Sampras wraps up Draper

Wimbledon, June 21: The champion played true to the script, if at all there was one. The top seed, Pete Sampras, returned to centre court...

Wimbledon, June 21: The champion played true to the script, if at all there was one. The top seed, Pete Sampras, returned to centre court of the All-England and Croquet Club for his continuing tryst with destiny. In his first day at office, the American was in such absolute command that the 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Australian Scott Draper would have been the most predictable result on the first day of the Championship.

Draper, for his part, had won the Queen’s last year and being a left-handed from Queensland, people wanted him to be a `second Rod Laver’. It is not known whether the original Australian had taken offence to that, but there was not a remote chance that the Australian on centre court came anywhere near the legend. For a player ranked 63, that kind of an expectation was a bit too much. Playing Sampras was simply upping the agony.

“It was like coming back home,” Sampras said after the win. “This fortnight is big for me and I was quite keyed up and did not look back after the goodstart.”

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As always, the centre court was so slippery both players found it difficult to get a foothold in the beginning. Sampras, however, has been in similar situations before, and adjusted to the court much faster than Draper.“I knew what to expect. He is a tough player and has good shots and for me it was a question of getting into rhythm which I did pretty quickly,” Sampras said.

Meanwhile, the great British hope Tim Henman, unusually named one of the title favourites this year, breezed through the first round with a 6-4, 6-0, 3-6, 7-6 (1) over Frenchman Arnaud Di Pasquale, a former world junior number one.

Paes flounders at first hurdle

This myth about Leander Paes and grasscourt tennis should be conveniently cast aside in a nearby dustbin. The self-professed grass-courter once again failed to win a singles match here as he went down to qualifier Andre Sa of Brazil in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4) here on Monday. The irony of the match, however, was that this was Paes’ first matchafter becoming the world’s best doubles player.

Meanwhile Paes became the second Indian player to be ranked number one in doubles individually , according to the latest ATP rankings released today. Paes, who partnered Dutch Jan Siemerink at Rosemalen in The Netherlands, was declared joint winners after the doubles final was rained out yesterday.The India number one thus pushed his partner Mahesh Bhupathi down to the number two spot. Paes is 71 points clear of his partner with 4019 points, while Bhupathi has 3948. It is unlikely anybody else would take over the top slot for a while — third-ranked Paul Haarhuis is more than 600 points behind Bhupathi.

How the seeds fared

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Men singles (1st round): 1-Pete Sampras (US) bt Scott Draper (Aus) 6-3 6-4 6-4; 6-Tim Henman (GBr) bt Arnaud Di Pasquale (Fra) 6-4 6-0 3-6 7-6 (7-1); 7-Mark Philippoussis (Aus) bt Xavier Malisse (Belg) 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-3 6-4; 9-Greg Rusedski (GBr) bt Jason Stoltenberg (Aus) 6-1 6-4 6-2; 12-Carlos Moya (Spain) bt Jan Kroslak (Svk)6-4 7-5 6-2; 13-Karol Kucera (Svk) bt Alejandro Hernandez (Mex) 6-2 6-1 6-2.

Women singles (1st round): 2-Steffi Graf (Ger) bt Ludmila Cervanova (Svk) 6-1 6-4; 6-Venus Williams (US) bt Miriam Oremans (Ned) 6-1 7-5; 8-Nathalie Tauziat (Fra) bt Lucie Ahl (GBr) 6-3 6-2; 12-Amanda Coetzer (SA) bt Nicole Pratt (Aus) 6-2 7-5; 13-Sandrine Testud (Fra) bt Jule Pullin (GBr) 6-1 6-3; 17-Anna Kournikova (Rus) bt Barbara Schwartz (Aut) 7-6 (7-2) 4-6 6-2.

Other important first round results

Men singles: Jim Courier (US) bt Barry Cowan (GBr) 6-3 6-4 6-4; Daniel Vacek (Czech) bt Bodan Ulihrach (Czech) 6-1 6-2 6-4; Francisco Clavet bt Michael Kohlmann 6-2 1-6 3-6 7-5 6-4; Sebastien Lareau (Can) bt Wayne Black (Zimb) 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-3; Sjeng Schalken (Ned) bt Davide Sanguinetti (Italy) 5-7 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 6-3; Mark Woodforde (Aus) bt Dominic Hrbaty (Svk) 6-4 6-2 6-2; Sebastien Grosjean (Fran) bt Byron Black (Zimb) 5-7 6-0 7-5 7-5; Andrew Ilie (Aus) bt Wayne Ferreira (SA) 7-6 (15-13) 7-5 6-7 (10-12) 6-1; ThomasJohansson (Swed) bt Richey Reneberg (US) 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 4-6 6-1; Andrei Medvedev (Ukr) bt Bernd Karbacher (Ger) 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-3) 6-4; Cedric Pioline (Fra) bt Martin Damm (Czech) 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 6-2; Arvind Parmar (GBr) bt Albert Costa (Spain) 0-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-3.

Women singles: Ines Gorrochategui (Arg) bt Samantha Smith (GBr) 6-2 1-6 6-2; Louise Latimer (GBR) bt Anne-Gaelle Sidot (Fra) 6-4 6-2; Mirjana Lucic (Croat) bt Erika De Lone (US) 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-5; Ruxandra Dragomir (Rom) bt Paola Suarez (Arg) 6-4 6-1; Karen Cross (GBr) bt Lilia Osterloh (US) 6-1 6-4; Barbara Rittner (Germ) bt Denisa Chladkova (Czech) 6-4 6-2; Maria Alejandra Vento (Ven) bt Emmanuelle Gagliardi (Sui) 7-5 6-3; Marlene Weingartner (Ger) bt Jo Ward (GBr) 4-6 7-5 6-3; Elena Likhovtseva (Rus) bt Alicia Molik (Aus) 6-2 6-0; Seda Noorlander (Ned) bt Jana Nejedly (Can) 6-3 6-3; Janet Lee (Taipei) bt Kerry-Anne Guse (Aus) 3-6 6-4 6-1; Maureen Drake (Can) bt Evgenia Koulikovskaya (Rus) 6-3 6-0; Amanda Hopmans (Ned) bt Sandra Kleinova(Czech) 6-4 6-2; Mariana Diaz-Oliva (Arg) bt Anna Smashnova 7-6 (7-3) 7-5; Ai Sugiyama (Jap) bt Magdalena Grzybowska (Pol) 6-1 6-2; Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thai) bt Kevtoslova Hrdlickova (Czech) 6-1 6-4; Mariaan De Swardt (SA) bt Jolene Watanabe (US) 6-1 6-4.