Successful qualifiers can really make a name for themselves

JOHNNY WATTERSON ON TENNISNot all qualifiers burn a path through the draw like Vladimir Voltchkov and then disappear

THIS IS the week where the meek are crushed, the profanities are loud and the outraged pouts are plentiful. This is the week before Wimbledon, when the hopefuls, the has-beens, the journeymen and the future stars congregate at the Bank of England's tailored grounds at Roehampton and try to carve out the beginnings of a Grand Slam career, the week of the qualifiers.

The qualifying tournament for Wimbledon, where scratching out three straight wins will earn a place in the main draw of the third Grand Slam tournament of the year, is a place where a player must hold nerve. The results can be momentous.

Almost every summer Wimbledon produces a qualifier who wreaks havoc on the main draw, like a tennis virus that is not supposed to be there. After a win or two, he or she is then hunted by the press around the corridors of the All England Club or buttonholed on the way to public transport to be pestered about what miserable, flea-ridden flat he or she has managed to rent. This is then contrasted with Rafael Nadal's local hacienda.

The qualifier is then asked about his/her footwear, whether the shoes are suitable for grass (often they are not), how much money he/she has won, or lost, over the last year and how a family of four can possibly live in a one-bed apartment. The qualifier is a sub-species of tennis player, an unknown looked on with grave suspicion as well as a joyous counterpoint to the millionaires who generally clutter the main draws of Grand Slams.

That moneyed status of the millionaire players is normally trumpeted when they lose earlier than expected, very often to penniless qualifiers.

As all players are required by their Wimbledon contracts to do what they bitterly refer to as "media", the ignominiously defeated top-10 player may instead storm off Centre Court, straight to the courtesy car, on to the rented palace for the monogrammed luggage and then to the airport rather than do a press conference.

The $10,000 fine for ignoring the needs of the press is an irrelevance. The wild-eyed Goran Ivanisevic used clock up regular 10-grand hits as quickly as he could smash a racquet after "exit by qualifier"; Andre Agassi too.

But who remembers Vladimir Voltchkov, who for a crazy three weeks in 2000 lived the dream of every qualifier who takes to the courts at Roehampton?

The 22-year-old, ranked 237 in the world, won his three qualifying matches to reach the main draw. Once through the Fred Perry gates he then beat the French hope Cedric Pioline, the South African Wayne Ferreira and the American Byron Black before losing to the eventual champion, Pete Sampras, in a semi-final on Centre Court.

It was recorded in loving and perhaps apocryphal detail how Voltchkov wore new shoes for the first round, bought a few back-up racquets for the second, moved from the hovel into a hotel for the third, bought his family the dacha of a disappeared oligarch after the fourth . . .

The 2008 Wimbledon qualifying competition began on Monday and will finish tomorrow, weather permitting.

More than 250 players will be vying for a limited number of places, 16 for the men's singles, 12 for the women's singles and places for four teams in the men's and women's doubles.

The qualifying event dates back to 1925, when it was originally split between the north and south of England to reduce travelling for the player. But that devolution was discontinued in 1966.

From 1977 acceptance for the qualifiers was based on world ranking and the following year players were seeded. Lucky losers - players who replace others who withdraw before the first-round main draw - were introduced in 1937. Originally drawn by lot - hence Lucky Losers - they are now chosen in descending order from the highest-ranked to lose in the final round of qualifying.

Those with long memories may remember not all qualifiers burn a bright path through the draw like Voltchkov and then disappear out of sight. John McEnroe, who in 1977 lost in the semi-finals to Jimmy Connors, came straight through the qualifying event.

So did 16-year-old Boris Becker in 1984, Jana Novotna in 1986, the crazy Croat Ivanisevic in 1988, the Aussie pin-up Pat Rafter in 1993, the now-retired Kim Clijsters, the troubled Jelena Dokic and the American with the 200-watt smile, Alexandra Stevenson, in 1999. Dokic that year reached the quarter-finals and Stevenson the semi-finals.

Louk Sorensen did his best to illuminate Irish tennis this week. The German-based Irish Davis Cup player and son of Davis Cup captain and former professional Seán won his first match at Roehampton on Monday against Britain's Edward Seator 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday he unfortunately had to retire in the third set against the 23rd seed, Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Good news is Sorensen's ranking is only 11 points lower than that of Voltchkov when he blazed a trail. Do we dare to hope in Irish tennis?