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Journalism of Courage
SYDNEY, January 19: It was mixed luck for India on the opening day of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year. While Leander Paes lost in straight sets to Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden in the men8217;s singles, Nirupama Vaidyanathan, making her Grand Slam debut stunned Italian Gloria Pizzichini, ranked more than 100 spots ahead of her on the WTA rankings, to make the second round of the women8217;s singles at the Australian Open tennis championships.
Nirupama, who like Leander Paes got the Asian wildcard for the Open, dropped the first set 5-7 losing her serve in the 12th game. And then with Pizzichini holding her serve in the first game of the second, Nirupama seemed to have lost it all when she once again dropped her serve to be one set down and 0-2 in the second set.
It is the first time in the history of Indian tennis that a female player has made it to the second round of a Grand Slam event.
Her next opponent will be Magdalena Grzybowska of Poland, who beat Romanian Cataline Cristea, 6-3, 6-2 easily. Magdalena, 19, is ranked 41st on the WTA, so that should be a tough match for Nirupama.
The 25-year-old Paes, ranked 122, was no match to his 87th ranked opponent and went down 3-6, 2-6, 2-6.
Tillstrom, who is back after prolonged injury lay-off, had won the Chennai Gold Flake Open in April last year.
In Monday8217;s match, Paes looked listless and gave one break in the first set and two breaks each in the next two. Clearly lack of match practice 8212; this was his first singles match in six weeks 8212; was affecting him. Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will however lead India8217;s challenge in the men8217;s doubles at the year8217;s first Grand Slam.
Paes and Bhupathi started their 1998 campaign on a rousing note by lifting the doubles title at the Qatar Open in Doha earlier this month.
Williams siblings set up second round clash: Never mind the bump. Something else was on Serena Williams8217; mind.
At age 16, in her first Grand Slam tournament, facing the No 6 seed on centre court, Serena Williams confessed to feeling perhaps too much pride.
Figuring she had the superior forehand, she tried to pick on that part of Romanian Irina Spirlea8217;s game, even aiming many of her serves on that side.
She blew three set points at 5-3 in the first set, lost a tie-breaker and then fell behind 2-0 in the second.
quot;Then I found an open door and I went through it,quot; she added after winning 6-7 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.
The door? quot;Not to hit to her forehand.quot;
The victory set up a second-round duel with her 17-year-old sister Venus, who raced to a 6-3, 6-0 victory over France8217;s Alexia Dechaume-Balleret in a night match, also on centre court.
The sisters were part of a parade of tennis8217; teen-age wave of the future today.
The youngest, 15-year-old Mirjana Lucic of Croatia, advanced with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Australia8217;s Rennae Stubbs, and like Serena Williams displayed a fearless tactic.
But in the opening match on center court, 16-year-old Australian Lleyton Hewitt couldn8217;t follow up his success in Adelaide earlier this month, when he beat Andre Agassi en route to becoming the third youngest male player to win a tournament in the Open era.
Hewitt, ranked 162, fought back from two sets down, but lost 6-2, 6-4, 1-6, 2-6, 6-3 to Czech player Daniel Vacek.
Among the older folks, 26-year-old Pete Sampras, the defending champion and top seed, cruised to a 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Dutch player Sjeng Schalken, serving 17 aces.
Australian favourite Mark Philippoussis staged two tie break blitzes today to power past Spain8217;s Alex Calatrava into the second round. The men8217;s 15th seed won 7-6 7-0 6-4 7-6 7-4 after the Spaniard8217;s nerves cracked in tie-break for the first and final sets.
Bruguera pulls out: Tenth seed Sergi Bruguera pulled out of the Open in a first-round match today when he was down two sets to one against Slovak Karol Kucera.
The Spaniard dominated the first part of the match, with passing shots sliding off the lines, but retired one hour and 47 minutes into the contest suffering from blistered feet.
Bruguera was trailing 6-3 5-7 1-6 when he retired.
In other matches, No 4 Jonas Bjorkman and No 6 Petr Korda won their opening matches, while women8217;s No 8 Conchita Martinez and No 16 Ruxandra Dragomir advanced. No 12 Sabine Appelmans became the first seed to lose, falling to Natasha Zvereva in three sets.
