Ferreira Victim Of Player No. 215
Where else except the U.S. Open would ninth-seeded Wayne Ferreira, often hailed as the greatest tennis talent to come out of South Africa, find himself bushwhacked in the first round by 215-thranked David Nainkin, a tennis nobody with a Grand Slam portfolio containing zero victories and five fast losses? If Pete Sampras, this Grand Slam’s top-seeded player and defending champion, can be assigned a practice court scented by a Dumpster, anything’s possible.
The hottest player on the hardcourts this summer, Ferreira was granted an automatic invite to this Open and, surprise, seeded according to his rank despite a newfangled policy that gave two Americans, Michael Chang and Andre Agassi, seeding upgrades to reward their hardcourt exploits.
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Nainkin, who has never been offered direct entry to any Grand Slam’s main draw, received even less of a welcome: he had to qualify to compete.
But on an otherwise dull day, a daring upset was crafted by the much less stellar South African, who hadn’t beaten Ferreira in 10 years, moved to Los Angeles to get out from under his shadow, and barely won a match this season after signing on as a hired hand with the Grasshopper club on Switzerland’s team circuit.
There was no marquee material on Wednesday’s schedule, no heady grunter, no designer goatee, as out on the grandstand court, Nainkin, that less-than-notorious former Grasshopper and UCLA standout, mercilessly trimmed the Open’s dwindling collection of seeded men to 10.
“He’s the greatest tennis player South Africa has ever had, but I didn’t want to come out there and be intimidated and have him steamroll me,” Nainkin said by way of apology for his 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Ferreira.
“I didn’t really go out playing Wayne and who he was and all that,” said the stunned winner. “I went out trying to prove something to myself in Grand Slams no matter who was on the other side, and it happened to be Wayne.”
South Africa’s finest captured the Canadian Open on Sunday, a title that sent his ranking up two slots to seventh, but he apparently left his best tennis in Toronto with his trophy.
“I definitely can’t lie; I felt like I’ve been playing tennis every day for the last five months,” said Ferreira, whose commitments included Washington, Cincinnati, New Haven, and Toronto plus the Olympics, an assignment he couldn’t resist.
“It was very difficult to get motivated to play mentally, and when that happens, your physical side kind of disappears,” said Ferreira. “When it’s like that, I want to get to where I’m going, but my body just doesn’t want to go there.”
Lindsay Davenport, the Olympic gold medalist, reached the Open’s third round with a 6-0, 6-4 thrashing of Slovakia’s Henrieta Nagyova, a baseline-bound 17-year-old with no previous Open credentials.
Chang, who won his only Grand Slam seven years ago at the French Open, isn’t a superstitious sort, but it was logical for him to have a few qualms about his designated opponent for the evening session.
The last time this qualifier, Neville Godwin, played a Grand Slam champion at a Slam, the site was Wimbledon and his third-round opponent was Boris Becker, who hasn’t been the same since. In fact, Becker hasn’t even played since straining a tendon in his wrist with a fluke forehand return on the first point of their opening set’s tie breaker. But no such disasters befell the second-seeded Chang on Wednesday night: By the time he built a 5-0 lead in the third set, his overmatched challenger was hiding in the corner in mock horror.
Chang went on to eliminate the 118th-ranked South African with ease, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1.