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Men's Tennis
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Women's Tennis
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| Tuesday, August 21 Updated: August 22, 3:02 AM ET |
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| Sampras struggles past Rochus Associated Press | |||
COMMACK, N.Y. -- Felix Mantilla, ranked No. 69 in the world,
stunned Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic 6-3, 7-5 Tuesday in the
opening round of the Hamlet Cup.
The 26-year-old Mantilla, who was ranked in the top 25 from 1996
through 1999, lost five straight matches earlier this year and
dropped to the Challenge circuit to try and get untracked.
"I'm alive again," said Mantilla, who had to win two qualifier
matches to get into this tournament. "I was solid on the baseline
and that stopped him from getting so many aces."
In another first-round match, third-seeded Pete Sampras
outlasted Olivier Rochus 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4).
Mantilla had 11 aces, five more than the hard-serving
Ivanisevic, who led 4-1 in the second set.
"The second set was strange, but I just kept going at him,"
Mantilla said. "The fans were rooting for him, but that gave me
the inspiration I needed to get on track."
The seventh-seeded Ivanisevic, who complained the courts were
slow and the balls were heavy, admitted his left shoulder continued
to bother him. The left-hander is scheduled to have surgery on it
at the end of the year.
"It's nerve problems in my shoulder and it goes all the way
down to my elbow," he said. "My serve definitely slowed down and
that's why he was able to make the comeback."
Ivanisevic was asked about the upcoming U.S. Open.
"It's not going to be easy," he said. "I'll have to take
painkillers as I did at Wimbledon and pray as I did at Wimbledon."
Sampras, holder of a record 13 Grand Slam titles but winless in
his last 15 tournaments, is a wild-card entrant in this event.
The win was the second for Sampras over the 20-year-old in as
many meetings. The first was a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the Queen's Club
in London two months ago.
Thomas Enqvist continued his comeback from surgeries last
December on his right shoulder and right foot with a 6-2, 7-5
victory over Hyung-Taik Lee.
"There is no pain at all," the ninth-seeded Enqvist said. "It
took a long time, at least four months, to get my power back again.
I had to have the operations. I was trying to play through the
pain, but that didn't work."
Jan-Michael Gambill withdrew after splitting two sets with
Alberto Martin because of problems with his right rotator cuff.
It was the second time in as many weeks Gambill was forced to
quit during a match.
"It's kind of a dead feeling," said Gambill, who had his
shoulder massaged after winning the first set 6-3. "There was no
sense doing additional damage on the eve of the U.S. Open.
"I'll play in that until my arm falls off. That's why I decided
before taking the court tonight that I wouldn't play more than two
sets."
Martin won the second set 7-5.
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