Sun sets on Seles's ambitions

IN HONG KONG yesterday the Chinese were enjoying themselves at the expense of the British but back at home things weren't going much better for the country's national pride.

Not that there are any British women left to beat in these championships but that hardly mattered. The nation's more traditional enemy, France, was having a field day on the lawns of SW1, with its players making the bottom quarter of the draw pretty much their own and banishing one of the game's greats in the process.

In her first couple of outings over the past week, Monica Seles had hardly looked capable of living up to her billing as the second seed at these championships. She repeatedly threatened to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and failed to reproduce the sort of form which, prior to events in Hamburg four years ago had brought her a total of nine Grand Slam titles.

Wimbledon, of course, was never conquered by the 23-year-old and never seems likely to be until she can come here at the top of her game. Lack of fitness and the distress of her father's fight against cancer weighed heavily on her shoulders during this year's campaign and proved too much of a burden yesterday against 25-year-old Sandrine Testud from Lyon.

Seles looked utterly invincible early on in the match, taking the opening seven games and completely outplaying a sluggish opponent.

After losing the first seven games, on the trot, however, Testud finally seemed to wake up to the humiliation which was being visited upon her and, having finally managed to get off the mark when she came from 0-30 down in the eighth, she quickly set about imposing her own pattern on the contest.

Showing remarkable speed about the baseline and a knack for learning from her earlier mistakes, she broke service in the next game and held the advantage through the rest of a 42-minute set.

"I started to lose it then but still thought that I had a very good chance to win the match in the third," reflected the former world number one afterwards. "She played very well on the big points, though she never gave up and by the end she was serving a lot better than me so it sort of slipped away.

Seles had, in fact, completely regained the upper hand during the early stages of the decider, using her superior technical ability and reading of the game to push her French opponent all over the court.

At 5-2 and 6-5 ahead she should have wrapped things up but, in the latter game, after Testud had sent her first serve into the net on Seles's solitary match point, the 25-year-old benefitted from a piece of carelessness on the part of the second seed who hit a straightforward backhand well long.

From that point on the pendulum began to swing away from Seles who had beaten Testud 7-5, 6-0 at last year's US Open. The world number, 23 took the next two points, clinching the game with a fine half-volley at full stretch and made the most of a string of unforced errors by her, opponent in game 13 to cancel out the outstanding break of service.

At 15-30 down in the 14th game, Seles made an astonishing mess of a forehand pass when her opponent appeared hopelessly stranded at the net. Any hopes Seles had of digging herself out of trouble were promptly ended by Testud who seized her first opportunity for victory by unleashing an ace down the middle of the court to book her place in the fourth round.

Afterwards Seles said that her hopes of winning the title here remain undiminished. "I had a good chance this year, I had a good chance last year but it's still very important to me and I hope that I will have a lot more chances to win it over the years to come."

Testud, who now plays compatriot Nathalie Tauziat for a place in the quarters, made little attempt to contain her glee. "It's a sign," she said "of how the women's game has improved over the past year or so that everyone is now, beatable, even the players in the top 10, and I went out there knowing that if I played the way I can I was in with a chance.

Off-court things are also, it seems, going well for the woman who has twice before reached this stage of a Grand Slam event. Asked about the motivation behind her good form the 25-year-old paused, broke into a beaming smile and uttered only one word... "love".

Obsession on the other hand, has more commonly been associated with the day's other French success story. For, having finally managed to distance herself from an obsessive father, Mary Pierce has, in more recent years, had to put up with what at times has seemed like an equally intrusive media presence.

Now, with a whole band of younger stars for the public to salivate over the French number one has been given a little more room in which to develop. If her performance yesterday against Magui Serna of Spain was anything to go by the results have been extremely positive with Pierce displaying a greater range of shots in a convincing 6-3, 6-4 victory.

The 22-year-old already has one tournament win (the Italian Open) and three other appearances in finals - including the Australian Open - to her credit this year but it was the development of those shots most needed for success on grass that was particularly impressive on this outing.

She produced an accomplished and varied game against the Spaniard, winning points as comfortably from the net as she did from the baseline.

It was polished stuff from the ninth seed who completed the victory in just 59 minutes. She now faces Aranxta Sanchez Vicario today.