Q: You got off to a rough start in Washington with the match against (Luis) Herrera and then you got down a set here in what was more or less your first match of this tournament. Do you find that it takes a couple sets for you to really get into a tournament and establish your rhythm?
Chang: No, not generally. You know, I feel like I'd like to able to be into a tournament by the time the first ball is hit. You know, I think that even though yesterday's match was cut short, I think it was still great to be able to play out here on Centre Court. I think it's nice to be able to play a night match in a sense, because you know the atmosphere is gonna be there. It was nice to be out there playing a good set. So, you know, it's never my intention to get off to a slow start, but, you know, as long as hopefully I win two of the three it's OK.
Q: There was one stretch near the end where I think you won 17 of 18 points. Did you get the sense at that point that maybe he (Ivanisevic) mentally wasn't in the match anymore?Here are a few other interview highlights...
Woodruff: Well, I went on a little run there. I broke him I think at love and I remember winning a lot of points in a row. I didn't know it was that many, but I just remember feeling really good, like "wow, I'm playing well, let's keep it up, let's put on the accelerator."
Q: He argued some line calls in the first set and then early in the second. Did you have any trouble staying focused while he was doing that?
Woodruff: We have a lot of poor officiating out here, I have to admit. You know, some of the calls that he was arguing I can understand that because a couple balls I hit, I thought they felt long but they were called good and a couple shots he hit that were overruled. There were -- as usual, as I said -- some bad calls out there.
Gustavo Kuerten on being broken to lose the 1st set to Michael Tebbutt: "It was a bad moment for me that time. I had 40-15 and my serve, down 5-6 in the first, and I lost my serve. But I always lose the tiebreak, so I thought it was the same if I had it on my serve or not. That's a joke they make in Brazil because all the time I go to tiebreak, I lose."
Alex O'Brien on the late night doubles slot: "I think I'm probably going to call it a night and go home. Third match on six is a little late for me. No. They've been playing me first match every day and now they're playing me last match at night, so it'll be a little tough to get out there and get fired up. But we've done this for a long time now, and doubles is kind of, they put it in whenever they feel the need to put it in. And I'm just going to go out there and try to have fun and play. I'll have plenty of energy. It's his hometown -- I gotta play well. A lot of pressure."
Yevgeny Kafelnikov, sporting a Yankees cap, asked if he's friends with George Steinbrenner: "No. I'd like to stay away from this guy."
Having upset #9 seed Petr Korda in the first round, Gimelstob was looking to go one better by eliminating 8th seeded Krajicek. Both players got off to rather shaky starts, Gimelstob losing serve in the second game of the match and Krajicek returning the favor in the third. They exchanged a couple holds after that, then Krajicek took over the match with a second break for 4-2. Gimelstob lost that sixth game with a netted forehand, which he got back on the rebound and angrily smacked into the net again. Trailing 5-2, Gimelstob changed his shirt but could not change his fortunes, opening the game with two straight double faults and losing the 6-2 set three points later. Despite connecting on a miserable 38% of his first serves in the set, Krajicek had claimed it easily with his deadly passing shots.
A baseline call early in the second set enraged Gimelstob, but he kept his composure enough to win his service games. When he held at love to even the set at 3, Gimelstob raised a triumphant fist. He stayed fired up at 4-4, raising his arms and jumping up and down after hitting a backhand past Krajicek for 30 all. The big Dutchman came up with his 12th and 13th aces of the match, however, and held for 5-4. Gimelstob serve and volleyed throughout the following game, but not with much success. He punched a forehand long on match point to hand Krajicek a very comfortable 6-2, 6-4 win. The numbers tell the tale -- 34 winners to only 11 unforced errors for Krajicek; 8 double faults to only 1 ace for Gimelstob.
Enqvist had just taken the first set in this all-Swede matchup when I arrived. The set started out resembling Enqvist's previous match against Tommy Haas, both players holding serve convincingly to 2-2. Enqvist took control in the fifth game, however -- a running forehand winner put him up 15-40 and a Bjorkman double fault gave him the game. Bjorkman got more and more irritated as the set went on. When Enqvist went up 3-2, 40-15, Bjorkman smashed a ball into the net. When Enqvist served up an ace on the very next point, Bjorkman kicked a ball. Another crucial double fault meant a 5-2 lead for Enqvist. The #5 seed then served out a dominant set at love, ending the 6-3, 6-2 victory with two aces in a row. After an absence from the tour, Thomas Enqvist has returned in imposingly good form.
Ivanisevic's opening service game was pure Goran -- three of the four points he won were aces; both points he lost were on line calls he disputed. For all Ivo's fireworks, though, it was Woodruff getting off to the better start. The Amercican held at love for 2-1 and scored a service break for 3-1 with a big backhand winner. Ivanisevic broke right back, however, and the match would take little time to reach 5-5. Woodruff finished off the 11th game by going airborne for a winning volley and following it with an ace. Ivanisevic held easily in the next game, forcing a first set tiebreak.
