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 Ankle injury forces out No. 4 seed Ivanisevic, Graf, Capriati win; Rusedski withdraws
Posted: Wednesday June 24, 1998 11:35 AM
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- His ankle still aching after a night's rest, Greg Rusedski and his bullet serve withdrew from Wimbledon on Wednesday. Rusedski, the fourth seed and a quarterfinalist last year, pulled out before the resumption of his rain-delayed match with Mark Draper. Rusedski won the first set 6-4, dropped the second 6-2 as he began to limp badly. Draper was up a break at 5-4 in the third when play was called. Rusedski injured the ankle almost two weeks ago in a bad fall during the Queen's tournament, a traditional grass-court warmup for Wimbledon. The left-handed Rusedski and fellow Briton Tim Henman both reached the quarterfinals last year and have been billed as Britain's great hope to win its first men's singles title since 1936. He practiced earlier Wednesday, then said there was no swelling and he intended to play. "I thought it would get better," he said. "I thought when it got warmed up it would get better. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. But there is always next year." Meanwhile, Steffi Graf, seeking her eighth Wimbledon title, won the first eight games as she powered into the third round with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Slovakia's Henrieta Nagyova. The fourth-seeded German, playing her first Grand Slam tournament since undergoing reconstructive knee surgery a year ago, cried with emotion after her first-round match Monday. But there were no tears Wednesday. "It was good to get the first match over, the emotions going," she said. 'I feel I've calmed down a little bit since then." Other early winners Wednesday included two players with a lot to prove -- men's No. 14 seed Goran Ivanisevic and women's wild card entry Jennifer Capriati. Capriati won her first Grand Slam match in five years, overcoming nine foot-faults to defeat Australia's Nicole Pratt 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. It was Capriati's first Wimbledon appearance since reaching the quarterfinals in 1993. Since then, she's played in only five other Grand Slam events and lost in the first round each time. "It's great to be back here," Capriati said. "It brings back a lot of good memories. I was really pumped up. I was really excited to be out there." In 1991, Capriati became the youngest ever women's Wimbledon semifinalist at 15 years, 95 days. But her career nosedived after problems with drugs and injuries. "Right now I want it pretty bad," she said. "I'm really focused and determined to play well." Capriati, 22, said she has no regrets and feels in control of her life. "Whatever I'm doing it's whatever I want to be doing," she said. "I just try to be happy off the court as well as on the court, to keep a balance." Ivanisevic, a two-time Wimbledon finalist who had won only one mtch in his last five Grand Slam tournaments, beat Grant Stafford 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 in just one hour, 19 minutes. "I can beat anybody when I play good here, and I can lose to some serious bad guys," Ivanisevic said. "You never know with me. ... Not too many people rate me as a favorite or expect me to do good here. But I feel good. Anything is possible." Second-seeded Lindsay Davenport, No. 3 Monica Seles and No. 4 Steffi Graf were among the women scheduled to play second-round matches Wednesday. In men's play, defending champion Pete Sampras was due to face Sweden's Mikael Tillstrom and Andre Agassi was up against Germany's Tommy Haas. On Tuesday, Venus Williams came within five minutes of being defaulted when she got lost on the All England Club grounds and turned up late for her first-round match. "I could never figure out where Court 13 was," the 18-year-old American said. "I thought I was playing on Court 18, but I thought that was Court 13, but no." Williams said she made it on time but WTA Tour officials confirmed she was 10 minutes late. A no-show after 15 minutes results in an automatic default. Winning the match proved easier than finding the court as Williams cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Canada's Jana Nejedly -- one of only 14 matches completed on a day disruptd by intermittent showers. Other women's seeds advancing Tuesday were No. 1 Martina Hingis, No. 3 Jana Novotna, No. 14 Sandrine Testud and No. 16 Nathalie Tauziat. The only men's seed to complete a match Tuesday was No. 6 Patrick Rafter, who downed Swiss qualifier Ivo Heuberger, 6-1, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. Gettig past the opening round was a relief for Williams, who was upset in her first Wimbledon match last year by Magdalena Grzybowska. Williams lost her only grass-court match this year at the Wimbledon warmup event at Eastbourne. "It feels real nice," she said. "It's comforting to know that I'm doing better." But Williams isn't doing much different. She remained glued to the baseline and refused to try the serve-and-volley tactics which are so effective on grass. "I wasn't really trying too many things," she said. "My plan was more or less, make my shots and get off the court before it rains."
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Rusedski was not able to complete his match on Wednesday 