Krajicek Tuned For Wimbledon After Sunday’s Rosmalen Title

Richard Krajicek, making the perfect tuneup for his Wimbledon title defense, defeated Guillaume Raoux of France 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) Sunday to win the Heineken Trophy tournament at Rosmalen, Netherlands.

Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania captured the women’s final in this grasscourt event, beating Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

The women’s match had been suspended because of rain Saturday night. It resumed with Dragomir, the No. 3 seed in this tournament and No. 15 for Wimbledon, a break up at 3-1 in the final set.

In a men’s final dominated by serves, Krajicek scored two big points on backhand returns, on break point as Raoux served in the fifth game and at 8-7 match point down in the second-set tiebreaker.

Raoux never threatened Krajicek’s serve. But after the first set, he conceded only two points in his next eight service games to take the second set to a tiebreaker. Krajicek’s 14th ace set up a match point as the first 15 points of the tiebreaker went with serve.

The Wimbledon warmup at Eastbourne, England, ended without a winner when rain forced the final between Jana Novotna and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to be called off in the first set.

The match, already delayed since Saturday because of rain, concluded amid more showers, with Novotna leading 6-5, 30-40 and on serve. Each player received a runner-up check of $36,000.

The abandonment left Sanchez Vicario still searching for her first title since April 1996 and denied Novotna her second title in as many months after she won at Madrid, Spain, in May.

Had she won the Women’s Grass Court Championships, Sanchez Vicario would have crossed the $12 million mark in prize money, a feat matched only by Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf in women’s tennis.

Only 17 minutes play was possible before rain forced a four-hour break, with Sanchez Vicario, the No. 4 seed from Spain, leading 3-2 with a break of serve.