MELBOURNE, Australia -- Greg Rusedski saved a fifth-set
match point with a big serve and knocked top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten
out of the Australian Open in the second round Thursday.
Rusedski won 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7 in a 2-hour, 44-minute
match that pitted his net rushing against Kuerten's baseline
sharpshooting.
|  | | Greg Rusedski enjoys knocking off the tournament's top seed. |
Kuerten, who rose to No. 1 late last year, still has not
advanced past the second round at an Australian Open. He also has
beaten the big-serving Rusedski only once in five tries.
Serving at 5-6 in the final set, Rusedski double-faulted twice,
giving Kuerten a match point at 30-40. He saved it with a good
serve that Kuerten returned into the net, held for 6-all and broke
the Brazilian in the next game with net-charging tactics that
forced misses.
But then Rusedski, a British star who put in 70 percent of first
serves for the match, faltered again, giving Kuerten chances to
pound in more of his favorite passing shots.
Serving at 7-all, Kuerten moved to 40-0 but double-faulted and
missed the next four points, ending with a lob just long off a drop
volley by Rusedski.
Leading 8-7, Rusedski made no mistake on his serve, holding at
love.
The crowd of 15,000 appeared largely on Rusedski's side after an
ace by Kuerten that Rusedski and many spectators thought was out
helped Kuerten hold for 6-5 in the last set. The decision was
roundly booed.
"I'm more surprised than anybody ... to play such a fantastic
match against the world No. 1," Rusedski said.
"When was the last time you saw me scamper for five sets around
the court? Physically, it was fantastic," he added.
"I think it was my greatest victory so far," said Rusedski,
who was set back by injuries last year, didn't win a title for the
first time since 1994, and ended the year at 64th. He had been as
high as No. 4 in 1997.
"There were a lot of times I could have lost my cool out
there," he said.
Kuerten said the match came down to one point -- his match point.
"He is dangerous. I didn't do the right thing that time," the
two-time French Open champion said.
Meanwhile, Yevgeny Kafelnikov was helped the most by a ball he
slammed out of the court in disgust.
His frustration vented, the 1999 champion and 2000 runner-up
settled down, turned a losing match around and advanced to the
third round with a 6-2, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory Thursday over
Nicolas Kiefer.
Kafelnikov, the Olympic gold medalist, finished his three-hour
match with three aces.
Kiefer slid downhill after he thought he served an ace for
30-all in the fourth set's eighth game. The umpire overruled the
call, and Kiefer won only 10 points the rest of the match.
Nothing helped Tommy Haas, who led in every set, blew a 5-0 lead
in the first and missed two set points in the second before losing
to No. 7 seed Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
In the tiebreaker, Haas, the Olympic silver medalist, missed an
easy volley and double faulted on the next point, falling behind
5-3. Hewitt finished that three-hour match with a winning backhand
lob.
"It's stupid to let situations like this slip away," Haas
said. "I definitely had my chances to get further here. I guess I
will never know."
Hewitt, one of the home country's hopes for its first Australian
Open title since 1976, had to come from behind to beat Jonas
Bjorkman in the first round.
He next faces unseeded Carlos Moya, the 1997 runner-up and a
former No. 1. Moya breezed past Marc Rosset 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.
Canada's Daniel Nestor, who has an Olympic gold medal in
doubles, upset No. 11 Franco Squillari 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, 7-5. The
Argentine player was the second men's seed to fall in the first two
rounds.
No. 4 Magnus Norman, a semifinalist here and runner-up at the
French Open last year, defeated France's Fabrice Santoro 7-6 (6),
6-3, 6-0.
No. 10 Wayne Ferreira and two French players, No. 15 Arnaud
Clement and No. 16 Sebastien Grosjean, all advanced.
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