Kuerten Loses In Straight Sets

N E W  Y O R K, Aug. 30, 2000 -- Midnight madness struck again at the U.S. Open.

Early this morning two-time champion PatrickRafter succumbed in five sets to the inspired and uncannybrilliance of Galo Blanco, a 5-foot-8 Spaniard who had lost in thefirst round of every other Grand Slam event this year.

With several thousand wildly cheering fans still in Arthur AsheStadium, Blanco rallied back from a minibreak in the finaltiebreaker, winning five of the last six points, to beat Rafter 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (5). The 3-hour, 2-minute match ended at12:07 a.m.

“We both fought very hard out there,” Rafter said. “I’m happywith the way I fought, and I tried to win. Some days it justdoesn’t go your way. Tonight was one of those. He put in a goodperformance there. Just too good on the night.”

Rafter, the runner-up to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon last month,came into the U.S. Open unseeded because he had been out most ofthe year while recovering from shoulder surgery.

Tale of Two Players

But the 27-year-old Australian, the U.S. Open champion in 1997and 1998, had no problems with his shoulder lately and wasconsidered the most dangerous floater in the men’s draw, a playerwho was nearly as much of a favorite to win the title as Sampras orAndre Agassi.

Blanco was the exact opposite, a 23-year-old ranked No. 114 whohad lost in the first round of 13 of his 16 previous Grand Slamtournaments since 1996. His best performance in a major came at the1997 French Open, where he reached the quarterfinals before losingto Rafter in straight sets in their only other meeting.

“That was my most important match in my life,” Blanco said.“So I beat him here in this tournament, and he beat me there in mytournament. That’s life.”

Rafter drilled 24 aces past him and kept charging the net asalways, but Blanco stood his ground on the baseline and pummeledRafter with passing shots. Blanco’s particular splendor on thiscool and breezy night was his ability to limit his unforced errors,committing only two in the first set and 38 overall, while the moreaggressive Rafter made 52.

Most surprisingly, perhaps, Blanco managed to ace Rafter 17times, seven of those in the final set.

Rafter said his shoulder was fine and he had no excuses.

“When the match gets tight, I generally am pretty solid,”Rafter said. “Tonight, just far too many errors. I just wasn’thitting the ball well. My chip-charging wasn’t working, mygroundstrokes trying to get into play weren’t really working. Ijust missed a lot of the fundamentals, a lot of high volleys. Mygame was off.

“It’s going to be hard to sleep tonight. It is disappointing.”

Curtains for Kuerten

It was the second big upset on the second day of the tournament.Early in the afternoon, lanky Australian qualifier Wayne Arthurs’26 aces helped bring him a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) victory overFrench Open champion and No. 2 seed Gustavo Kuerten.

There would be no such upset in the women’s draw.

Never shy, Serena Williams arrived in defense of her U.S. Opentitle resplendent in tie-dyed lilac and black, and flashing a pertsmile that bespoke the confidence of a champion.

If the fans thought the Kuerten upset would be a prelude toanother right away, Williams quickly set out to disabuse them ofthat notion and any thought that her recent heel injury mighthinder her.

First she made her color-coordinated fashion statement, slowlypeeling off her lilac jacket to reveal a sheer, flowing dress thatperfectly matched her lilac sneakers.

“It shows how good I look, how in shape I am,” Williams saidwith a laugh.

Then she made a tennis statement, ripping a return winner on thefirst point as she proceeded to beat 19-year-old Slovenian TinaPisnik 6-3, 6-2.

‘I Didn’t Play Well’

In beginning her quest to reach the final along with her oldersister Venus, 18-year-old Serena did not display her finest tennis,even if it was enough to overwhelm a player of Pisnik’s modestability.

“I was not the usual Serena,” she said. “It showed a littlebit because it should have been a little quicker. Y’know, it was 59minutes. I’m used to 40s and 30s now. ... I didn’t play well today.

“Actually, I was expecting to feel really special. I didn’t.The guy that was announcing, he said, ‘Our defending U.S. Openchamp,’ and I couldn’t help but smile. Other than that, I didn’treally feel it.”

There were times when Williams soared spectacularly on overheadsand lunging volleys, and times when she walloped serves at 111 mphto rack up four aces and six service winners. But there were alsotimes when she found herself out of position, when her lilac shoesgot tangled up, when Pisnik made her look quite ordinary.

That happened once in the first set, when Pisnik broke her atlove in the fourth game, and once again in the second set, whenPisnik broke her at 15-40 with a backhand at the net.

But those lapses were perhaps to be expected after Williamsmissed a week to allow an inflamed small bone in her left heel tocalm down. The injury flared up nine days ago during her finalagainst Martina Hingis in Montreal, and Williams cautiously retiredfrom that match in the third set.

There was never any danger that Pisnik would pull off an upsetlike Arthurs.

Solid Serve

Occasionally, Arthurs, a left-hander, gets into a serving grooveand seems unbeatable. It happened at Wimbledon last year when heheld serve for 111 consecutive games through three rounds ofqualifying and three matches of the tournament before falling infour sets to eventual finalist Agassi.

This time, after a solitary break by each player in the firsttwo sets, Arthurs and Kuerten held serve the rest of the way andlet the tiebreakers decide matters. In those, Arthurs proveddominant and he ended the affair with a 134 mph ace up the middle.

Told that Kuerten was one of the favorites to win thistournament, Arthurs replied, “Not anymore.”

Kuerten became only the second No. 2 seed to lose in the firstround of the U.S. Open since 1956, when the present system ofseedings started. The only other time it happened was in 1994, whensecond-seeded Goran Ivanisevic was ousted in his opener. Ivaniseviclost another first-round match on Tuesday.

Kuerten was the second seeded player to tumble from thetournament on the second day. Earlier, No. 16 Julie Halard-Decugisfell to Miriam Oremans 6-3, 6-4.

Lindsay Davenport, the 1998 women’s champion, romped past GalaLeon Garcia of Spain 6-0, 6-1 in 44 minutes.

Other seeded players to win Tuesday included No. 4 Mary Pierce,No. 7 Conchita Martinez, No. 10 Anke Huber, No. 12 Anna Kournikovaand No. 14 Dominique Van Roost in the women’s singles, and No. 7Thomas Enqvist, No. 8 Alex Corretja, No. 12 Juan Carlos Ferrero,and No. 14 Nicolas Kiefer in men’s play.