Tennis: Steven in Stanley St swansong

By Foster Niumata

The crowd gave Brett Steven an emotional farewell as he exited from what might have been his last Auckland tournament

There will be no more of the home-grown hero who puts the pro in professional, no repeat of his epic run to the 1996 Auckland Open tennis final, no encore to his latest uplifting drive to the semis.

Brett Steven, racket bag on his shoulder, championship dream blown by a Dutchman with a windmill forehand, turned in a circle, raising his cap to sustained applause, then strode off Stanley St's stadium court probably for the last time as a contender for the singles title.

Was it the last time, Brett?

"Could be," he said, grinning. "If I was a betting man I'd probably bet on it."

Steven, who later lost his doubles quarter-final with James Greenhalgh, is alone in thinking this Heineken Open ought to be his last, especially after he slogged his guts out for four hours a day for five weeks to light a fire he would use to torch players ranked 26, 48 and 59.

Unfortunately, the player ranked 74 brought a bigger flamethrower to their semi yesterday, and afterwards, Steven doffed his cap to Sjeng Schalken, an impressive 6-4 6-4 winner with his powerful forehand and serve and deceptive, aw-shucks manner.

"I was 100 per cent fit, 100 per cent ready for the match, and I didn't think my level dropped that much. He was too good," said Steven, whose ranking will move from 100 to about 91.

"The way he finished off, that 30-love point summed up the match. I played as well as I could have played in that point, taking him out of court, coming into his backhand, playing a good volley to the open court, and I was 10 feet from the passing shot he hit. It's almost funny.

"I've got nothing to be ashamed of. It still hurts to lose in what could be my last tournament."

Schalken moves on to a bigger game against fifth seed Tommy Haas in today's final.

The pair practised and talked a lot before the Open but this will be their first match.

Haas, the night entertainment in the first two rounds, came into the light yesterday and because of Thursday's rain had to play his quarter and semi, taking 3h 33m through three rain-breaks to rub out wily Frenchman Guillaume Raoux 7-6 7-6 and second seed Felix Mantilla 4-6 6-3 6-3.

Despite the long day, 20-year-old Haas, the latest German to bear the "new Becker" tag but wearing it well, actually loosened up the longer it went, ripping an amazing 45 clean winners in his first win over 20th-ranked Mantilla.

"I'm aching a little," said 35th-ranked Haas, into his third career final and hoping for third-time lucky.

Asked to preview his showdown with Schalken, Haas said the Dutchman's tournament-leading first and second serves were big - just 12 points conceded in the last two matches - but he (Haas) moved better and Schalken probably took more risks.

Schalken, aged 22, has won all three finals he has been in, all three before he was 21.

He came here alone, his coach preferring to oversee Paul Haarhuis in Sydney, and he has hung out alone, dining by himself at a Japanese restaurant.

"One piece of bad fish and I could be out for a week," he joked.
Schalken's Australian Open draw is not funny. After drawing Jim Courier (1997) and Pete Sampras (1998), Schalken has landed another former No 1, Thomas Muster.

Steven has to play 28th-ranked Michael Chang, who beat the Kiwi in 1994 and 1997.

In Australia

The top two contenders for the women's crown at the Australian Open, Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis, set up a pre-Melbourne showdown today with semifinal victories in a warm-up tennis tournament.

But their performances at the Sydney International gave few clues away before the year's first Grand Slam event, where defending champion Hingis will be hoping to topple Davenport from the top of the rankings.