There was still quite a bit of action despite a gloomy and rainy first day at the Tennis Masters Series ? Canada in Toronto. Notably, a struggling defending champion showed signs of hope, a teenage Aussie led the "New Balls Brigade", the official ranking leader withered under a Dutch bombardment, and Mark Miles is in the building!
Only three matches were postponed or suspended by rain, including top-seeded Andre Agassi's evening encounter with tricky French lefty Jérôme Golmard.
Thomas Johansson def. Andreas Vinciguerra, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4
1st round
Stadium court
Previous head-to-head: First meeting
Canada's defending champion is still alive! Sweden's Thomas Johansson, unseeded, struggling, and an outsider to repeat here, beat back the determined challenge of his talented young compatriot Andreas Vinciguerra in the day's first centre court match.
After penetrating the top 20 in 1999 and winning his biggest title in Montreal last year, Johansson's ranking has slipped to a current 77 in the "race rankings" and 44 (with a lot of points to defend this week) in the "entry rankings". In fact, if there had not been a rash of withdrawals this year, the 1999 Canadian Open champion would have had to go through qualifying to defend his title. Johansson's chances looked bleak to do well here: he had compiled a horrible 8-16 win-loss record this year, as he
struggled to recover his rhythm in the wake of a heart virus that kept him off the shelf during the last few months of 1999. On the plus side, the best tournament of this year for Thomas was his most recent, Wimbledon, where he upset Yevgeny Kafelnikov and reached the round of sixteen, where he took a set off eventual finalist Pat Rafter.
His opponent was a dangerous one, the fiery 20 year old Andreas Vinciguerra. "Vinci", the son of a Sicilian father and Swedish mother, is a young man on a mission. He rose from outside the top 500 to 96 over last year, and has continued his ascent this season, reaching a current entry ranking of 40 and winning his first tournament (indoors in Copenhagen). The Swedish lefthander is a thin baseline dynamo with excellent speed and a heavy topspin forehand that he hits as often as possible.
There was not much separating these two today. The first set began 20 minutes late and was interrupted three times for brief rain delays under a gloomy Toronto sky. The players held form on their service games, Johansson using his booming 130 mph blasts and Vinciguerra, smaller and less powerful, relying on placement, kick, and good use of his lefty delivery from the ad court.
In the first set-tie-break, Vinciguerra had the first opening, as Johansson placed himself in trouble with a double fault at 3-4. Serving at 6-4 and double set point, "Vinci" made a costly error, sending a looping backhand long to surrender a great opportunity. The players were back on serve and stayed that way until 8-9, Vinciguerra serving. The youngster made another unforced backhand error, and the first set belonged to Johansson.
The backhand errors that cost Vinciguerra the first set returned to haunt him in the second. Johansson, solid off both sides, was able either to find Vinciguerra's suspect backhand (he seemed to hit it with flying elbows and had problems timing it effectively), or find the open court if Vinciguerra ran around it to hit forehands. Andreas was broken in the ninth game, which featured two badly mistimed Vinciguerra backhands. Serving for the match, Johansson closed it out confidently with a wicked ace on
his second match point. Make the final: 7-6 (10-8), 6-4.
Our defending champion, riding the positive vibrations that he received from his fine Wimbledon showing, now moves on to play the winner of tomorrow's Squillari-Ferreira match. With his solid and confident showing today, Thomas might surprise us with a determined defense of his Canadian title this week.
Lleyton Hewitt (7) def. Roger Federer, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
1st round
Court 1
Previous head-to-head: Hewitt leads 2-0
An intriguing first-round matchup between two of the tour's young turks, 19-year-old Australian Lleyton Hewitt and 18-year-old Swiss Roger Federer, drew quite a large crowd to court one. The 7th-seeded Aussie finally imposed his will on his younger opponent after a sluggish start.
Hewitt relies on his speed and counter-punching skills, while the more taller and more powerfully built Federer relies on the force of his strong serve and big forehands to win his matches. In the first set, the Swiss was imposing his game. Roger's backhand is thought to be his weaker side, but he was cracking impressive backhand as well as forehand winners with impressive regularity. Lleyton seemed on his heels and more prone to baseline errors than is normally the case, and his trademark fist-pumping a
nd yelling was noticeably absent. The only break of the first set went Federer's way, on a searing backhand cross-court winner. It was Federer, not Hewitt, who was screaming "come on!" and pumping his fist!
Hewitt gave this explanation for his slow start: "He played a great first set and a half, and was serving huge. As for me, it's hard to come here your first match up, after playing on clay and grass the last three or four months. I had to get a few rusty things out of my game."
The match turned Hewitt's way in the second set, with the Aussie serving at 2-2. It was a long, four-deuce game, that finally saw Lleyton go into his fist-pumping and screaming mode, as if he realized he needed to turn up the intensity level. But Roger was matching him shot for shot: at advantage Hewitt, Lleyton feathered a touch volley that looked like a winner, but the Swiss put on a burst of speed and just reached it. Roger flicked a deft backhand lob that Hewitt scrambled for in vain, tumbling heav
ily to the court in his futile attempt to retrieve the shot. However, Federer failed to capitalize on this great play, netting a forehand pass at deuce and then sending a forehand long, much to Hewitt's delight. Hewitt was now the one brandishing the fist and yelling "come on!"
This difficult hold appeared to get the fire going in Hewitt, and he kept the flame alive by breaking the Swiss in the next game on another stray Federer forehand. It was now 4-2 Hewitt, and he proceeded to close out the second set confidently.
Federer was sagging now, with negative body language and careless errors. Meanwhile, Hewitt was in full possession of both his regularity and his intense baseline retrieving skills, and made several spectacular running forehand winners. The third set was all Hewitt. Make the final: 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
It's hard to get an easy draw at a Masters Series event, as Lleyton Hewitt could tell you. He next plays the speedy and talented Sébastien Grosjean, a 6-2 7-6 winner over qualifier Cecil Mamiit today. Hewitt beat the Frenchman at the Australian Open this year, and is expecting a baseline war. "His play is similar to mine, bigger forehand, serve is not as dominant. It's going to be a baseline rally out there, I suppose. He is very competitive out there on the court."
New balls? Please!
Both Hewitt and Federer are among the young stars being featured in the ATP's campaign to promote the rising talent in men's tennis. The campaign's slogan, "New balls please", is an apparent attempt to present a trendy, slightly racy attitude, and has been the topic of much discussion. "It's not my cup of tea," sniffed Pete Sampras when asked about it yesterday.
What does one of the players featured in the campaign's publicity photo, glaring menacingly at the camera, think of it? Hewitt's comments: "It's fantastic to be put in such a great group of players, the Kuertens, the Philippoussises, the Safins, the Ferreros. I think it's a good idea by the ATP tour: you sort of have the high guys up there, the Rafters, the Agassis, the Samprases, and then the newer guys 23 and under sort of biting at their heels."
Note that the tournament organizers were apparently not as wildly enthused by the young talent as the ATP might like, since the "new balls" Hewitt-Federer match was not featured on centre court?.