Tennis: Rafter's dream all over for 1999

By Foster Niumata

MELBOURNE - He's not the Swede who won the final of the rainy 1997 Auckland Open. That was Jonas Bjorkman.

He's not the Swede who was highest-ranked in Melbourne at the Australian Open.

That was Thomas Johansson, long departed. He's not even the best-known Swede, who people forget retired over two years ago. That was Stefan somebody.

He is the player burning rubber coming into this Open, riding a 10-match winning streak, who gave ponytailed pin-up Pat Rafter the flick yesterday, stalling sales of zinc, spoiling Rafter's stated goal of becoming the first Australian champion in 23 years, and ruining the anticipated blockbuster fourth-round home-grown showdown with home-town hero Mark Philippoussis.

Thomas Enqvist, as sweatless as he seemed on centre-court in the late afternoon sun, was cool about his partypooping 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-4 defeat of dual United States Open champion Rafter.

"I feel I can beat anybody in the draw but that's not the same as saying I'll go all the way," said Enqvist, who for someone who peaked at No 6 three years ago (he is at 21 now) has a mystifyingly unremarkable record in the Grand Slams.

In 21 Grand Slam events, he has reached the quarters only once, at the Australian Open in 1996. But after a quiet last half of 1998 following ankle surgery, he came Down Under hungry and won his 14th title in Adelaide a fortnight ago, and last week's big-name exhibition event, beating Philippoussis.

Rafter, not that disappointed, said: "There wasn't too much I did wrong. He played too big and too strong. I thought it was a fantastic effort by him."

And tomorrow's Philippoussis-Enqvist contest "could be a finals match," said world No 3 Rafter, whose defeat ensures the absent Pete Sampras remains No 1, and that the top five players have not made it through three rounds.

As the highest-ranked player left, No 6 Andre Agassi now wears the "kick me" note on his back.

Only five seeds have survived so far (ninth seed Richard Krajicek was playing Wayne Ferreira over-night). Sixth seed Tim Henman was also ousted yesterday, hammered in straight sets by Marc Rosset.

Of an increasingly open men's draw, Rafter said: "There are a lot of top-10 players out there not in the top 10. Unfortunately it's not like women's tennis."

He cannot have been keeping up with the news. Wimbledon champions Jana Novotna and Conchita Martinez bit the dust yesterday, Novotna capitulating in a horror show 3-6 0-6 to 65th-ranked Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo, and Martinez, last year's runner-up, blown out by 95th-ranked Emilie Loit, of France, 7-5 6-1.

Loit cracked the top-100 only in November. Sanchez Lorenzo has never previously been beyond a Grand Slam second round.

"I am still in a state of shock really, not knowing what went wrong," said Novotna, the 1991 Open finalist.

Fifth seed Venus Williams has a last-16 encounter with fellow American Chanda Rubin, who won the Hobart title last weekend and yesterday knocked out 15th seed Natasha Zvereva 7-6 4-6 6-4.