Tennis: Top seeds victims of boilovers

By TERRY MADDAFORD


Unheralded Spaniard Juan Balcells led the on-court carnage in the second round of the international tennis tournament at Stanley St yesterday.

Balcells, the ever-smiling assassin, broke the hearts of not only the organisers but the huge contingent of German fans as he sent top seed and Heineken Open favourite Tommy Haas packing 6-4 7-5 in 76 minutes.

Earlier, unseeded Magnus Gustafsson won an all-Swedish battle to end fifth seed Thomas Johansson's hopes, also in straight sets, and 1996 winner and third seed Jiri Novak bowed out - downed in three sets by unseeded Argentinian Gaston Gaudio - in a match decided with second and third set tiebreakers.

In one of the most absorbing matches, first round hero Michael Sell lost the all-American battle with Michael Chang after two and a half hours as Chang came from a set down to win in three.

Seventh seed Juan Carlos booked himself a place in today's all-Spanish quarter-final against Balcells in the first match of the day, when he wore down yet another Spaniard, Alberto Martin, in a 2h 41m dogfight - the longest match of the tournament so far.

Defending champion and sixth seed Sjeng Schalken beat qualifier Tomas Berend with few problems to book a quarter-final meeting with Gaudio.

But it was Balcells who took centrestage.

The 24-year-old from Barcelona, who lists his 1999 first round win over Carlos Moya (then the world's 15th ranked player) as his greatest victory before coming to Auckland for the first time, ripped in a solid 73 per cent of his first serves to keep Haas on the back foot. Haas managed less than 50 per cent.

The pair traded games until the eighth game of the first set when Balcells broke for 5-4. He then sent down two aces to win to love for 6-4.

The second set mirrored the first with Haas broken in the 11th game and Balcells serving it out without dropping a point.

"At 6-5 in the second I was nervous," said Balcells, whose only other appearance in New Zealand came in last year's Davis Cup triumph in Hamilton when he and Julian Alonso beat James Greenhalgh and Brett Steven in straight sets to clinch the tie.

After playing his fifth match in as many days after coming through the qualifying tournament, Balcells admitted he felt a "bit tired" and had been troubled by a sore thigh.

"But," he quickly added," I hope I can keep winning. I enjoy the tennis way of life."

There was never much between Chang and Sell.

They traded breaks in the first three games with Sell then going on to take the first set 6-4.

There were three breaks in the second with Chang taking that by the same score in one of those never-give-in, run-everything-down contests which kept the capacity crowd enthralled.

The third had a break a piece en route to the tiebreaker which Chang made his own, winning 7-1.

His match with Gustafsson tonight promises more of the same.