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by Christopher Gerby Tim Henman vs. Paradorn Srichaphan Singles: First Round Court 1 Tim Henman began writing a new page in the book of his tennis career on Monday, playing for the first time since hiring Larry Stefanki as his coach. Having already guided Marcelo Rios and Yevgeny Kafelnikov to the top of the sport in recent years, Stefanki figures to be a perfect cure for Henman's ills. This was also the Brit's first appearance since his heartbreaking five-set loss to Goran Ivanisevic in the Wimbledon semifinals. Hoping to take advantage of any rust on Henman's game was Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan, who fell in the final round of qualifying (to 36-year-old Ronald Agenor) but made the draw nonetheless as a Lucky Loser. He went in with an 0-2 record against Henman, but both of those results came on Tim's literal home turf (the grass courts of Wimbledon and Queen's Club). Srichaphan drew some ooh's and ah's early in the match with his very watchable blend of flair and power. What he doesn't have is a great deal of consistency. Playing the steadier tennis of the two, Henman broke for an early 2-1 lead. The following game was a pitched battle, as Henman warded off a pair of break points before winning the game with a nifty drop volley. An exchange of easy holds took the # 7 seed's advantage to 4-2. Game 8 was a tense marathon, with Srichaphan's low trajectory/low percentage drives producing plenty of winners and errors. He certainly had his chances, but after seven deuces, Henman finally closed out the game with an unreturnable serve. That took a lot of the wind out of Paradorn's sail -- he went down meekly in the set's final game, broken at love to lose it 6-3. Henman looked as if he might comfortably roll through the rest of the match, opening the second set with an easy hold and taking a 15-40 edge on Srichaphan's serve. He squandered both break points, though, and the Thai went on to 1-1. Despite some scratchy, erratic play, both men continued taking care of their service games to 3-3. The underdog looked as if he might break through at that point, opening a 15-40 edge on Henman. His returns on each break point just missed, however, and Tim went through to 4-3. During the changeover, a pair of young men in cowboy hats, touting Australian flags, made their way to the Court 1 stands. For some reason they'd chosen to root for Henman, immediately greeting him with a chant of "Let's go Timmy, let's go!" If the idea was to distract Paradorn Srichaphan, it apparently worked -- he double faulted twice in a row to lose the game and fall behind 3-5. Henman had little trouble serving it out from there. After putting away an overhead smash on match point, Henman lobbed a ball to the Aussie fans, essentially thanking them for the timely show of support. Henman's 6-3, 6-3 victory wasn't exactly a thing of beauty, as he admitted in the post-match press conference. "I don't think it was the best match either of us have played, but from my point of view, I was able to get the breaks and keep my nose in front." As for his work with the new coach, so far so good. "It's obviously early days. It's been a week. Larry came to London last week and then obviously travelled over here. I am pleased with the way things are going, and I am realistic that it's not suddenly going to change overnight." Next up for the Englishman is a second round bout against either Albert Costa (whom he's made a habit of beating) or Michael Llodra. Hicham Arazi vs. Michael Russell Singles: First Round Court 6 The smallest court to see action on Monday was a fitting location for a first round bout between two of the shortest players in the tournament. Although they both stand well under six feet tall, Moroccan magician Hicham Arazi and Mike "Spanky" Russell are both capable of big things. Arazi is a lefty shot-maker who can test anyone in the world when he's in the right mood. Russell, meanwhile, is best known for being the only player to hold a match point against Gustavo Kuerten at this year's French Open. Having lost the first set in both of his qualifying wins over the weekend, Russell was surely determined to get off to a strong start here. He did look good in the opening game, holding at love, but things went downhill fast after that for the American. He took a nasty spill in the back corner during Game 2, had his serve broken easily in Game 3, and was soundly beaten in Game 4. Arazi won 12 out of 13 points in that stretch, the high point being a drop volley he hit while in the midst of a 360 degree spin. Arazi continued showing his all-court prowess on the way to 4-2 and had a chance to break for 5-2. Russell was being run from pillar to post and even pulling off the dangerous feat of sliding on a hard court. His hustle paid off, though, as he got back enough balls to hold for 3-4 and again for 4-5. Unfortunately, he hit the deck again in Game 10, slipping in nearly the exact same spot he had earlier. Rather than go ballistic, Mike simply shrugged and checked his shoes. After years on the Challenger and Satellite circuits, Russell plays with a palpable sense of joy these days, making the most of his time at the sport's elite level. He