Philippoussis, Rafter survive the seedings scourge
By CHRIS WRIGHT, AFP
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LONDON, June 29 AFP - Amid claims that the tennis season has become too long and a drain on player's fitness a clutch of seeds crashed out of Wimbledon while men's defending champion Pete Sampras faced a race against time to overcome a foot injury and stay in the event.

Seeds to survive included fourth seed and French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, British eighth seed Tim Henman, Australian 10th seed Mark Philippoussis and 12th-seeded compatriot Pat Rafter, who all reached the third round of the men's singles with fairly straightforward wins.

Men's second seed and former champion Andre Agassi's match with fellow American Todd Martin was suspended by rain. The winner of their duel will play Jerome Golmard of France, who beat Austrian Stefan Koubek.

Agassi, winner here in 1992, led two sets to one with Martin leading 1-0 in the fourth set when play was suspended as both men were slipping and sliding around. Russian fifth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov became the ninth men's seed to lose when Thomas Johansson of Sweden beat the former world No.1 6-1 7-6 (7-0) 6-4.

Kafelnikov only added to the injury debate when he said he was suffering from sore ribs. Women's title-holder Lindsay Davenport of the United States progressed - but French Open champion Mary Pierce of France reached the end of the road as she lost two second-round tie breaks to Spain's Magui Serna.

Sampras' dreams of a seventh Wimbledon crown and a record 13th grand slam title hung in the balance following treatment for the ankle injury he suffered in Wednesday's second-round victory over Slovakia's Karol Kucera.

If Sampras can shrug off his injury in time to face compatriot Justin Gimelstob on Friday he has an excellent chance of moving through to the final as Swedish ninth seed Thomas Enqvist is the only other seed left in his half of the draw. Davenport led calls for scaling back the number of matches to stem the flood of injuries.

``The season should probably be shortened. It's too long with a lot of tournaments spread out over a long period of time. Too many months and too many matches,'' she said.

Kuerten, looking to become the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to add the Wimbledon crown to a French Open triumph in the same year, raced past South African qualifier Justin Bower in straight sets 6-4 6-4 7-5.

Kuerten took 90 minutes to win his 15th match in succession - the longest winning streak of his career at Tour level. He now meets Germany's Alexander Popp who beat Michael Chang 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 8-6.

In other matches, Philippoussis needed four sets to beat Arnaud Di Pasquale of France 4-6 7-6 (7-0) 6-3 6-0 to set up a meeting with Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands while Rafter dismissed fellow Australian Australian Todd Woodbridge 6-3 6-3 6-4.

The Queenslander will next meet Rainer Schuttler of Germany, who defeated Nicolas Escude of France 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-5). Henman advanced 6-4 6-4 6-4 over Frenchman Arnaud Clement. Henman, semi-finalist in each of the past two years and the last British survivor, next faces Hicham Arazi of Morocco, who edged Sebastien Lareau of Canada 6-3 3-6 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 9-7.

Earlier, Russian 15th seed Marat Safin lost to Martin Damm of the Czech Republic in straight sets. Back among the women, Davenport had to fight to reach round three before ousting Elena Likhovtseva of Russia in three sets.

Second-seeded Davenport, who has seen her season plagued by a back injury, triumphed 6-3 3-6 6-3 after she came back from 0-3 down in the decider. Davenport next faces Paola Suarez of Argentina, who put out Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.

Spain's ninth seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, twice a finalist and making her 14th consecutive appearance here, strolled to a 6-3 6-1 victory over Italy's Rita Grande. American sixth seed Monica Seles, the 1992 finalist and seeking to win the only grand slam singles title to elude her, beat Belgium's Els Callens 6-4 6-4.

Frenchwoman Sarah Pitkowski awaits Seles in the third round. Aussie teenager Jelena Dokic defeated Gala Leon Garcia of Spain 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 but her father Damir caused a stir by being escorted from the premises by police for saying Britain was a 'fascist' country.

As in the men's tournament women's seeds have been falling like ninepins with six having departed the event in the first round - an all time record. And 12th-seeded South African Amanda Coetzer joined them on the scrapheap as Lilia Osterloh of the US beat her 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 in a second-round match.

With Pierce also going out nine seeded women have been eliminated, including 1994 title winner Conchita Martinez of Spain, a second round loser on Wednesday




MORE UPSETS AS RAFTER AND SCUD WIN - DOKIC IN CENTRE OF STORM
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Jelena Dokic's father Damir has once again placed his daughter in an unnecessary position in the tennis world. Twelve months ago he was arrested when he caused disruption in Birmingham at a tournament and at the Australian Open this year he caused more problems with his behaviour and the alleged advice that he provided Jelena on how she allegedly answered questions.

Damir Dokic was interviewed by police at Wimbledon when he caused another disruption on a balcony adjacent to the media centre and that overlooked courts. He was carrying a flag of England (St. George) and creating a ruckus.

