Sampras starts off in familiar fashion

By Nirmal Shekar

LONDON, JUNE 25. God, this can't be Wimbledon! This surely cannot be the exquisite, timeless rite of passage of the English summer! Certainly, this cannot be the marvellous sporting showpiece wrapped in layers and layers of tradition!

For, on the BBC breakfast news this morning, a good slice of airtime was devoted to offering advice to the viewers on how to protect themselves from sunburn as whoever arranges the familiar sequence of dark clouds over this grand old city deemed it fit today to wipe the skies clean and blue, turning it into the closest it would ever come to resemble a tropical sauna.

And, at the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Church Road, the familiar, ancestral Boston Ivy that was so much a part of the club-front was gone, the walls as bald as Andre Agassi's head.

As if this was not blasphemous enough, the organisers of what they call The Championships deemed it fit to rush members of the royalty into the sort of quick lunch that stockbrokers and professional sportsmen may be more familiar with, in an attempt to get VVIPs to take their reserved Royal Box seats at 1 p.m.

God, really, something appeared to be going wrong with this old place where Spencer Gore won the inaugural championship in 1877, taking home a voucher worth 12 guineas and leaving behind the Silver Challenge Cup to the value of 25 guineas!

Indeed, so we thought - that something was wrong somewhere - until shortly after 1 p.m. when a swarthy Greek- American with thinning curly hair stepped on the court briskly, squinted into the harsh afternoon sun, and got down to business on his home turf on the first day of the 2001 championships.

Even at sport's most hallowed cathedral of changelessness, everything changes, these days - everything, that is, except the Day One tradition on the most famous tennis court in the world. For, it is not so much the arrival of the swallow or the sun that heralds the English summer as does the appearance of Pete Sampras on the Centre Court on the first Monday of Wimbledon.

In a world that is forever on the fast-forward mode, a world where everything changes, some sporting rituals acquire a sort of permanence that turn their protagonist into a living legend.

And, there Sampras was this afternoon, starting the defence of his title for a seventh time against the gutsy under- rated Spaniard Francisco Clavet, something of a veteran at age 32. It was a sight as familiar as the presence of the Duchess and the Duke of Kent at the trophy presentations over the final weekend of the fortnight.

``When he gets there, he becomes himself,'' John McEnroe was saying on television even as Sampras began his quest for a record eighth title and a fifth in succession. ``He is so comfortable here.''

Then again, when you have won 53 of 54 matches in eight years at the place, you certainly get to move into the comfort zone in this place. And Sampras was never really stretched, except for a brief period late in the second set, as he beat Clavet 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in just over two hours in the first round.

The top-seed, inarguably the greatest to ever set foot on the Wimbledon lawns, will play Barry Cowan of Great Britain in the second round. Cowan got past his countryman Mark Hilton 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (2) in quick time and may well be spending the next 48 hours praying that the great man would break a leg or arm in practice!

Well, at least the journeyman Briton has earned the privilege of walking out into the court of the great monarch, and alongside him too on Wednesday - which is something he can talk about to his grandchildren by the fire long years from now.

Sampras, of course, will have taller and grander tales to relate to his own grandchildren, tales of epic conquests, of heroic victories. And, given his attitude here this fortnight, the champion would certainly like to tell them that no man ever won more Wimbledon titles than he did.

To do that, Sampras needs an eighth title, from which he is now only six matches away.

``Someone has got to look at the law of averages. He is due for a hiccup,'' said John McEnroe on BBC as he previewed Sampras' chances this year.

On court, there was no sign of any hiccup, although the great man never really aspired to scale the level of play that is his customary altitude in the business end of the fortnight.

Sampras served as well as he might have wanted to in an opening match and his volleys were crisp too. But he did not return to the best of his abilities against the spirited left- handed Spaniard and was content to stay back and rally with Clavet for the most part in his return games on a warm afternoon.

``For England this time of the year, it was a little too warm. The last time I remember it was this warm was in the 1993 final against (Jim) Courier,'' said Sampras.

If his game was nowhere as hot as the day itself was, then Sampras did as much as he needed to in each of the three sets.

The champion got an early break in the first. Clavet staved off two breakpoints in the third game but double faulted twice to lose serve and that was enough for Sampras to wrap up the opening set.

