WIMBLEDON 2000

REVIEWS BY MARK NEWMAN

BRITS SUFFER CONTRASTING FORTUNES;

THE REST OF THE FIRST ROUND NEWS

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Martin Lee is making a return from groin surgery this year, and the days when he was seen as Britain’s next hope to follow in the footsteps of Henman and Rusedski seem long gone. He never found the results on the professional tour that had come so easily on the junior tour, where he was briefly ranked Junior World #1. But he hasn’t gone away yet. Lee made easy work of his first round Wimbledon match, defeating Juan-Antonio Marin in straight sets. Elsewhere, Miles Maclagan (who so nearly beat Boris Becker in a five set first round epic last year) suffered from a leg injury that needed treatment during his match, and fell to Daniel Nestor in four sets, while Barry Cowan was two games away from a straight sets loss when darkness suspended play.

Andrei Medvedev made headlines at the French Open when he criticised Wimbledon for its favouritism towards top players, but he made precious little headlines here when he crashed out in the first round in straight sets to Jonas Bjorkman, fresh from his win over Tim Henman at Nottingham last week.

Former finalist and 6th-seed Cedric Pioline came through comfortably in four sets against Christian Ruud.

And yes, the rain came down on the very first day of Wimbledon. Not for very long, but enough to leave a fair backlog of matches for completion tomorrow.