Van Roost Provides Wake-Up Call At Open
In a skid for months, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario suffered her earliest exit from a Grand Slam event in five years Saturday in the Australian Open - against a player who has never come close to winning a major.
Belgium’s Dominique van Roost overcame a sore arm and a 2-5 deficit in the third set to upset the No. 2 seed Sanchez Vicario 1-6, 6-4, 8-6 in the third round.
Former two-time champion Jim Courier, who had played five straight five-set matches in the Australian Open over the past two years, finally won quickly as he overcame five set points in the second set to beat Jeff Tarango 6-1, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
Courier, seeded No. 11, next faces No. 5 Thomas Muster, who hasn’t dropped a set in reaching the fourth round.
Van Roost, who had won only two small WTA tournaments in six years on the tour and had gone as far as the fourth round of a major just once, in the 1992 Australian Open, put on a show of precision tennis in her third-set comeback.
Kissing the lines with two-handed backhands and putting pressure on Sanchez Vicario by attacking her at the net, van Roost played the finest match of her career.
Sanchez Vicario’s loss spoiled a fiesta in the Australian Open, in which three Spanish men reached the round of 16 in a celebration of their switch from clay court specialists to hard court threats.
Van Roost next plays 15th-seeded American Chanda Rubin, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Sandra Kleinova of the Czech Republic. No. 14 Mary Joe Fernandez also won in straight sets, as did No. 8 Irina Spirlea of Romania, No. 9 Karina Habsudova of Slovakia, and unseeded Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania.
Albert Costa’s victory Saturday, a day after wins by Felix Mantilla and Carlos Moya, gave Spain more players in the fourth round of the men’s draw than any country except the United States.
No. 16 Alberto Berasategui failed to join his Spanish compatriots when he retired with leg cramps while trailing 19-year-old Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (7-4), 2-0.
Costa next plays South African Wayne Ferreira, who beat Italy’s Renzo Furlan. No. 3 Goran Ivanisevic put away American Chris Woodruff 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 6-1.
xxxx ON TV The Australian Open can be seen on ESPN2 at 7:30 p.m.