had his work cut out for him here, though. A long rally culminating in a Russell error ended the first set, 6-4 in Hicham Arazi's favor. As a sign of both the afternoon heat and the amount these players were making each other work, Arazi changed his shirt during the break between sets. He seemed to lose his way a bit early in the second, muttering to himself and failing to make an impression on Russell's serve. In fact, it was the American who had Set 2's first break chance, going up 30-40 in the sixth game. But Arazi handled a high backhand volley on break point and made his way to 3-3. The narrow escape may have served as a wakeup call, as Arazi played some of his best tennis of the day in Game 7. He hit a crisp backhand winner while leaning backwards for 0-30 and took the game three points later by outlasting Russell in the match's longest rally. A love hold put Arazi squarely in the driver's seat at 5-3. He was still annoyed enough by his occasional miscues to perform one of his patented racquet twirls (tossing it end-over-end into the sky) during Game 9, but the qualifier just didn't have the weapons to hurt him. Russell badly mis-hit a forehand on match point, wrapping up a 6-4, 6-3 victory for the flashy Moroccan. Hicham appears to be in dangerous form, which is potentially bad news for second round opponent Lleyton Hewitt. Thomas Johansson vs. Chris Woodruff Singles: First Round Court 2 Since the ATP only stops in Montreal once every other year, 1999 champion Thomas Johansson and '97 victor Chris Woodruff are Jarry Park's most recent titlists. Quite a bit has changed while they were away. The event is now part of the Tennis Masters Series, with all Top 50 players required to take part (or at least come up with an injury excuse, as Pete Sampras and Alex Corretja did on short notice). Due to anti-tobacco legislation, title sponsor Du Maurier is gone, along with its red-and-black color scheme. Now the courts are purple, the backdrops are blue, and the ballkids are decked out in an unfortunate aquamarine/orange ensemble. It's all a little off-putting, but the quickness of the courts has been getting more attention than the cosmetic changes. Johansson won two straight events on the grass last month, the kind of roll Woodruff has been unable to get on throughout 2001. Chris has fallen far enough that he had to qualify here, but he did so with relative ease, running his career record on Montreal's Centre Court to 5-0. Even out on Court 2 he was holding his own, taking Johansson into a first set tiebreak. The Swede led it 6 points to 3 and thought he'd won it with an ace at 6-4. It was ruled a fault, however, and the tiebreak continued, stretching out to epic length. Johansson squandered a total of seven set points (three on his own serve), but finally won it 14-12 when a Woodruff backhand found the net. It was a visibly frustrating ordeal for the # 13 seed, but he finally had the first set in hand. Even after holding serve for a 1-0 lead in the second set, Johansson had a few words with the chair umpire over what he perceived to be flawed officiating. Deep groundstrokes earned him a break for 2-0, but he quickly gave the break back. Johansson ended Game 3 by sending a backhand long, whacking a ball against the fence, and angrily slamming his water bottle. (Along with Magnus Norman and Thomas Enqvist, Johansson is doing his part to dispel the myth about Swedish players being emotionless.) Woodruff opened Game 4 with an ace, but Johansson got back on track after that, controlling the rallies and charging ahead 4-1. "Country" was still battling -- he saved three break points in the next game -- but he was outclassed. Driven into the corner on break point # 4, Woodruff netted a defensive forehand to fall behind 1-5. Johansson immediately served it out, blasting two consecutive aces past a resigned Woodruff to complete the 7-6, 6-1 win. The grueling first set tiebreak was the obvious turning point for Johansson, who advances to a second round encounter with Jerome Golmard. Magnus Norman vs. Andrew Ilie Singles: First Round Court 1 Remember those rowdy Australian fans from the Henman match? They doubled their ranks for the evening session -- four of them commandeered a corner of Court 1 to root for Aussie import Andrew Ilie. In fine voice and spirit, they serenaded him with a "c'mon, Ilie, come on" chant as his match against Magnus Norman began. A rather soft spoken chap off the court, Ilie is an eccentric bundle of energy on it, hitting the ball with all his might and wearing his heart on his sleeve. He came out blasting on Monday evening, closing out the match's first game with a huge ace. That sent his patriotic fans into a veritable frenzy. As they launched into the familiar "Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oy oy oy!" refrain, Ilie grinned from ear to ear and gave them a wave with his racquet. There was still business to be taken care of on the court, though, and it was Norman getting the first break for a 2-1 lead. Ilie was upset about a would-be ace having been negated when chair umpire Carlos Bernardes called a let. During the changeover, Ilie instructed Bernardes to allow "the friggin' machine" to call lets electronically. The umpire stood by