Krajicek quells Kohlmann

Wimbledon, June 26: The Richard Krajicek vs Michael Kohlmann match was shrouded in drama even before it began. German lucky loser Kohlmann...

Wimbledon, June 26: The Richard Krajicek vs Michael Kohlmann match was shrouded in drama even before it began. German lucky loser Kohlmann, who was a last minute replacement in the Davis Cup squad against Australia earlier this year after a spate of injuries to top players, was also a last minute alternate for Spaniard Albert Costa, who pulled out of the event late Sunday night in protest against not being seeded.

Krajicek, incidently, was seeded 11th and is No 25 according to the ATP entry system. Costa is 15. So the fact that the match would see some drama before the seeding held good, should really not have come as a surprise for anyone. That the Dutch 11th seed, who beat Pete Sampras on the way to the All-England crown in 1996, managed to come through in the end quite easily, could probably be attributed more to his greater experience on the surface and his cracking form in flashes, than anything else. Krajicek won 3-6 6-1 6-4 7-6 (3).

The 26-year-old German, who made a first round exit in his Wimbledon debut last year, at first seemed determined to make the best use of what fortune had bestowed on him. Unfazed by the reputation of Krajicek, the first set saw him concentrating on whamming back the Dutchman’s service, no easy thing to do. He broke Krajicek in the second and fourth games while Krajicek began the match with a break.

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Kohlmann was inconsistent. He also seemed tired with the effort of holding on to win the first set and sat completely still in the changeover between the first set and second. Full credit should also go to Krajicek for making use of Kohlmann’s obvious enervation and making him run all round the court. He just blew the 26-year-old fom Hagen apart in the second and third sets, sending down 17 aces in this period.

There was a minor resurgence by the underdog in the fourth set, when Kohlman broke back after losing the first game to Krajicek, with the latter making two double faults in the same game. But though both held service after that, there wasn’t much doubt in anyone’s mind who would win the tie-break.

“I don’t know what happened in the first set. I thought it would be a nice and easy day on grass, especially when I started with a break. Then I started playing better, it was only the first set. I didn’t know the guy at all, that made a difference,” Krajicek said and added he would have felt more pressure against Costa.

He also said while he agreed the Spaniards had a point in protesting the seedings, perhaps “the best way to have put an end to it would have been for them to play and show the organisers what they could do”.

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If top seed Martina Hingis swept past Spaniard debutant Angeles Montolio 6-1 6-2, the Serena Williams-Asa Carlsson match on Court 3 was also almost over before it began, with Williams winning 6-3 6-2 showing little sign of her two-month injury lay-off from professional tennis. The Swede had no answer for Serena, who apart from a couple of clumsy volleys, looks good to go through “the next six matches,” as she put it after the tie.

Saying her left knee, in which she suffered tendinitis, “was doing really well now,” Serena added it “was really good to get some games in after the break”.

Serena could eventually meet the winner of the Kournikova-Testud match in the fourth round, and sister Venus is also in her half of the draw. “Venus is a possible opponent,” she agreed, “but I’m not looking that far ahead yet.”