LONDON, 25 June 2003 — Andre Agassi relished the Wimbledon center court atmosphere yesterday with the enthusiasm of a born showman who knows there may not be too many more days like this.
After a first round victory over Britain’s Jamie Delgado, the world number one bowed and blew kisses to every corner of the crowd, which responded with a standing ovation. “For me at my stage of my career its quite a feeling to be out there,” Agassi confided after his 6-4, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4 win. “You never really know how many more days you are going to get again.”
At 33, Agassi recently became the oldest man to hold the world number one ranking and, following defending champion Lleyton Hewitt’s shock demise on Monday, he knows this year might be his last serious chance to claim a second Wimbledon crown, 11 years after his first one.
Serena Williams was also treated to a generous ovation from the center court crowd, helping her to push the memories of her tearful exit from the French Open earlier this month a little further to the back of her mind.
The defending champion took three minutes short of an hour to complete a 6-3, 6-3 win over compatriot Jill Craybus.
Any rivals hoping that events in Paris, when Serena was booed and jeered on her way to a traumatic defeat by Justine Henin-Hardenne in the semifinal, would have a lasting impact on her dominance of the world game found little encouragement from this performance. American Meghann Shaughnessy, the 19th seed, was the biggest woman casualty in the early action on day two, succumbing in straight sets to Hungarian qualifier Aniko Kapros.
Tamarine Tanasugarn, seeded 32, also went out after losing her all-Asia battle with Japan’s Akiko Morigami 6-4, 6-3.
Jelena Dokic briefly looked like she might be in trouble against British wildcard Elena Baltacha, who got the home crowd going with a stirring second set display.
But Dokic, the 11th seed and a former semifinalist on the Wimbledon lawns, had enough in reserve and was able to kill off her opponent 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 for what she described as a much-needed confidence boost. It was less of a struggle for Russian 15th seed Elena Dementieva, who eased through 6-2, 6-1 against Germany’s Angelika Roesch and Capriati, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Switzerland’s Myriam Casanova.
In other men’s matches, British number one Tim Henman set off a fresh outbreak of Henmania — the fevered expectation which grips the nation every year around this time of year — by coming through his first round match. But a 6-2, 7-6 (13/11), 3-6, 6-1 win over Czech qualifier Tomas Zib was not exactly a display to set pulses racing.
French qualifier Cyril Saulnier pulled off an upset of the day when he dumped last year’s semifinalist Xavier Malisse out of the tournament 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 victory.
His reward for what was only the second Grand Slam victory of his career is a second round clash with powerful Australian Mark Philippoussis, who went through at the expense of Argentinian Mariano Zabaleta 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Malisse was not the highest seed to fall. Seventh seed Guillermo Coria was also on his way home after a 7-5, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 defeat by Olivier Rochus.
Freshly-crowned French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero made his transition to grass a smooth one yesterday as he skittled Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 to reach the second round. But the Spanish third seed’s vanquished Roland Garros runner-up Martin Verkerk fell back to earth with a bump.
The Dutchman, seeded 21 here on the basis of his astonishing performance in Paris earlier this month, was beaten by Swede Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1.
Wayne Ferreira has pledged to break the record for consecutive Grand Slam appearances after a bout of flu contributed to a wretched 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 first round defeat to Karol Kucera. The 31-year-old South African has now put together an unbroken sequence of 51 appearances in the Grand Slams and has his sights set on Stefan Edberg’s record of 54.
Last year’s losing finalist, sixth-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian, beat former semifinalist Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus 7-5, 6-4, 6-2. Eighth seed Jennifer Capriati made swift work of Myriam Casanova to breeze into the second round, overpowering the Swiss 6-1, 6-3. The American former world number one, looking to end her 17-month title drought at her 10th grasscourt grand slam, withstood her 18-year-old opponent’s valiant attempts to match her shot-for-shot before outblasting her from the baseline. French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne began her Wimbledon title bid with an impressive 7-5, 6-1 win over Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko in the first round. Former French Open champion Mary Pierce romped into the second round of the women’s singles after inflicting a 6-0, 6-0 humiliation on 92nd-ranked Ansley Cargill of the United States. Russian teenager Maria Sharapova, hailed as the new big noise in women’s tennis, grunted her way to victory in a battle of the blonde beauties against American Ashley Harkleroad. Sharapova, whose grunts have even enticed tabloid newspapers to put decibel counters courtside, swept vociferously into the second round in under an hour with an easy 6-2, 6-1 win.
