Drama Down Under
Scorned Korda fights through injury in dramatic return
Posted: Tuesday January 19, 1999 11:29 PM
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Korda returned from his suspension by winning in five sets in the first round Gary M. Prior/Allsport |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- He was on a losing streak, his ankle hurt, criticism over his drug case swirled around him, and his opponent accused him of faking injury.
Thus went Petr Korda's return to the Australian Open, where last year, at age 30, the Czech player finally won his first grand slam title and captured the fans' affections with his exuberant scissors-kicks and cartwheels.
The spectator support was still there Tuesday as Korda struggled to a 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2 first-round victory over 83rd-ranked Galo Blanco of Spain.
Meanwhile, 37th-ranked Nicolas Kiefer of Germany ousted fourth seed Carlos Moya, the French Open champion, 6-7 (7-9), 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, further depleting the top of the ranks. No. 1 Pete Sampras is staying home, and No. 2 Marcelo Rios dropped out Monday with a back injury.
In a night match, 17-year-old Australian Lleyton Hewitt crushed 13th seed Cedric Pioline of France, the 1997 U.S. Open runner-up, 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 in one hour, 43 minutes. A year earlier, Hewitt had become the lowest-ranked (then 550th) singles winner in ATP Tour history by winning a title in his hometown of Adelaide.
Despite being defending champion, Korda was not invited to start out on Center Court. A capacity crowd of 6,000 watched him on Court One.
Korda shrugged off all but the left ankle injury -- "swollen, and it hurts" -- and said Tuesday's victory would help him a lot.
He rose to No. 2 in the rankings after last year's Australian Open but then slid into problems including a positive test for steroids after Wimbledon and a 2-8 record in tournament matches over the year's last 4 1/2 months. He now is ranked 20th.
"Right now I won a match, which really counts for me a lot. And hopefully my performance is going to go to another high level, but I am only going to try as best I can to defend my title," Korda said.
He hurt his ankle while leading 4-3 in the third set.
The trainer told him it would be really painful, he said, and he replied: "I'll be on court until the last ball."
Blanco, however, refused to shake his hand at the end, and later called Korda a liar who called for the trainer only to gain time to rest.
"If someone asks for the trainer ... and then runs like Korda did, ... it's almost impossible," Blanco said through an interpreter.
Meanwhile, he said, his own week-old abdominal injury flared up when he was leading 4-1 in the fourth set, "so I couldn't serve very well, and that was the key point of the match."
Korda said he never had encountered such a match-end snub before. As for being left off Center Court, "it's life," he said. "You can't ask to play on the show court if your ranking is 21. ... As my father told me, it doesn't matter, you can play on the potato field with triangular balls, but you have to play tennis."
Double trouble: Kournikova has 62 double faults in her last three matches |
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In the absence of Sampras and Rios, fifth seed Andre Agassi justified his place as one of the favorites by trouncing Hernan Gumy of Argentina 6-0, 6-3, 6-0.
No. 8 Greg Rusedski defeated Australian Scott Draper 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), No. 10 Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, and No. 15 Todd Martin rebounded for a 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Argentina's Fernando Meligeni.
Czech player Martin Damm ousted No. 12 Albert Costa of Spain 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, and Dutchman Sjeng Schalken eliminated former No. 1 Thomas Muster of Austria, now unseeded, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
Women's two-time defending champion Martina Hingis, seeded second, needed just 46 minutes to beat American Lilia Osterloh.
Later, two former No. 1's and four-time Australian Open winners were even faster. Sixth seed Monica Seles, who never has lost a match in Australia, beat Slovakian qualifier Tina Krizan 6-1, 6-0 in 41 minutes. Tenth seed Steffi Graf beat Argentina's Paola Suarez 6-0, 6-3 in 40 minutes.
Seles won the title here in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1996. Graf won it in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1994.
No. 4 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario beat South African Mariaan de Swardt 6-2, 6-2 and No. 7 Mary Pierce ousted Australian Cindy Watson 6-2, 6-1.
No. 12 Anna Kournikova edged American qualifier Jill Craybas 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 despite 23 double faults. No. 16 Amanda Coetzer also had to struggle, winning the last three games for a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Czech player Sandra Kleinova.
No. 14 Sandrine Testud beat American Tara Snyder 6-3, 6-2.
Serena Williams won 6-2, 6-3 over Romania's Raluca Sandu.
But drugs dominated discussions. Martin, president of the ATP Tour Player Council, argued that while Korda's case was in the courts, this was not the time for criticism.
"I know some guys are upset about (Korda playing), but he is, right now, not on the agent, so he is not competing at an unfair level, and I think we have to trust that," Martin said.
Two former champions, Agassi and Jim Courier, questioned the light punishment given Korda, who claimed "exceptional circumstances" when he escaped a ban from competition.
"If I were innocent, you couldn't prevent me from getting up and speaking," Courier said after beating Dutch player Peter Wessels 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-0). "Everyone has got to walk their own walk. Petr and I have known each other since we were 16 years old. I would consider him a friend. I want it be very clear that this should not be considered a witch hunt against Petr.
Korda has refused to discuss the case while formal appeals are proceeding.
Agassi said, "It's about the health of the game, not some personal vendetta against Petr."
Muster said that after a postitive test, Korda "basically shouldn't play until the whole thing is sorted out. ... I just think the way this whole thing is handled is pretty weak."
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