Bye bye claycourt season, bye bye baseliners. Hello grasscourt season, hello serve/volleyers
of his past behaviour, "It should be a more consistent call. I think it's fair enough if that's the call, as long as it's the call every time, and that's disputable." And according to Cedric Pioline, "On the court you can't say anything, just play tennis. What is it? We are like robots? If it's the top players saying something, nothing happens, I tell you".
Scotty Draper!! Wow, the Rod Laver of the 90's? Yes!! Finally!! Scott Draper, the man likened to multi-Grand Slam champion Rod Laver, has finally won an ATP Tour singles title at Stella Artois Queen's Tournament!! Who could believe it? Certainly not I! Scott Draper, never having won a match at Wimbledon before, goes into this next fortnight oozing with confidence. Along his path, he accumulated a string of upsets by defeating 3rd seed Australian Patrick Rafter 4-6 7-5 6-4 in the 2nd round and another fellow Aussie Mark Woodforde (conqueror of world #1 Pete Sampras) in the semi finals 6-3 6-2. And the final - he just took control of the match with seeming ease 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 against another surprise finalist, 256th ranked qualifier Italian Laurence Tieleman (conqueror of 7th seed Tim Henman). Draper was just looking superb in the final, taking the title in grand style on his 10th ace of the match. And all this for a guy who nearly pulled out of the grass court season to undergo orthoscopic surgery on his right knee. However, Jason Stoltenberg, his good mate from Australia, convinced him to finish the grass court season, and how right was he! Before his win here, Draper failed to win 2 consecutive matches this year and was ranked #101 in the world. This is excellent stuff from an Aussie player especially! Meanwhile, he didn't do too badly at his follow-up tournament at Nottingham, reaching the quarterfinals with a loss to Frenchman Jerome Golmard 6-4 6-3.
Who thinks Sampras is washed up? Obviously, the punters at Wimbledon don't think so. He is favoured to win at 6-4 odds. But he has had a SHOCKING year to say the least. He has failed to proceed past the quarterfinals of the past three grand slams and lost to Mark Woodforde in the third round of Queen's in straight sets, 6-3 6-2 (in 10 previous meetings, Woodforde has lost on all occasions). What can we say? Traditionally, Sampras has been able to turn
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