his call, though, insisting that Ilie didn't hear the ball skim the tape because he was making his patented "ah fuh" grunt at the time. Andrew didn't take too kindly to that remark, but play continued...for a couple points. Then two banks of lights above the court abruptly went out, halting the action. The Aussies struck up an impromptu chant of "who put the lights out?" (to the tune of novelty hit "Who Let the Dogs Out?") but weren't prepared to hang around for a long delay. "We'll be back, don't worry," one of them yelled to Ilie as they departed en masse, heading off to support Patrick Rafter on Centre Court. The lights came back on a few minutes later and the players resumed holding serve. Norman had a 3-2 lead when he got a suspicious let call. "That was a lot like mine, wasn't it? Very sure. He grunted, so that must be it," quipped a sympathetic Ilie. Two points later, Andrew whipped a backhand winner up the line to break serve and even matters at 3 games all. "Out! Correction!" shouted a linesman early in Game 7, causing Norman to squeal in disbelief. Only a minute or so later, a cry of "Fault! Correction!" accompanied an Ilie serve. All this scattershot officiating was driving both players insane. "C'mon, man, I have never seen a match with so many mistakes," Magnus pleaded to Umpire Bernardes. He later buried a backhand in the net to lose the game and trail 3-4. Meanwhile, those pesky Aussies could be heard in the background, getting a big ovation after one of their routines in the stadium. "Why'd you overrule that one? What about the one over there?" asked an increasingly agitated Magnus Norman about a call in Game 8. Then at 30-15, he hit a serve that looked to be clearly in, but was deemed a fault. That was the last straw for the Swede, who tried to reason with Bernardes. "This is too much. We are professional players. You are a professional umpire. It's time to wake up." Those sobering words seemed to have an impact, as the rest of the set unfolded without incident. Norman got his baseline game back under control, rolling to a 6-4 win of the opening set. Ilie was upset about his own "bloody play" now and quickly fell into a 0-2 hole in the second set. He can still put on quite a show when his cannon shots stay on target, though, and he impressively ripped through three successful games in a row to take the second set lead. Norman hit two aces in a hold for 3-3, but Ilie uncorked two of his own to 4-3. Game 8 finally saw another "fault! correction!" incident, only this time the chair umpire decided the original call was right and ruled Norman's serve a fault. "Correction!!!" Magnus screamed before smacking a ball into the net and viciously slamming his racquet. It's been a very trying year for Norman and these line calls were pushing him over the brink. He lost the plot mentally long enough for Ilie to take a 6-3 win of the second set. Two of the boisterous Aussies returned for the start of Set 3, but it was Magnus Norman regaining his composure and taking a 3-0 lead. Then Aussie 3 and Aussie 4 showed up, looking a tad inebriated and attempting to build a new chant around the prhase "Andrew Ilie walks on water." Skates on thin ice was more like it -- he was making far too many unforced errors and was about to have another encounter with beleagured Carlos Bernardes. "What are you talking about?!?" Ilie bellowed, opening his latest rant about questionable lets. "I'm gonna beep at you soon," he said in a clever reference to the net cord machine. "Are we gonna do something about the machine or not? You've made seven mistakes so far." Bernardes gave him the explanation about grunting again, prompting a baffled Ilie to respond, "Nobody else can hear (the lets) either." When it was all said and done, Andrew launched an ace (one of 10 for the match) to hold for 1-3. Ilie's fans were desperately trying to spur a comeback, but he just couldn't put together a consistent attack on Norman's serve. The rest of the set was pretty routine stuff, with one last wild forehand error from Ilie bringing to end a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory for Magnus Norman. Slowly trying to regain the confidence which made him one of the world's best players in 2000, Norman should take his third set performance as a step in the right direction. He was still peeved about the officiating, though, and had a long talk with Umpire Bernardes right after the match. Meanwhile, Ilie shook hands with Aussie 3 and Aussie 4 and laughed when they suggested he "start a new tradition" by ripping his socks off after losses. You see, Andrew celebrates his biggest victories by tearing his shirt to shreds -- a spectacle he won't be performing in Montreal this year. Speaking of spectacles, those Australian fans sure made an impression. Pat Rafter (who notched a first round win over Harel Levy moments before Norman finished off Ilie) had the following to say about them: "I was actually quite impressed with the changeup they had going. I'd never heard some of those chants before. The `Aussie Aussie Aussie oy oy oy' thing is getting pretty old, but the other ones are pretty good." Rafter and Norman will likely hear those chants again on Wednesday -- they face each other in the second round. |