Mr Ed's Champs & Chumps (April 14, 2001)
by Ed Zafian



Martina Hingis may have suprisingly lost to veteran Arantxa Sanchez Vicario at Amelia Island, but this week we crown her a "champ" for a more important win earlier in the week. Also, kudos go to a recent Davis Cup tie. This particular match did not receive much attention here in the States, but it appears it was one for the ages. Finally, in "Chumps," the ATP's anti-doping program was unfortunatly enforced on a rising South American player.


Champs
Winning One "In" Court

No matter what you might think of the often outspoken Martina Hingis, one must give credit to her for recently appearing in court during the trial of the man accused of criminally stalking her. Hingis's in-court testimony was key to Dubravko Rajcevic's being found guilty by a six-person jury in Miami. Perhaps Hingis learned a lesson from the Seles stabbing case, where the Seles chose not to face her attacker in court, which led to his eventual freedom. Rajcevic could face up to four years in prison.

The trial had its share of creepy moments. Rajcevic proclaimed "It must be love" when Hingis was speaking in court about his incessant doorbell ringing at her home in Switzerland in 1999. Additionally, he believed the 20-year old was in love with him and communicated with him through television interviews.

The trial did recast the shadow on two of Hingis's most infamous moments on the tennis court. Hingis's meltdown to Steffi Graf in the 1999 French Open final and subsequent first round loss to Jelena Dokic in the first round of Wimbledon was the talk of the tennis world for a long time. The trial brought to light that Rajcevic's pursuit of Hingis was at its height during this time period. Encouraged by her camp to confront Rajcevic face-to-face, Hingis testified that she told him to "get out of my life" through a fence at Roland Garros that year.

This Thursday, Rajcevic was sentenced to spend two years in jail. He could have faced a maximum of four years, but the Hingis camp said they would be satisfied with a shorter sentence if there was also a restraining order which bars both direct and indirect contact by Rajcevic in the future. Hingis was pleased with the outcome and said that appearing in court was ultimately "a good experience to have." Perhaps doing a little growing up, Hingis is also flying solo this week in Amelia Island as mother-coach Melanie Molitor remains in Europe this week.

C'est Magnifique!

The second round of Davis Cup promised some interesting match-ups. Much attention was directed towards the Australia vs. Brazil tie. Gustavo Kuerten, Lleyton Hewitt, and Patrick Rafter lent their star-power to the event that took place in Kuerten's hometown of Florianopolis. While the Australians ultimately prevailed with Hewitt defeating Kuerten in reverse singles, the hotly anticipated opening match between Rafter and Kuerten ended prematurely with the Australian retiring with a elbow injury in the fouth set. However, one of the most remarkable ties, potentially of all-time, occurred between France and Switzerland. With the United States out in the first round, any coverage of Davis Cup coverage was hard to find for this Mr. Ed. But thanks to the Internet I was able to pull some tidbits from the weekend.

The opening match between Arnaud Clement and Marc Rosset set the tone for the remainder of the weekend. After splitting the first two sets, the next two sets went to tiebreaks with each player winning one of them. In a marathon 5 hour and 47 minute match, Clement ultimately silenced the hometown crowd with a 15-13 fifth set, winning the match when Rosset netted a volley on Clement's eighth match point. In a more routine match, Nicolas Escude scored an "upset" over "New Balls Please" Swiss poster boy, Roger Federer, to give France a 2-0 lead after the first day.

With an emotionally devastating first day of action behind them, the Swiss team of Federer and Lorenzo Manta had their work cut out for them against the French pairing of Cedric Pioline and Fabrice Santoro. With no heavy favorite in this match, the countries split the first two sets. In the third set, Pioline/Santoro blew a 4-1 lead and eventually lost the set to the Swiss in a tiebreak. However, the French did not let the fourth set slip away, winning a 7-3 tiebreak. The deciding set went the distance. This time the Swiss would not deny their fans a celebration. Federer/Manta kept the tie alive with a 9-7 fifth set victory that took 4 hours and 26 minutes to complete.

Federer evened the tie in reverse singles with a four set victory over Clement. So without much surprise, the final singles match would decide the Davis Cup semifinalist. The participants were an unlikely pair. Escude, fresh off his Federer victory on Friday but the #4 Frenchman on the computer rankings, and George Bastl, a last minute replacement for the exhausted Rosset. Bastl, ranked #113 in the Entry System, gave earlier hopes to the Swiss with an easy 6-1 first set victory. But as was the case all weekend long, nothing could be considered easy. Sure enough, the players traded sets leading to one more match that would be decided in the ultimate set. Bastl served for the set and the tie at 6-5. But the pressure must have been too much for the Swiss as he failed to hold. Bastl had his chances in Escude's next service game but failed to convert on seven break point opportunities at 6-6. With Bastl dispirited over his lack of performance in these two games, Escude was able to hold on for the 8-6 fifth set win in 4 hours and 34 minutes. France next faces The Netherlands in the Davis Cup semifinals in September.

Chumps
A South American Suspension

Sadly this week's "Chump" goes to Juan Ignacio Chela who has been suspended from the ATP Tour for three months after testing positive for a banned steroid. The test dates back to Tennis Masters Series in Cincinnati last August. The verdict requires Chela to pay back the $8,550 he earned at that tournament. But a more professional loss is all the ranking points Chela accrued over the past eight months. This leaves the Argentinean with a mere 29 points that will, in all likelihood, lead him back to the Challenger and Satellite tour as his "Entry System" ranking will drop from #76 to outside #500.

Despite the tough sentence, Chela's suspension could have been worse. The anti-doping tribunal did conclude the Chela did not take the steroid knowingly. Chela stated that his physician had given him a pill that he thought was vitamins and amino acids. If the tribunal had not been convinced of his innocence in this charge, Chela could have faced a two-year suspension and the loss of two years' worth of points and prize money.

Chela's suspension is particularly discouraging as the Argentinean was threatening to have his breakthrough season in 2001. Despite a seemingly unimpressive 7-8 start to the year, the 21-year-old currently stood at 38th place on the ATP Champions Race. In this year's Australian Open, Chela stretched Pete Sampras to five sets (at one point leading two sets to one) in the third round and reached the final of Bogota before falling to Fernando Vincente.

Hopefully, Chela's situation will raise a flag to all tennis players and all athletes in general. Blind faith is not a luxury in professional sports. The harsh lesson here is that one must take responsibility for what they place in their bodies.



You may read previous Mr. Ed columns by clicking here.

// -->