Tennis: Corretja stumbles in minefield

By Foster Niumata

MELBOURNE - When Pete Sampras decided he was too tired to enter the Australian Open, too spent to try and equal Roy Emerson's record 12 grand slam singles titles, he left his No 1 crown for the taking.

But potential heirs keep falling by the day. World No 2 Marcelo Rios is lying somewhere on a doctor's table. No 3 Alex Corretja was ambushed yesterday by a player who won only two matches on the main tour last year.

No 4 Pat Rafter, in shaky form, had a tricky hometown derby last night with Mark Woodforde, No 5 Carlos Moya couldn't make it out of the first round, and No 6 Andre Agassi is sensibly taking only one step at a time in the minefield before him.

"You can see how difficult it is to win a match, even if you are No 3 in the world," said Corretja, the ATP world champion from last November who had relatively the shortest path to the No 1 ranking no Spaniard has ever held, if he could have made the semifinals.

He came to the Open in perfect shape from reaching the final in Sydney last weekend, but after 116th-ranked Takao Suzuki, a Japanese Pat Rafter, took him to five sets on Monday, Corretja had no zip in his legs yesterday, no reserves for the baseline bash 86th-ranked Christian Ruud was ready to give.

Ruud wasn't expected to make Corretja sweat. He won only two matches on the tour last year, fell off the rankings radar to 175 eight months ago and clambered back via the challenger circuit, winning four from six finals. Until this Open, he had only one win in the grand slams in two years.

But after conceding the first set and battling to tie in the second, Norwegian fans were joined by the horned Swedish horde as showcourt one began to smell an upset. Serving for the third set, Ruud came from 0-40 down to take it 6-4.

In the fourth, Corretja accidentally tapped a ball into a ballboy who ran across him after the point, and was given an umpire's warning which upset him.

The ballboy told the umpire he was okay and Corretja did not think the minor incident deserved a fine, if he was fined.

Serving for the match, Ruud reached match-point from a 40-stroke rally Corretja finished in the net. Then after another long 26-stroke rally, Corretja shanked a forehand. Ruud won 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-4.

"This is my best win," said 26-year-old Ruud, who has had only one other top-10 win. When asked who was the best player from Norway, he said sheepishly, "I think I am."

Ruud now meets Romanian-born Australian rebel Andrew Ilie, who, after knocking out Frenchman Jerome Golmard, grabbed an Australian flag and did a lap of honour.

With much less exuberance, other second round winners included Lindsay Davenport, Jana Novotna, Tim Henman, Richard Krajicek and Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, who upset No 9 Patty Schnyder 6-7 6-4 6-3.

Pictured: Dominique Van Roost during her match against Seda Noorlander. PICTURE / JOHN SEFTON