2006 FIFA World Cup Coverage

Americans home for holiday

WIMBLEDON, England - A few minutes after one o'clock on a steamy afternoon here, Shenay Perry congratulated her opponent, shook hands with the chair umpire and slung her racket bag over her shoulder, getting off of Court 3 faster than you could say "taxation without representation."

They don't celebrate the Fourth of July here, and they are not celebrating it much in the corridors of American tennis, either. Perry, a 21-year-old African-American, had a splendid run to get to the second week of Wimbledon, but it all unraveled Monday, and now it's official: All 24 American singles players (male and female) are gone, not a single one of them making it to the quarterfinals of the world's most storied tennis tournament.

It makes it the worst U.S. showing ever on the lawns of southwest London.

"Being the last American, it was a little nerve-wracking," Perry said, not long after she got steamrolled by seventh-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, 6-2, 6-0. "I was really nervous. I think it showed in my match. I've never been in (Week 2 of a Grand Slam) before."

Ranked No. 62 in the world, Perry watched the athletic assertiveness and resolve she had exhibited in winning her first three matches dissolve against the angled baseline assault of Dementieva - a Wimbledon quarterfinalist for the first time.

Next up for Dementieva is her Russian countrywoman, fellow baselining blonde and 2004 champion, No. 4 Maria Sharapova, who got a stout fight from Flavia Pennetta, the 16th-seeded Italian, before prevailing 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3.

"I just didn't feel like I was playing my best tennis. In the end, it all came down to how much I fought," Sharapova, 19, said.

Slapping her left thigh in self-exhortation, shouting to herself, "C'mon!" Sharapova closed things out with a deft forehand drop volley and a backhand winner down the line, moving her into the round-of-eight match with Dementieva.

TEMPERS FLARE: The only thing wide-open in the men's tournament was the festering unpleasantness between five-set loser Dmitry Tursunov and chair umpire Fergus Murphy.

"Maybe it's something personal now because I've argued with him during my matches," the big, blond, California-based Russian huffed. "But I think he's terrible. He never makes an overrule and then, as you saw, gives me a point penalty at 8-7.

"Four hours on court doesn't seem to be reason enough for him to be more lenient. You know, if the guy's an idiot, the guy's an idiot. I'm going to let him know that I feel that."

Evidently, he did. At the end of a 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 6-7 (6-7), 9-7 loss to the Jarkko Nieminen, Tursunov first walked past Murphy's chair, as if declining to shake his hand. Then, he abruptly turned and extended his hand and, when Murphy took it, Tursunov pulled downward before letting go, then shook a finger in Murphy's face.

There had been a great number of calls questioned by both players in this fourth-round odyssey, and when Tursunov was broken at 7-8 in the final set, so was his calmness. He slammed a ball that struck the umpire's chair.

It was Murphy's judgment, said Tursunov, that he was trying to hit him with the ball and so, when the players moved into position to start the final game, the Irish umpire declared 15-love.

Nieminen looked perplexed. "What could I do?" he asked rhetorically. His victory thrust him into his second Grand Slam quarterfinal, where he'll play No. 2 Rafael Nadal.

[Last modified July 4, 2006, 00:56:30]