Dent (back).Meanwhile, Australia's bid to extend their men's singles presence beyond newly recrowned Queen's Club champion Lleyton Hewitt and late wildcard recipient Mark Philippoussis started promisingly, with first-round wins to 24th seed Peter Luczak, Wayne Arthurs, Nathan Healey, Alun Jones and Robert Smeets.The casualties were Guccione, the grasscourt natural who has failed to translate his excellent Davis Cup form to tournament play and watched his ranking tumble back to 255th, and Luke Bourgeois, who lost 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) to Arthurs, the veteran attempting to reach the main draw for the eighth, and almost certainly last, time.Women's qualifying was due to start last night, with Australia represented by Nicole Pratt, Casey Dellacqua, Sophie Ferguson and Jelena Dokic - although the struggling one-time semi-finalist, now ranked 685th, entered only with the help of a wildcard.Australian No.1 Sam Stosur had earlier continued her indifferent form with a 7-5, 6-4 loss to Slovak Jarmila Gajdasova in the final round of qualifying at Eastbourne, the Wimbledon warm-up event for which the Queenslander was the top seed. SMH
© 2006 Newcastle Herald
