Rusedski cursed by temper tantrum

Wimbledon Championships: British calm and restraint took a hammering on Centre Court last night from Greg Rusedski.

British calm and restraint took a hammering on Centre Court last night from Greg Rusedski. There will probably be cries that it was the Canadian influence but a fulminating Rusedski departed Wimbledon and may face a hefty fine for obscene language following the biggest raging outburst of his career. He later apologised to everyone including the BBC, who were
screening the event live.

In a match that hung entirely on service games and minute margins of errors, Rusedski exploded in the third set and so unhinged his own game and concentration that he virtually handed the match to American Andy
Roddick in three sets.

Rusedski's eruption came as he was a service break up and leading 5-2 in the third set after Roddick had taken a two-set lead on tie-breaks. It was a crucial foothold for the Briton as winning the third set would have brought him right back into what was an incredibly tight match. So close was it that the first break-point opportunity did not arrive until the ninth game of the second set. Until then the two biggest servers in the world had been drilling balls at one another at upwards of 130 m.p.h. and neither arm looked like buckling.

But with Roddick trailing 5-2 and on serve at 30-15 up, a long ball from the American, that dropped on the baseline, was audibly called out by someone in the crowd. In fact the ball was in and although Rusedski padded it back to his opponent, he stopped playing and Roddick was given the point for 40-15. He went on to win the game.

Although Rusedski was still a service break ahead, he was clearly angered
that the Swedish umpire, Lars Graff, had not ordered the point to be replayed. His game then took a steep slide. He immediately dropped serve
for 5-4 to hand back the advantage and at the change over exploded into a
diatribe against Graff. McEnroe and Jimmy Connors have bettered the tirade for the profanity count but for the usually image-conscious Rusedski, it
was and uncharacteristic blemish.

"I can't do any f****** thing if the crowd calls it," he yelled. "It's absolutely f****** ridiculous. F***. F***. At least replay the point." Rusedski hurled his racquet and crashed it off the side of his chair by which time all composure had vanished. Again addressing Graff, he continued the abuse: "This wanker in the crowd changes the whole match and you allow it to happen. Well done. Absolutely shit."

Roddick, obviously sensing Rusedski had entirely unravelled, knocked down his next service game for 5-5, broke the frazzled Rusedski again for 6-5 and served out the match to finish in three sets 7-6(4), 7-6(1), 7-5.

It was an extraordinary lapse from Rusedski, who was not only heard on
Centre Court but on prime-time television and long before bed time for the
kids had even come to mind. The outburst also clearly destroyed his own
game, a point drawn out by commentator McEnroe, who could not believe that any player would behave like Rusedski unless it actually benefited their
game.

Rusedski's immediate reaction was to abjectly apologise. His act of
contrition also included praise for Roddick's performance and particularly
credited his improved back hand and mental strength "In the third set I lost it a little bit on that call. I apologise for my language. It was not necessary, I would say," said Rusedski. "These things happen. I'm obviously quite devastated that I lost to Roddick today. Credit to him, he played well and he deserved to win today. "I think it's emotions and just wanting it so badly. You're fighting out there, you are trying everything you possibly can.

"What you can't control you just got to let go sometimes. Unfortunately I
couldn't do that today."

Roddick, who has been on the wrong side of temper tantrums on a number of occasions, knows how it feels. For once it was not him trying to fathom
how it all fell apart. "I can relate to Greg a little bit," said the American. "I knew he was going to be a little mad, so if I was going to get back into it or try to take over, then that was probably going to be my time. "To be honest I tried to ignore it. I tried to focus on what I was trying to do out there. Yeah, I heard a call. I didn't know where it came from. I thought it might have been the umpire. My first reaction was it was the crowd and then I didn't hear Lars say anything. There was a big cloud of white stuff coming off. A couple of kids who were pretty rowdy through the match, I think it might have been them.

"I think he (Greg) had a legitimate argument," added Roddick before
deciding against his first judgment. "I played it. Did I? That would make sense then. If that's the case then I think Lars made the right call. But I was pretty comfortable. I was on serve 30-15 up. It wasn't that much of a turning point in the match. Maybe he did let it get away from him a little bit mentally but I still had to hit the shots."

A player Roddick will now have to take notice of is Spain's wunderkind, 17-year-old Rafael Nadal, if both players can win their next matches. Carlos Moya, one of the current generation of great Spanish clay court players has already said that Nadal is "the best I have ever seen". The teenager already has the scalp of last year's French Open champion Albert Costa, who he beat in The Masters event in Monte Carlo in April to become the first 16-year-old to break into the ATO Entry Rankings top 100 since Michael Chang in 1988.

Like Kim Clijsters, whose father Leo played professional football with
Belgium, so too does Nadal have La Liga connections. His uncle Miguel
Angel, aka "The Beast of Barcelona", was one of Spanish football's finest
defenders of recent times.

Diplomatically Nadal claims to have been a Barca supporter while his uncle
plied his trade but there was little evidence of treating wild-card Briton
Lee Childs with anything but hostility as he advanced 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.