The BBC televised Jan-Michael Gambill's 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) first-
round win over Thomas Enqvist on Monday. It wasn't a particularly
high-quality match, with both men lacking form and confidence after a
series of first-round losses, and of course their big serves meant
there weren't too many spreading rallies on the grass.

BBC2 joined the match right after Enqvist had broken Jan-Michael to
serve for the first set at 5-3. But Jan-Michael broke back, and won
the first set on a tiebreak when Enqvist at net left a ball that
landed on the baseline - just one example of Enqvist's low confidence.

The second set was a rather similar story, with Enqvist breaking Jan-
Michael to serve for the set at 6-5. But Jan-Michael saved a set-
point, broke back, and won the match on a tiebreak.

Enqvist actually played the better tennis - the more spectacular
shots came from his racket - but he really played the big points
badly due to lack of confidence, and Jan-Michael was clinical and
took full advantage. Enqvist not only served for both sets, but also
had mini-break leads in both tiebreaks.

Jan-Michael was delighted to get his first win on grass after a
disastrous claycourt-season. He said there should be four weeks on
grass between the French Open and Wimbledon.

It's certainly always struck me as odd that there's so little time to
make the transition from tennis's slowest surface to its fastest, and
is surely a factor in why so many claycourt specialists choose to
skip the grasscourt season. But I think they should move the French
Open forward two weeks rather than altering the sacred dates of
Wimbledon.


Jan-Michael's slump overtook his grass-court expertise in the second
round, as the tenth seed crashed out 6-1 7-5 to Todd Reid.


The other Selesian at Queen's, Raemon Sluiter, saw off claycourt-
specialist Adrian Voinea 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 to set up an intriguing second-
round with top seed Lleyton Hewitt. Actually there was a third
Selesian at Queen's - Julian Knowle - but he lost 6-2 6-1 to Mario
Ancic in the first round.


Raemon's match with Hewitt was an excellent Selesian performance and
a three-set thriller. Hewitt led 3-1 in the first set, but Raemon
fought back with cerebral tennis and forced a tiebreak. Raemon even
had a set-point at 6-5 in the tiebreak, but pushed a volley wide and
Hewitt took advantage of Raemon's nerves to snatch the tiebreak 8-6.

Raemon played a brilliant second set, hitting early, hard, accurate
and deep, and making all the spectacular winners and spreading
rallies. He has two-handed groundstrokes off both sides (of course!),
but he was also giving Hewitt trouble with sliced backhands, low and
biting on the slick green grass. He broke Hewitt twice to take the
second set 6-3, giving himself the advantage of serving first in the
decider.

The third set was an absolute thriller. Raemon had two break-points
with Hewitt serving at 2-3 15/40, but squandered them with wild
unforced errors. He was broken himself in the next game, which was
very long.

This break held until Hewitt served for the match at 5-4, but Raemon
broke back and forced Hewitt to serve to stay in the match at 5-6!
But it went to a tiebreak, and Hewitt jumped out to a 6-0 lead.
Raemon showed great Selesian bravery to save three match-points (with
a return-winner and an ace), but netted a volley to seal a 7-6 (8-6)
3-6 7-6 (7-3) win for Hewitt.

It was one of the best Selesian performances I've ever seen except
from MONICA herself, surpassed only by Jan-Michael's straight-sets
win over Hewitt in the first round of Wimbledon 2000 (when Jan-
Michael went on to reach the quarter-finals, as did fellow Selesian
Byron Black).

Raemon deserved to win this match, but was thwarted by nerves and by
Hewitt's experience and fighting spirit. That's why Hewitt is world
number one (Raemon is #63) and has won this title for the last three
years in a row.

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/selesians.html