WIMBLEDON 2000

REVIEWS BY MARK NEWMAN

… AND MORE SEEDS FALL

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Rain Falls

The rain came down enough to force the suspension of quite a few matches. One person who won’t be complaining is defending men’s champion Pete Sampras who gets an extra day to rest his injured ankle.

(2) Andre Agassi def. Todd Martin 6-4 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 10-8

To call this the best match of the day would not do it service, since all the other matches were pretty boring. This was one of the best matches of the tournament so far. Held over from yesterday after rain suspended play, the match resumed with Todd Martin in imposing form. He won the fourth set 6-2 and gained a 5-2 lead in the final set. Just one game away from a huge win. But then again, he’s been there before. Against Mal Washington in the 1996 Wimbledon semis he let slip a 5-1 final set lead to miss out on a place in the final. That time he choked badly, this time he choked mildly but was mostly outplayed by an inspired Agassi, who freely admitted afterwards that he thought his time at the tournament this year was up at 2-5 down. Agassi fought back, and when Martin next won a game his chance seemed to have passed. And passed it had. Agassi held his nerve to win the final set 10-8 and move onwards. Who knows if Martin can recover from such a setback again.

Other News

Dull, dull, dull. Enqvist, Gambill, Ferreira, Hingis, Serena Williams and Huber all went through… Martina Navratilova was left on the brink of defeat in the mixed doubles, trailing 8-9 in the final set when it began to rain.