The tennis writer for a major Californian paper approached him and when she told him she from the USA, he made obscene gestures that reflected what President Bill Clinton was accused of. Damir Dokic approached a TV presenter for the use of his phone and then threw it to the ground and it broke. That was when security was called in and he was removed.

Inspector Andrew Freestone of the Metropolitan Police Service said: "Mr Dokic was talking to members of the press on the press balcony on level three of the Millennium Building. During the discussion, a mobile phone was broken and an allegation was made. Mr. Dokic came to the police room voluntarily while the matter was being investigated. No action was taken and the Dokic family elected to leave the grounds. No further action will be taken."

The very unfortunate aspect in all this is that Jelena Dokic who is a good tennis player must surely be affected. She won her match 7-6, 6-1 over Spain's Gala Leon Garcia, but many observers believe that her father is making her cause a very difficult one.

But to more pleasant matters and Pat Rafter is talking like a champion again and it's good to hear. He seems to have finished with his negative phase and is now speaking in a manner to make observers believe that he is a viable threat to win this Wimbledon championship. Rafter played some tremendous tennis to defeat Todd Woodbridge on court two, the court known as the "Graveyard of Champions" because of its reputation for upsets.

"I found in 1997 when we played I had a strange feeling when I was playing Todd. I wasn't hungry enough, tried to play sort of Mr. Nice Guy," said Rafter. "Today was a day where I made my mind up that I wasn't going to, I was going to knuckle down and try to just play a good aggressive game and not show too much friendship out there, try to do the job. I was pretty determined."

Even though the match was over in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, Woodbridge also showed that he could have turned the corner with his singles play as he finished off some wonderful exchanges with Rafter. The part of Woodbridge's game that let him down was his serve and he was irritated by that.

"I did play pretty well but at the same time I think Todd got a little bit upset at the way he was serving - I haven't seen him serve his second serve quite that badly before," said Rafter.

Wimbledon is Rafter's number one tournament to win and he likes the way his attitude is changing. He said: "It's starting to turn around and I am hoping it continues this way because I can take some confidence into the US summer again. I think it can also be another very good summer for me in America. The signs are looking a lot more positive than what they were a month or two ago."

Mark Philippoussis started slowly but finished brilliantly against Arnaud Di Pasquale, winning 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-0. He said waiting around the whole day contributed to his slow start, but when he got to the tiebreak and won it 7/0, he was pumped. The Scud says he likes the way things are rolling along and he likes the way he's building up.

"I am pleased with the way I played and the way I returned today, my groundstrokes were good and I kept the pressure on," said Philippoussis. "He's a tough player. He looks slappy with his shots but he is very talented and at times he has so much work on the ball, they seemed to be going out but they dropped in. He played some solid tennis.

"I feel very relaxed and I have worked extremely hard and I have given myself all the opportunities possible to do well at this tournament and I am expecting a lot from myself and I am working for it."

As has been the norm with these Championships, upsets were again a feature. Marat Safin, the rather big Russian seeded 15, was brought down to size by the Czech player Martin Damm 7-5, 7-5, 6-3, and Amanda Coetzer, the twelfth seed, was beaten by the American Lilia Osterloh 7-6, 6-2. In one of the day's more interesting matches, the young German Alexander Popp accounted for Michael Chang 8-6 in the final set. And Yevgeny Kafelnikov troubled by some very sore ribs, was beaten by Thomas Johansson in straight sets.

Mary Pierce became the highest seed to crash. The third seed was upset by Magui Serna who she beat at Roland Garros en route to the title, 7-6, 7-6. Pierce said it was just one of those days.

Lindsay Davenport does not at this stage appear to be very convincing with her title defence. The second seed just did not have a game to be happy with and she was given a torrid match by Russian Elena Likhovtseva. The second seed had to rally back from 0-3 in the final set. She did what was important and that was to finish strongly reeling off the last six games to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 but it snapped a streak of winning 20 consecutive sets at Wimbledon dating back to last year when she won the title.

Gustavo Kuerten showed that last year's effort of reaching the quarterfinals was no fluke when he defeated South African qualifier Justin Bower 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 to secure a place in the third round. It was a good match to watch and the standard from both players was high. Bower endeared himself to the fans with his personality and the fact that he gave it everything. Kuerten played shots that were directly out of the pages of a tennis manual.

The physical situation with Pete Sampras is that he hurting but at this point he will be playing his third round match. Sampras had an MRI done after his gutsy defeat of Karol Kucera is badly failing light and it has revealed he has inflammation and fluid build up on his left shin which started mysteriously. It is stiff and sore.

Sampras' coach Paul Annacone said: "It's strange it just kind of came on yesterday out of the blue. It's been a rough go for a while with Pete with injuries, so this is just another kind of hurdle thrown in front of him. It's a matter of him trying to do the best he can. He's in good hands. The MRI showed no structural damage and as far as I know he's going to play, unless he tells me otherwise later."