Surprising Frazier Ousts Myskina

Amy Frazier has never gone further than the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament or been ranked higher than No. 13 in the world.

She is not the quickest mover around the court. She has never hit the hardest or served the fastest, though her well-timed, flat forehand can suddenly start hitting lines and creating angles and confounding bigger, stronger, higher-ranked players.

Mostly, Frazier has been best known for always carrying her purse onto the court and for crying hard after tough losses and sometimes even after great wins.

Frazier didn’t cry Friday at Wimbledon. She couldn’t stop smiling long enough. At 31 and with no realistic chance of winning Wimbledon but playing with joy and fortitude, Frazier accomplished her greatest win at a major tournament. She beat second-seeded Anastasia Myskina, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, in a third-round match.

While the buzz around the grounds was still about the mistake by the chair umpire during the second-set tiebreaker of Venus Williams’ upset loss to Karolina Sprem on Thursday, Frazier quietly explained why she is still traveling the world instead of settling down at home in Rochester Hills, Mich.

“I think I love what I do, and I feel lucky that I get to do it. So I try not to think that I’m 31.”

Two highly seeded men who love what they do on clay courts more than grass were soundly defeated Friday. Third-seeded Guillermo Coria, the French Open finalist who needed four days to complete his first-round win here, was quickly eliminated in the second round by Germany’s Florian Mayer, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

Spain’s sixth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 French Open champion, exited even faster, dropping a 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 decision to 21-year-old Robby Ginepri of Marietta, Ga.

Ginepri’s friend, second-seeded Andy Roddick, slipped into the third round with a quick and easy 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over lucky loser Alexander Peya of Austria. In today’s third round, Roddick will face another friend, No. 26-seeded Taylor Dent. Dent, of Newport Beach, recorded his second consecutive straight-set victory here but also carries the burden of his 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 drubbing by Roddick at the Australian Open.

“I think of that match, yeah, but not often,” Dent said. “Let’s not think about it again.”

Top-seeded woman and defending champion Serena Williams had a troublesome second set and faced eight break points against 135th-ranked Stephanie Foretz of France. But Williams advanced with a 6-0, 6-4 victory.

Afterward, Williams became annoyed at a succession of questions about how her sister, Venus Williams, had handled a controversy Thursday when chair umpire Ted Watts mistakenly awarded Sprem a point after a clear fault had been called during Sprem’s serve in the second-set tiebreaker.

After saying that she would never have accepted a point she hadn’t earned -- “I’m an honest individual. So if I were in that situation I know I would make the right choice,” Williams said at one point, and “I think as a competitor and as a professional you should be able to distinguish right and wrong. But I’m not here to talk about Venus,” she said at another point -- Serena put an end to the interrogation.

“Please don’t ask me any more about that match or else you’ll hear ‘bleep, bleep,’ ” she said.

Watts, the offending chair umpire, was suspended for the remainder of Wimbledon, according to tournament referee Alan Mills. “I have now discussed the incident with the chair umpire concerned and we have agreed it will be in the best interests of both parties if he takes no further part in the event,” Mills said in a statement.

Most other players said that while they thought Venus handled the situation gracefully, they, like Serena Williams, questioned Sprem’s silence when she was awarded the point.

“I’d have a real issue just pretending like nothing was wrong and taking the point,” Roddick said. Goran Ivanisevic said that had he ever been awarded a point wrongly, “I give it back. I don’t take the point that somebody gave it to me.”

Jennifer Capriati, who moved into the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 20-year-old British wild card Elena Baltacha, said she wouldn’t have worried about anyone stealing a point from her. “Nobody in my box would have let that happen,” Capriati said. “They would have been, like, ‘Wrong score!’ ”

But Richard Williams, Venus’ and Serena’s father and a man not known for keeping quiet about his daughters, was stopped on the grounds Friday and asked if he was angry. “Not at all, not at all,” he said. “Don’t be hard on people. They make mistakes.”

Sitting in the half of the draw where Venus and Myskina were seeded is No. 5 Lindsay Davenport, who has lost only six games in getting to the fourth round. Friday, she beat Tatiana Panova of Russia, 6-2, 6-1, and seems destined for a semifinal match against 17-year-old Russian Maria Sharapova, who dismantled Daniela Hantuchova, 6-3, 6-1, on Centre Court.

*

At a Glance

A brief look at Day 5 of Wimbledon:

* Men’s seeded losers: No. 3 Guillermo Coria to Florian Mayer, No. 6 Juan Carlos Ferrero to No. 27 Robby Ginepri, No. 20 Tommy Robredo to Karol Beck, No. 21 Juan Ignacio Chela to Thomas Enqvist, No. 22 Andrei Pavel to Kenneth Carlsen.

* Women’s seeded losers: No. 2 Anastasia Myskina to Frazier, No. 15 Patty Schnyder to Emmanuelle Gagliardi, No. 18 Francesca Schiavone to Tatiana Golovin, No. 26 Lisa Raymond to Ludmila Cervanova, No. 27 Alicia Molik to Tamarine Tanasugarn.

* Statistic of the day: 0. Number of rain delays Friday, the first day of the 2004 tournament without any interruptions.

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

Centre Court -- begins at 4 a.m. PDT

* Roger Federer vs. Thomas Johansson

* Serena Williams vs. Magui Serna

* Tim Henman vs. Hicham Arazi

Court 1 -- begins at 4 a.m. PDT

* Jennifer Capriati vs. Nathalie Dechy

* Andy Roddick vs. Taylor Dent