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Tennis
Clijsters clashes with Capriati; Haas overcomes Rios
By Nirmal Shekar
Germany's Tommy Haas (right), the seventh seed, has a word of commiseration for Marcelo Rios of Chile after beating the former World No. 1 in the men's singles quarterfinals of the Australian Open on Wednesday. - Reuters
MELBOURNE, JAN. 23. If it was a movie, all but the screening room technicians would have walked out of the cinema hall by now - and in quick time, the distributors would have filed for bankruptcy!
But then, as a seemingly doomed Australian Open, bleeding profusely from wounds inflicted by the very men who were expected to be its protectors - the popular stars - limps its way doggedly to its climactic weekend, about the only consolation is, in sport, each day is a new day, each show packed with amazing new possibilities.
No matter that the events of the first 10 days in the year's first Grand Slam championship have contributed to breed cynicism even in the ones that forever believe that the sun never sets on sport's glorious possibilities, it is with the hope - however forlorn - that tomorrow is another day that die-hard tennis fans here look forward to the last four days of the 2002 tournament.
So, anything that could possibly go wrong for the organisers of the event at Melbourne Park has indeed gone wrong. It is almost as if, this year, some jealous soul has put a hex on an event that was fast becoming the best loved of the four Grand Slam championships.
In the event, in keeping with the theme, we stifled a yawn or three for much of the day on Wednesday, watching - at least the ones that could manage to keep their eyes open at the Rod Laver area - Kim Clijsters, seeded four, play a few close games with her Belgian team-mate and sixth seed, Justine Henin, before winning the quarterfinal match 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 14 minutes.
And this was a contest that was built up as the Big Battle of the Belgians. This was bitter Belgian chocolate, to be sure. If you like the taste, that's fine.
But no sooner than the Belgians packed their bags, someone near the rows of press seats said aloud: ``The next match should be a thriller. Mauresmo is playing good tennis.''
As it turned out, we did not have to wait long to partake in the thriller and the ones that might have arrived late would have missed much of the ``thrills'' in a show that lasted a shade over an hour, and one in which Jennifer Capriati, seeded No. 1 and the defending champion, raced past Amelie Mauresmo of France, seeded seven, 6-2, 6-2.
Ahhhhh, sorry, that was a big yawn, but couldn't help it, really. For, only the other day the women, led by the champion herself, were ready to put out a contract for Marcelo Rios's head because he said that women's tennis lacked depth and the top women had it too easy till the quarterfinals. But, one has to agree with the women: Rios was wrong. Actually, the women have it easy till the semifinals!
Then again, if lack of depth has turned a good part of the women's event into a predictable, dull affair, then the opposite is true of the men's championship. The men's game is so deep now that it is not a surprise anymore that seven of the top eight seeds - the only one remaining is Tommy Haas who put on a jolly good show at night - had departed before the quarterfinal stage was reached.
Little wonder, then, the only Grand Slam winner around in the men's event is Marat Safin. And the ninth seeded Russian spent just about a half hour on court today as Wayne Ferreira's injury - strained abdominal muscle - dealt yet another blow to the tournament, the South African throwing in the towel when he was down 2-5 in the first set of the quarterfinal match.
Safin will play the seventh seeded German Tommy Haas in the semifinals. Haas quelled the Chilean Marcelo Rios' fightback in a fairly entertaining battle in the night session for a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-5) victory.
Haas seemed to have the match under control before questioning a fault call early in the third set tiebreak and allowing himself to be distracted. But he regained his composure and kept his nerve to close out the match in the fourth set tie- break.
Henin played a few close games - the first three lasted 20 minutes - with her countrywoman in the first set, was up a break early in the second but Clijsters' piledriver of a forehand and her superb legs carried her to a unfussy victory while Mauresmo's backhand was shovelling the balls the places were the ball boys couldn't even reach - the 1999 finalist had 34 unforced errors - on a day when Capriati, moving the best she has this fortnight, served with superb confidence. Clijsters plays Capriati in the semifinals on Thursday.
Later on Wednesday night, the second-seeded Indian- Russian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Likhovtseva crushed Petr Pala and Kveta Hrdlickova of Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2 to enter the semifinals in the mixed doubles event.
Meanwhile, in the junior girls event, Sania Mirza of India, the one Indian youngster who plays regularly in overseas tournaments, quelled a second comeback by Ivana Jovanovic of Australia for a 6-2, 6-4 first round victory, using her impressive forehand to great effect as she came back from a break down in the second set.
Earlier in the day, Megha Vakharia of India, down a set against the second seeded Marion Bartoli of France, when rain stopped play on Tuesday evening, went down 2-6, 3-6 in the first round match today.
The results:
Women's singles (quarterfinals): 1-Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) bt 7-Amelie Mauresmo (Fra) 6-2, 6-2; 4-Kim Clijsters (Bel) bt 6-Justine Henin (Bel) 6-2, 6-3.
Men's singles (quarterfinals): 9-Marat Safin (Rus) bt Wayne Ferreira (RSA) 5-2 (retd.); 7-Tommy Haas (Ger) bt Marcelo Rios (Chl) 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-5)
Girls singles (first round): 2-Marion Bartoli (Fra) bt Megha Vakharia (Ind) 6-2, 6-3; 12-Sania Mirza (Ind) bt Ivana Jovanovic (Aus) 6-2, 6-4.
Boys doubles (first round): Stephen Amritraj & Luka Gregorc (Slo) bt Shunsuke Shimizu & Go Soeda (Jpn) 6-4, 6-2; Brian Baker & Frank Dancevic (Can) bt Rohan Gajjar & Amanjot Singh (Ind) 6-2, 6-2.
Girls doubles (first round): Gabrielle Baker & Adriana Szli (Aus) bt Sasha Abraham & Megha Vakharia (India) 6-3, 6-2; Sania Mirza (Ind) & Hong Da-Jung (Kor) bt Nicole Pitts & Sunita Rao (U.S.) 6-6, 6-1, 6-1.
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