Tennis: Rusedski rouses British passion

JOHN ROBERTS reports from Eastbourne

Britain are staring at another whitewash, only this time the paint job will be covering somebody else's wall. Walloping Monaco in Group Two of the Euro-African Zone may not represent a big deal, but the slide towards Davis Cup ignominy had to end somewhere, somehow.

Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman won their first singles rubbers in the competition yesterday, Rusedski on his debut, and the contest will be dead if Neil Broad and Mark Petchey are successful in the doubles this afternoon.

Tomorrow would then bring the unaccustomed prospect of sending opponents packing, 5-0. The last time that happened was 10 years ago, when Jeremy Bates marked his debut against Portugal at Nottingham. Bates's national service ended with the defeat by Romania in Manches-ter a year ago, and the recent acquisition of Rusedski from Canada appears to be galvanising a new squad.

Britain have lost six consecutive ties since a scoreboard last displayed a 2-0 lead after an opening day's play, against Austria in Manchester in 1991. Rusedski and Henman required only three hours and three minutes to achieve that without losing a set in the relegation play-off at Devonshire Park yesterday.

Their opponents, it is true, are nonentities on the tour and had never before played on a grass court, but as each match progressed the Monegasques began to look at least as confident as British players usually do on the slow clay of Europe.

Rusedski hit 20 aces in defeating the unranked Christophe Boggetti, 6- 2, 6-2, 7-6, and Henman accounted for Sebastien Graeff, ranked No 924 in the world, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2; a far cry from Wimbledon, where Rusedski and Henman were both beaten in straight sets by the champion, Pete Sampras.

"I was more nervous today than for my Wimbledon matches, because I was playing for my country," Rusedski said. "When they call the score, they don't say Mr Rusedski, they say Great Britain, so there's a lot of pride at stake. It was important to get over that first match." The world No 49 quickly introduced Boggetti, Monaco's No 2, to the full force of his serving power, a double-fault on the first point of the fifth game ruining a clean sheet in the opening set. Another double-fault gave Boggetti his only glimpse of a break point, in the seventh game of the second set. Rusedski snatched it away with a backhand volley, then capitalised on a double-fault by his opponent to break for the set.

By now, the 28-year-old Boggetti was beginning to get the hang of the grass-court game, and neither player had a break point en route to the third set tie-break. Boggetti then recovered from 2-4 (his 12th double- fault) to 5-5, but then misjudged a forehand service return, which raised chalk on the baseline for 6-5. Rusedski secured the match point with a forehand volley.

Henman threatened to carry out the instructions of his captain, David Lloyd ("I want us to win, love, love and love") to the letter, dropping only two points (one a double fault) on his serve in the opening set. He then had to fend off four break points in the second set before cracking the sturdy, 18-year-old Graef, Monaco's No 1, in the eighth game.

Graeff double-faulted to lose the third game of the third set to love, and Henman broke again for 4-1, assuring the spectators of a perfect end to a perfect day. Henman was delighted to be striking balls to such good purpose, having hit one in anger to make history as the first player to be disqualified at Wimbledon. He appears to have put the ballgirl incident behind him. "I've learnt from it, and I'll make sure it never happens again," he said.

DAVIS CUP Euro-Africa Zone Second Division play-off (Eastbourne): Great Britain lead Monaco 2-0. Singles (GB first): G Rusedski bt C Boggetti 6-2 6-2 7-6; T Henman bt S Graeff 6-0 6-3 6-2.

n Chris Wilkinson, who quit Britain's Davis Cup squad in protest at the inclusion of the Canadian-born Rusedski in the squad, reached the quarter- finals of the Miller Lite Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, Rhode Island, yesterday with a three-sets victory over the No 5 seed, Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic. He will now play the No 4 seed, Byron Black of Zimbabwe, for a semi-final place.