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Journalism of Courage
Andy Roddick’s exit from the French Open yesterday made him the last of 10 Americans to leave the tournament. “This hasn’t been our place for a couple of years now,” Roddick said after his 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2 loss to Frenchman Olivier Mutis.
In the Open era, the only other Grand Slams tournaments where no American men made it to the third round where the 1972 and 1973 Australian Opens, which no Americans entered.
No. 6 Andre Agassi’s shock first-round loss to 271st-ranked Jerome Haehnel on Monday set the tone. Other American losers were: Vince Spadea, Kevin Kim, Taylor Dent, Jeff Salzenstein, Alex Bogomolov Jr., Jan-Michael Gambill, Robby Ginepri and Todd Martin.
Don’t put the Parisians off
Irakli Labadze wagged his finger at the partisan crowd on centre court and then tapped it on his temple as if to say: “you’re all crazy!” The Georgian lost his composure — and the match, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 — to marathon man Fabrice Santoro.
Opening up a 3-0 lead in the first set, Labadze lost three straight games and faced break point on serve. He screamed in frustration, prompting a chorus of whistles and boos from the crowd. Saving break point, Labadze shouted “yeesss!” and bowed mockingly to the stands.
They cheered — and cheered even harder when he put his next shot into the net. Labadze shook his head in disbelief and then hugged the net judge for comfort.
A racket of a different kind
Umpire Cedric Mourier snapped “Children, please don’t make any noise during rallies!” in the third set of Tim Henman’s victory over Lars Burgsmuller.
With Britain’s Henman serving for the match Mourier intervened again. “Children, please stop running around,” he said, his voice decidedly strained.
“I was just sitting there listening to the crowd during a changeover,” Henman said. “I thought: ‘God, it’s noisy.’”
