Seles saves it for a rainy day

WITH 76 matches completed here on Tuesday, a few crackers amongst them, it briefly seemed that Wimbledon 97 had overcome its first day, weather induced, jitters.

An attractive order of play was supposed to kick off at noon yesterday with the likes of Monica Seles, Richard Krajicek and Jana Novotna all scheduled to play in the early afternoon. Instead, the stars got to sleep in and, for most of the day, the All England Club, with its collection of inflatable court covers, looked like the venue for a major convention of bouncy castle enthusiasts.

Bizarrely, given how awful the day had looked from early morning, the tennis enthusiasts still turned up in large numbers with the fans flooding through the gates for matches that, for most of the day, didn't seem likely to even get started.

As they waited, our good friends, the presenters at Radio Wimbledon (a jolly lot called Sarah, Felicity, Nigel and the like) were living in denial. "Call me an optimist," Sue would chirp, "but I think there's going to be some tennis pretty soon."

By late afternoon, even they had given up the ghost. But, just as they began to explain that if none of the matches had started by six o'clock, spectators would become entitled to a refund, the rain stopped. As the seconds ticked away towards six, Seles and Australia's Rachel McQuillan were bundled out on to the centre court and told to get on with it.

Their arrival was a long overdue reward for the 500 or so devotees who hadn't budged from their seats since early morning, but the Australian must soon have been wishing that the downpour had continued.

The 25 year old from Newcastle in New South Wales quickly found herself the victim of another sort of deluge as Seles, serving well and highly accurate with her strokes from the baseline, powered her way into a commanding lead.

"I think I played better there than I have recently and it's nice to finally get the first match out of the way," said Seles afterwards.

The first set took just 19 minutes to wrap up with McQuillan only ever threatening to make a match of it when she managed to get to the net an opportunity which the second seed rarely afforded her. To her credit, the Australian did save three consecutive set points to come from 0-40 down to deuce in game six, but the former world number one made no mistake at the fourth attempt, producing a wonderful dropped return of service to complete the first half of her day's work.

The pattern continued through the opening phase of the second set with the games falling quickly to the 23 year old. Although McQuillan did manage to hold her service twice late in the match, and the players were briefly forced off again four points short of the end, she could do little to change the overall complexion of an extremely one sided contest.

Afterwards, Seles was clearly relieved to have made a successful start to her latest campaign in the one Grand Slam tournament which has, thus far, eluded her. Although she conceded that her weight was a little bit of a problem just now, she seemed remarkably relaxed given the stress which her father's illness must clearly be causing her.

Last year, though, Steffi Graf was obliged to cope with repeated questioning about her father's impending trial on tax evasion charges and if Seles thought she was going to be spared the same sort of treatment simply because her parent's misfortune is to have suffered a secondary bout of stomach cancer, then she soon discovered her error.

A series of questions gently edged her towards the emotional precipice before all those attending the press conference seemed embarrassed by one journalist's startling observation that: "You didn't seem to be the same happy, smiling Monica out there that we used to see . .

"Obviously," replied Seles, who was stabbed four years ago while playing in Germany and whose father is unable to be here in Wimbledon because he is receiving chemotherapy back in Florida, "these past five years haven't been the happiest of my life and I'm going through a pretty tough time right now."

With considerable composure, she moved on to the next question, but the strain was obvious and in the next two weeks may yet stretch the limits of her emotional strength.

Compared to Seles's difficulties, those of Jana Novotna at this year's Wimbledon are trivial indeed. The Czech, who won the day's only other completed match 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 against Wiltrud Probst of Germany, is still repeatedly questioned about the time she rather prematurely shut up shop here while 4-1 in the third set against Graf in the 1993 final.

The third seed, however, insists that she feels her record at these championships is good and that she is no longer haunted by that failure.

At one point in yesterday's match, however, it appeared that the ghosts of times past may have returned. Having taken the opening set without serious difficulty, Novotna rather lost her way in the second, which the German eventually won by breaking service in the 10th game.

In the third, however, the world number 90, who had never taken a set from Novotna in five previous encounters, was completely overwhelmed, taking just five points in six games from a player who had finally stepped up a gear to take control.

In these closing stages, there was a hint of the game that many feel may yet bring the third seed glory at this year's championships. However, with the first round still to be completed after three days and the rain forecasted to continue until the weekend at least, patience rather than any of the sport's more technical skills may prove to be the asset which proves most rewarding to those chasing the titles.