Van Roost Plants First Garden Seed

The opening day of main-draw action at the new Indian Wells Tennis Garden featured one minor upset and four qualifiers winning first-round matches.

Amanda Coetzer of South Africa became the first casualty among the seeded players Friday. Dominique Van Roost of Belgium defeated No. 15 Coetzer, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, in a second-round match at the Indian Wells Tennis Masters Series. Both players had first-round byes.

It may have looked like an upset. But this is the second time Van Roost has defeated Coetzer this year, and the 26-year-old Belgian has been ranked as high as No. 9 in the world.

“For a player like Amanda, this is the worst draw you can get,” said Van Roost, who has victories over Martina Hingis, Venus Williams, Anna Kournikova and Nathalie Tauziat in her career.

Her ranking has dropped to No. 20, which meant she barely missed being seeded here. The early matches among the women have been getting tougher, as Monica Seles noted. Seles, who sat out more than five months because of a stress fracture in her right foot, was unseeded at the recent Scottsdale event and had to play Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals. It was the first time she had been unseeded in an event since 1989.

Two other seeded players won Friday, both in the second round. The seventh-seeded Seles, despite having problems with her serve, defeated Silvia Farina of Italy, 6-1, 6-2, and 10th-seeded Barbara Schett of Austria beat Kristina Brandi, 6-1, 6-2.

The players were impressed with the new facility.

“I absolutely fell in love with it,” Seles said. “It’s the best site of the tournaments we have. I love the stadium court and the way it plays.”

She talked about the great weather and said of her tennis-playing job: “That’s a pretty good life.”

Van Roost liked the intimacy of the old site at Grand Champions but realized the need for change.

“It’s beautiful, but I liked it the way it was before,” Van Roost said. “It was too small [before] and they needed more courts.”

Stanford sophomore Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica was one of the four qualifiers who advanced. Irvin survived a match point in the second-set tiebreaker and defeated Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-1.

Because she had to play both of her qualifying rounds Thursday, Irvin has been on the court for nine sets in two days. She will play Patty Schnyder of Switzerland today in the second round.

“I’m not sure playing six sets before the first round of a tournament is exactly the best way to prepare,” Irvin said, smiling. “I was pretty sore when I woke up. In the match today, I could definitely feel it. I wasn’t fresh. My legs weren’t getting to some balls and I wasn’t moving as well as I could have been moving.

“She played really well in the first set. She was taking every shot I hit and hit a better shot off it. I went for my shots a little more and they went in. In the tiebreaker, she ended up having a match point. I thought, ‘Well, she didn’t give up when I had two set points.’

“I was in a third-set tiebreaker yesterday. I don’t know what my deal is with three sets. My friends at school make fun of me. I got some e-mails last night, ‘Gee, Marissa, do you think you can win a match in two sets?’ So I’m sure there will be some waiting for me when I get back, knocking me for another three-set match.”

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Goran Ivanisevic, Jonas Bjorkman, Taylor Dent and James Blake were given wild-card spots in the men’s tournament, which starts Monday. One more wild card will be announced before today’s draw. Qualifying is today and Sunday.

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Today’s Featured Matches

At Indian Wells Tennis Masters Series (men’s qualifying match at 10 a.m.; women will not start before 11:30):

STADIUM 1

* Anna Kournikova, Russia, vs. Denisa Chladkova, Czech Republic

* Jennifer Capriati vs. Cara Black, Zimbabwe

* Martina Hingis, Switzerland, vs. Amy Frazier

* Serena Williams vs. Alexandra Stevenson

* Lindsay Davenport vs. Irina Spirlea, Romania