Proving that there is life after reading novels between change overs, Jim Courier revitalised his failing Wimbledon career yesterday to set up a possible fourth round meeting with local hero Tim Henman. The latter's match against Chris Woodruff was suspended last night due to bad light with the Briton having won the first set.
Several years ago, Courier illustrated his disillusionment with the game and his life and took to reading novels by Armistead Maupin during the break between games. Although he had reached the final in 1993, having been the world number one the previous year, Courier subsequently disappeared off the Wimbledon radar. He is un-seeded this year.
The three hour battle against 12th seed Carlos Moya was a typical war of attrition between two clay court naturals. Courier's return of serve and snarling tenacity kept him in the match which went to five sets, the American winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 to break his dismal three-year run of packing his bags after the first round.
"He has a great return and he played very well today," said Moya, who might prefer to eat grass rather than play tennis on it.
"I was really liking the match. It was good quality tennis, both players were playing at a high level and it was exciting to be out there," said Courier.
Clearing up one of the recurring questions of top flight tennis - how to deal with the power game of the big servers on grass - Courier then endeared himself to the entire media. "There's not much adjusting out there. It's just kind of, if you see a ball near you, swing and hit it as hard as you can," he explained.
That could be how Britain's Danny Sapsford approaches his next game against Pete Sampras, whose effortless three-set win over Canadian Sebastien Lareau set him up against the home player.
Sapsford, refreshingly unequivocal, does not believe he has much of a chance of beating Sampras. "I remember a few years ago they (the bookmakers) had odds on a British player winning Wimbledon as 115 to 1 and they were the same odds as the second coming of Christ and the bookies were quoted as saying: `We've had a couple of bets on the second coming of Christ, but nothing on Wimbledon'," he said.
"Sampras is in a class of his own, especially at Wimbledon, so I'm out there to enjoy it. Again, no expectations," he added. Greg Rusedski pounded his way past Arvind Parmar in an all-British pairing. The ninth seed lost only 11 points in the entire match on his serve to Parmar, who is ranked well over 400 in the world.
The ever banal Rusedski was once again "focussed" and "very concentrated." Urged to call himself ruthless, Rusedski flashed his teeth and fell into coach speak. "I don't say it's ruthlessness. It is concentration. If you don't bring your best to every game, you won't have a chance of getting to July 4th."
Mark Philippoussis, the colossus from Australia and seventh seed, took three hours to see off his compatriot Mark Woodforde in four sets. Philippoussis then cleverly heaped even more pressure on Sampras and Henman in the postmatch interview.
"I honestly think that you guys have not seen the best tennis from me. It is two years down the track or maybe three and honestly I believe that. I'm not saying that I'm happy to do well in the semis or quarters - there is no reason why I can't win - but the guys are playing well, Pete (Sampras) and Tim (Henman). They are the big weapons in this tournament. I'm just going to cruise along," he said.
Cruise like a destroyer perhaps. The six feet four inch 200 lb right hander won 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to set up a possible meeting with Rusedski in the fourth round.
Yevgeny Kafelnikov clearly cannot finish an opponent in less than two and a half hours. His marathon five-set first round match was followed by a long four-setter yesterday of two hours and 38 minutes. Still, the number three seed is through and could meet Henman or Courier at the quarter-final stage.
