Friday, August 11, 2000
Tennis Notebook
Dispute with umpire fires up Kuerten
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON - On Wednesday, Gustavo Kuerten was saved by the rain. On Thursday, he was ignited by a disagreement with the chair umpire.
Guga, the No.4 seed, advanced with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Stefan Koubek, but it took the Brazilian — who got dizzy on the court Wednesday but recovered after a lengthy weather delay — awhile to get going.
He had not played Koubek before. “He was playing well at the beginning,” Kuerten said. “I didn't feel like myself. Until I found my rhythm, it was tough.”
At 1-1 in the second set, Kuerten received an unsportsmanlike warning from the chair umpire, who said Kuerten deflected a ball toward a line umpire who had called a foot fault on him.
Kuerten walked toward the chair umpire and argued passionately. He scored two points to go up 40-love and was still talking to the umpire. He won the game, went to sit down during the changeover, then got up and continued arguing.
“I didn't understand,” he said later. “I don't want to talk about this. It's better you talk to them.”
Kuerten scored six straight points. He would lose only two more games the rest of the match. The crowd became even more supportive after the dispute.
“My adrenaline went high,” he said. “I started to fight a little bit more. I was too passive. After that, I took a little energy. It was a wake-up call for me.”
SPEAKING OF EMOTION: Russian Marat Safin, who won his first Tennis Masters Series title last week in Toronto, appeared mostly angry at himself Thursday.
The eighth seed, who was upset by Fabrice Santoro 6-1, 7-6 (3), was emotionally charged throughout his match. He screamed at himself. He swiped his racket at the court numerous times. He turned his racket around and batted a ball into the stands. After the second-to-last point of the match, he slammed his racket to the ground and broke it. And that's just a sampling.
“The beginning of the match was important because I got ahead,” Santoro said.
GIVING BACK: Thirteen-year-old Meghan Kirkpatrick knew why Mark Philippoussis was one of her favorite players: “He's cute.” Now she has another reason.
Philippoussis met with Kirkpatrick, a cancer patient at Childrens' Hospital Medical Center, after a match Wednesday night. He talked with the Ander son Township girl for 15 minutes, answering her questions and talking tennis, then posed for pictures with her.
“He was very down-to-earth,” Kirkpatrick said. “It's really neat to see how nice he is.”
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