EVERY little helps, they say, and while Britain's hopes of grass court success this summer still rest squarely.on the slim shoulders of Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski both seeded at the Stella Artois Championships at the Queen's Club in London this week, there were encouraging against-the-odds victories for two younger British players yesterday.
On yesterday's opening day Andrew Richardson (23) from Lincoln and Martin Lee (21) from Worthing, not only defied the rankings, but recovered from a first set loss. Richardson, who earned his wild card entry for a splendid Davis Cup win over Byrun Black in April, overcame a "bad start" to topple Fargis Sargsian of Armenia 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, while Lee put a disastrous first set behind him to beat the Russian Andrei Olhovsky 0-6. 6-4, 6-4.
Both admitted to having drawn inspiration and improved their work ethic after observing Henman's climb up the rankings - he is Stella's fourth seed - and it was difficult to conceive, from the way they rallied, that Richardson is still only at 253rd place and Lee 500th. Sargsian and Olhovsky, for their part, are 81st and 146th respectively.
Richardson now meets Henman in a tie which will guarantee Britain a representative in the third round of the tournament for only the seventh time in 19 years. They are old practise partners and friends. So how would he feel, Richardson was asked, if he was to beat Henman, the man he replaced in the Davis Cup. "That's what friends are for," he laughed.
Perhaps the main feature of both these keenly watched matches was that neither under-dog panicked under pressure. Richardson, two breaks behind at 1-4, switched tactics sensibly by standing back on his second serve, gradually settled down and, even the first set, felt he was taking control. Subsequently he did, holding his serve without difficulty to his last 11 service games.
Lee, who could do nothing to stop the first set racing away from him he took only 10 points said he would have been happy to win even one game. Yet, once he did, the match switched dramatically in his favour. He held for 1-1 in the second, and was then presented with the lead when Olhovsky double-faulted three times. After that Lee felt increasingly comfortable as his opponent, who had begun so well, "went off the boil". Lee finished him off with his seventh ace.
Olhovsky, of course, was the qualifier who, when ranked 191 in the world, defeated the top seeds Jim Courier at Wimbledon in 1992. Grass has always been his favourite surface, but Lee clearly profited from having had a five-match start on the surface at Surbiton last week.
Mark Petchey failed to complete an opening day hat-trick for home fans to applaud, losing 6-1, 6-2 to the former Wimbledon junior champion, Leander Paes from India. A Wimbledon '96 semi-final pedigree was not enough to save Jason Stoltenberg, the 14th seed, from coming a resounding cropper against Germany's Jens Knippschild. The 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 score even shocked the victor. "It was my first match on grass for six years. In the only other one I've played I lost in qualifying at Rosmalen, but today it really seemed to suit my game."
Until yesterday the 22-year-old's only claim to fame was in having been the last surviving German at both the Australian and French championships this year. "A repeat at Wimbledon would be nice," he said.
