The tours are gearing up for the U.S. Open, the final major date of 2001. But with six tournaments crowding the calendar this week, and a Tennis Masters Series event in the cards next week in Canada, there is no shortage of fodder for Mr Ed. This column zeroes in on a valiant Moroccan, a nervous ex-Canadian and a Georgian "freak".

Habiba Ifrakh and the struggles of Arab tennis

Most of the tour's big names are already in North America, starting their tune-up events in view of the U.S. Open. However, some of the WTA's lesser lights, as it were, chose to get a few more matches on the clay. One particularly intriguing event this week was the first-ever Moroccan stop on the WTA circuit, a Tier V tournament in Casablanca. Significantly, this was the third WTA event of the year in the Arab world, where women's sport is belatedly starting to shake loose from the traditional Islamic r estrictions regarding the display of the female body.

The ground-breaking achievement for Arab women athletes was the 1500 metre gold medal run by Algerian Hassiba Boulmerka at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Boulmerka suffered for her achievement, as, according to the Guardian, she "was denounced in mosques across the country for 'running with naked legs in front of thousands of men' and in some parts of Algeria was stoned." But Boulmerka persevered, and her success was followed by fine achievements from other Algerian track stars such as Nouria Mer ah-Benida, gold medalist in the 1500 metres at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

We are starting to see a spillover effect in other sports, such as tennis. Perhaps emboldened by the success of the Algerian track stars, North African women are slowly but surely starting to appear in WTA events. Tunisia's Selima Sfar, a protégée of Nathalie Tauziat and Tauziat's longtime coach Régis de Cameret, has cracked the top 100, and Morocco's Bahia Mouhtassine should be in the top 200 after her first round win in Casablanca this week.

The most intriguing figure at the Casablanca tournament, however, was an unranked Moroccan player named Habiba Ifrakh. Ifrakh, known as the "Black Pearl" by the Moroccan press, was matched in the first round against the solid Dutch veteran, Kristie Boogert. Normally, you would expect to see a player with no ranking get blown off the court by a pro with the experience of the Dutchwoman. However, the surprising Ifrakh battled Boogert on even terms for over two hours before the exhausted Boogert retired at 5-5 in the third set. The underdog Moroccan had her first WTA tour win, as well as her first ranking points.

Those locals who were familiar with Ifrakh were not totally surprised at her valiant performance, however. Le Matin du Sahara reported that she was regarded as an excellent prospect in her teenage years. However, she was unable to round up enough financing to pursue a pro career. Ifrakh, who is from a modest background, took a job to support her family and confined her tennis activities to local tournaments and Fed Cup play? until this week, when she got a taste of the big time. In the second round Habiba Ifrakh came back down to earth, and was drubbed 6-1, 6-2, by the Slovak Martina Sucha. But not before she had shown she has the talent to play in the pro ranks.

Hopefully some sponsors will step forward to help belatedly launch her career. There are some promising signs. At the Casablanca tournament a group of Moroccan businesswomen announced that they would provide some financing for the careers of the Moroccan female players. More needs to be done, however, to help the best female players in the Arab world to continue their march out of the shadows.

Rusedski's long-awaited return "home"

Flashback to Montreal, July 1995. Montreal's Greg Rusedski, a 21-year-old lefty regarded as the great young hope of Canadian tennis, had several months earlier announced his intention to play for Great Britain, a decision that was taken as a stab in the back by the Canadian tennis establishment. To make matters worse for the scorned Canadians, Rusedski proudly brandished a bandana decorated with the British flag at Wimbledon three weeks earlier, scenes of which were broadcast across Canada, usually acco mpanied by derisive and unflattering comments. Needless to say, Rusedski's return to Montreal that summer to play in the Canadian Open was highly anticipated.

The luck of the draw willed that Greg's first match of the tournament was a doubles tilt that pit him against two Quebec players, Sébastien Lareau and Sébastien Leblanc. The programmers placed the match in the first evening session in front of a packed stadium. A howling anti-Rusedski throng went home disappointed as the ex-Canadian and his Kenyan partner Paul Wekesa (who must have wondered what he had gotten himself into!) came away with the win.

The theatrics continued with Rusedski's initial singles match the next day, against American Michael Joyce. One gigantic banner read "Rusedski, fou de la Reine" ("Rusedski, the Queen's fool"). The crowd screamed their support of the accidental crowd favourite Joyce (who later said he was good friends with Rusedski since their junior days), and loudly mocked each of Greg's errors as he went on to lose the match. The Montreal fans serenaded Rusedski's exit with a throaty chorus of "Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye".

Rusedski, who has studiously avoided tour stops in Montreal in 1997 and 1999, is now getting ready to make his first appearance in his former hometown since that tumultuous week six years ago. One of the intriguing sidelights of next week's Tennis Masters Series event in Montreal will be whether the local fans are willing to forgive and forget.

Canadian doubles specialist Sébastien Lareau practiced with Rusedski last week in Los Angeles and told the Canadian Press that his former countryman is understandably apprehensive. "He was concerned because he hasn't been back in six years," said Lareau. But Lareau feels the fans will not cause the type of uproar they did in 1995. "Six years later, Greg has established himself as a great singles player. I don't think the crowd reaction will be too bad." Tournament Director Eugène Lapierre agrees: "It's all in the past. I think people are happy to see him back. There may be a few hotheads here and there, but I think most people will be happy. It was sad for Tennis Canada that he chose to play for Britain, but he had the right to decide."

This columnist thinks that enough water has flowed under the proverbial bridge since 1995 that the former Canadian prospect turned English idol will be welcomed and perhaps even applauded by most of the spectators. We shall see!

Labadze, the Georgian Ilie?

Andrew Ilie has never won a tournament of major importance, but has become a cult favorite around the tour for his audacious shotmaking as well as his propensity to tear off his shirt after victories. It looks like Ilie might have a rival on the circuit in the person of 20-year-old Georgian Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze. That would be the Georgia in Eastern Europe, not the American Georgia of peaches, peanuts and Jimmy Carter fame.

Labadze, a 20-year-old former junior star, put an end to his ATP tour virginity by winning his first-ever match on the main tour this week in Sopot, Poland. Better yet, Labadze went on defeat 5th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny to reach the quarterfinals, where he took the fast-rising Spanish star Tommy Robredo to three sets before conceding a 1-6 6-3 6-2 defeat.

Irakli's unpredictable and spectacular play has already given him the nickname "Freak Show", and obviously worried Robredo in his quarterfinal match. "I knew it was going to be a tough match," commented the Spanish teenage sensation who knows the Georgian from their junior days, "because you never know what Labadze will come up with next."

Watch for the Georgian Freak Show in the months and years to come!