Monday, August 07, 2000
Masters Series notebook
One good tournament sometimes isn't enough
By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — Vladimir Voltchkov was asked to show his ID before entering the players lounge at the ATP Tennis Center this weekend. Being a Wimbledon semifinalist doesn't change everything.
One month after shocking the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club by winning five matches before losing to Pete Sampras, Voltchkov qualified Sunday for his first career Tennis Masters Series event with a 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-2 victory over Jeff Salzenstein.
He will play Mariano Puerto in the first round here Tuesday. And get this: Should Voltchkov win twice, guess who he could face? Sampras.
“He's not the easiest guy to play against,” Voltchkov said.
Especially not at Wimbledon. Voltchkov, a Belarus native, was ranked No.237 at Wimbledon and got in as a qualifier. Voltchkov, 22, was staying in an apartment rented by another player and wearing borrowed shorts. He beat five players in the top 55 in the ATP Champions Race, including Cedric Pioline (6 at the time) and Younes El Aynaoui (16).
Suddenly he was on center stage. A British paper headline read: “Champ vs. Tramp.” The attention was nice for a while.
“I would expect a lot more things to change,” he said of the aftermath of Wimbledon. “I was thinking I could get a clothing deal. It still seems to be a problem. More things will change in the future if I will be playing well. You have to make a lot of good results for people to know you.”
JOINING THE FIELD: Other qualifiers who won their second matches Sunday and advanced to the main draw: Bob Bryan, Lionel Roux, Martin Damm, Gianluca Pozzi, Neville Godwin, Cecil Mamiit and Taylor Dent.
RAINY DAY: The second day of qualifying turned into an all-day affair at the ATP Tennis Center.
Light on-and-off rain delayed play until mid-afternoon. Matches were scheduled to start at 10 a.m., but the first one didn't get going until about 12:55 p.m. That was suspended five minutes later.
All three courts were in action at 1:45 p.m., but play was halted again about 40 minutes later. That lasted until 3:45 p.m., when the sun broke through briefly. All was well after that.
WHO'S NO. 1? Gustavo Kuerten will pass Magnus Norman today and became the leader in the ATP Champions Race. It will be Kuerten's sixth week leading the year-long points race to determine the No.1 player for 2000.
U-S-A: There are 12 Americans in the 64-player main draw, more than from any other country. Second are Spain and France with six each. The rest: 5 (Argentina, Sweden), 3 (Australia, Morocco, Czech Republic), 2 (Russia, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovakia, South Africa, Belarus), 1 (Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Israel, Romania, Germany, Austria, Italy, Great Britain).
DOUBLE DUTY: Andre Agassi is not going to play doubles after all. His people had mentioned to Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati officials that he was inter ested in playing doubles with Nicolas Kiefer, but that's not going to happen. Kiefer is playing with Nicolas Lapentti.
A total of 22 players are in the singles and doubles draws. There are 38 players playing only doubles, the highest total here in 30 years. The top-seeded doubles team: three-time Cincinnati champions Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde. This is the fifth time they are the top seeds here.
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