After getting down 3-1 in the breaker, Ivanisevic went on a nice run. He hit a sliding forehand winner for 3-2 and a pair of service winners for 4-3, then went up 5-3 as a Woodruff backhand found the net. A Woodruff winner and Ivanisevic error tied it at 5-5. Woodruff got down set point by missing a relatively easy backhand, but replied with a service winner for 6-6. Woodruff then added a forehand winner and converted his first set point when Ivanisevic netted a forehand. Despite the crowd's support, the #2 seed was suddenly trailing 1 set to love.
Woodruff hit a beautiful backhand touch volley in the opening game of the 2nd set, but it came after a sideline non-call which greatly perturbed Ivanisevic, who'd already had a couple calls go against him in the same part of the court. Goran had some words with the chair umpire, then groaned and leaned on the net for at least a full minute. He finally resumed play and went on to win the game. The line judge was replaced during the changeover, drawing cheers from the main Ivanisevic rooting section.
After a hold from Woodruff made it 1-1, Ivanisevic fell apart. He hit two double faults to be broken at love for 2-1. Woodruff would hold at love, going up 3-1 on an ace. His first serve all over the place, Ivanisevic then got down 0-40. He stopped the bleeding with an ace, but lost the game on a Woodruff passing shot. "The third Woodie" continued his amazing run by holding at love on back-to-back aces in a game where Ivanisevic simply appeared to give up. Sufficiently loose, Goran finally had a strong service game for 5-2. However, it wasn't nearly enough. Ivanisevic got down 40-0 yet again, fought off the first match point, then lost with an error on the second. In remarkably easy fashion, Chris Woodruff rolled to a 7-6, 6-2 upset victory.
Of Thursday's eight third round matches, this seemed the most likely to produce high quality tennis. Between 4th seeded Kafelnikov and defending champ Ferreira, there would have to be some winners coming from at least one side. The early games were rather sloppy, though. Ferreira inherited a break for 2-1, but handed it right back for 2-2. After Kafelnikov took a 3-2 lead, play was suspended because the stadium lights had gone out. It seemed a rather silly decision, coming at around 6:30 pm with plenty of sunlight on hand. Backup power quickly took effect, though, and the players returned to action in better form than when they left.
Strong serves helped Ferreira fight off a break point and hold for 4-4. Kafelnikov then struggled through an even longer game, pinned to the baseline by Ferreira's powerful groundstrokes, but the Russian pulled it out with an ace. A pair of easier holds made it 6-5 Kafelnikov. Ferreira got down 30-40 in the 12th game, thereby facing a set point. That point would be the longest rally of the match, a hard-hitting corner to corner affair which finally ended on a missed forehand by Ferreira, costing him a 7-5 set. The #13 seed reacted by slamming his racquet to the court so forcefully that it snapped right in two. I'm talking a clean break here -- we in the press box got to see plenty of cool replays of it from the ESPN2 feed.
Ferreira's problems persisted. He jumped to a 40-15 in the second set's second game, but managed to lose it on another forehand error, this time slamming a ball to the court in disgust. Kafelnikov added another hold for 3-0 and nearly went up 5-1 when Ferreira got down 15-40 on his serve. The Johannesburg native eeked out that game, but got down 5-2 when Kafelnikov's hard, accurate serves sparked a love game. Ferreira held at love himself for 5-3 and received a big ovation from the fans, who were desperate for a comeback. The comeback never came. Ferreira's forehand let him down once again on match point and Kafelnikov left with a 7-5, 6-3 win, giving a far better account of himself than he had in Tuesday's marathon struggle with Vincent Spadea.
His draw having opened up with the elimination of Goran Ivanisevic, Philippoussis was looking to become the sixth and final seed to reach the '97 du Maurier Open quarterfinals. Raoux would not be a willing victim, though. The bespectacled Frenchman fought off a total of five break points in his first two service games. The set continued in predictable fashion, Philippoussis dominating on his serve and Raoux struggling on his. The Australian finally got two set points up 6-5 and converted the second one with a winning backhand volley. All the hard work had amounted to nothing much for Raoux, as he was down a set. And what a set it was for Philippoussis, who smacked 9 aces and was successful 86% of the times his first serve went in.
It didn't take nearly as long for "Scud" to score his first break in the second set. He got it in the second game on a barely missed (if the call was correct) backhand which sent Raoux into an extremely long discussion with the chair umpire. He had reason to be in a bad mood, since even one break can feel like a death sentence against Mark Philippoussis. Everything was going the huge Australian's way -- he even managed to hit a winning volley with a broken string, kissing the racquet afterward. Philippoussis scored two aces in the seventh game for a 5-2 lead and added two more in the ninth to win 7-5, 6-3. The big statistic in this one was obvious: 20 aces for Philippoussis, who cruised to a quarterfinal meeting with Chris Woodruff.