It was in the second set that the match was truly competitive as Clavet, who has a rather handy sliced backhand and a more than useful serve, held his own right up until late in the tiebreak when Sampras hit a backhand return, then slipped on the fresh grass.

Maybe a touch distracted by Sampras's slide, and half- sure in his mind that his opponent's return was long, Clavet scooped the ball into the net. He did question the call - or its absence - but Gerry Armstrong in the chair was unmoved. In the third set, Clavet fought off a breakpoint early, in the second game, but Sampras broke him for the match in the 10th game, closing out the match on his second matchpoint.

``I can turn it around pretty quickly here,'' said Sampras, looking back to the last 11 months when he has gone without a single title. ``I feel like I have a pretty good chance. But you can't look ahead in this game. I am just thinking about the second round. There are too many good players who can knock you off.''

In fact, there is only one player who has managed to do that in eight years - Richard Krajicek in 1996, in a rain- interrupted quarterfinal played over two days.

Henman in hurry

Meanwhile, the man Sampras may very well end up facing in the quarterfinals, Tim Henman of the Henmania fame, suggested that he may be playing the best grass court tennis of his career as he raced past the Russian qualifier Artem Derepasko 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 turning the No.2 court - known as the graveyard of the seeds - into his own favourite backyard even as Chris Woodruff of the United States outlasted his handsome countryman and 12th-seed, Jan-Michael Gambill 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 to the considerable dismay of hordes of teenaged girls.

``If you want to win this tournament, you have to beat the best,'' said Henman looking forward to the possible quarterfinal meeting with Sampras. ``He's probably the best there's ever been here.''

Probably? Mr. Henman must be kidding. Inarguably is more like it.

The results (prefix denotes seedings):

Men's singles (first round): 1-Pete Sampras (U.S.) bt Francisco Clavet (Esp) 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Barry Cowan (GBR) bt Mark Hilton (GBR) 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2); 6-Tim Henman (GBR) bt Artem Derepasko (Rus) 6-1, 6-1, 6-1; Goran Ivanisevic (Cro) bt Fredrik Jonsson (Swe) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4; Bob Bryan (U.S.) bt Bohdan Ulihrach (Cze) 6-3, 6-4, 6-1; Magnus Larsson (Swe) bt Marc Rosset (Sui) 6- 4, 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2; David Prinosil (Ger) bt Lee Hyung-Taik (Kor) 6-7 (7-5) 6-2, 6-4, 6-4; Raemon Sluiter (Ned) bt 22-Dominik Hrbaty (Svk) 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2; Daniel Nestor (Can) bt Galo Blanco (Esp) 6-2, 6-3, 6-2; Chris Woodruff (U.S.) bt 12- Jan- Michael Gambill (U.S.) 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2

Women's singles (first round): 5-Serena Williams (U.S.) bt Rita Kuti Kis (Hun) 6-1, 6-0; Virginia Ruano- Pascual (Esp) bt 1- Martina Hingis (Sui) 6-4, 6-2; Barbara Ritner (Ger) bt Andrea Glass (Ger) 6-3, 6-4; 12-Magdalena Maleeva (Bul) bt Clarissa Fernandez (Arg) 6-0; 6-2; Selima Sfar (Tun) bt Asa Carlsson (Swe) 6-7 (7-1), 6-3, 6-4; 32-Tatiana Panova (Rus) bt Ruxandra Dragomir-Ilie (Rom) 6-3, 6-3; Kristina Brandi (U.S.) bt 26-Anne Kremer (Lux) 6-4, 6-2; Emmanuelle Gagliardi (Sui) bt Lucie Ahl (GBR) 6-4, 6-1; 4-Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) bt Maria Vento (Ven) 6-3, 6-2.

Serena Williams is all aggression as she essays a double-fisted return in her opening round match against Rita Kuti Kis on the opening day of the The Championships at Wimbledon on Monday. The fifth-seeded American dispatched the Hungarian for the loss of a single game.

- AP

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Hingis crashes out

LONDON, JUNE 25. The Wimbledon championships had its bigest casualty of the opening day when Virginia Ruano Pascual stunned top seed Martina Hingis in straight sets on Monday. The Spaniard beat the `Swiss Miss' 6-4, 6-2.

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