UFO Info Week-End

Dent ranked No 166 in the world needed less than an hour to complete a straight-sets victory over the No 2 seed

Dent, ranked No 166 in the world, needed less than an hour to complete a straight-sets victory over the No 2 seed. Black, a vastly experienced campaigner who reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year, had already seen off three British players in Luke Milligan, Jamie Delgado and Arvind Parmar during the week. But for once the world No 62 had no answer to the power of Dent, who completed a 6-3, 6-3 victory.In the women’s singles final, on Saturday, Japan’s Rika Fujiwara took the first set 6-3 against the American top seed, Kristina Brandi, and trailed 2-1 in the second before rain stopped play.When play resumed after the delay Brandi extended her lead to 3-1 in the second set and appeared set to stage a fightback. But Fujiwara had other ideas and remarkably won the next five games to seal a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the world No 41, the first title of her career.”It’s fantastic,” said the 19-year-old world No 190, who had played only four times on grass before this week. “It all depended on beating Shinobu Asagoe [the second seed] in the first round.

I’d lost to her lots of times before but the win gave me the confidence for the rest of the week.”* A few days after his 45th birthday, Bjorn Borg was honoured on Saturday by his home town of Stockholm, which named a street after him. Bjorn Borg Promenade passes by his childhood home and the park in Soedertaelje where he began playing tennis.. Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski go into the Stella Artois grass court event, which begins at Queen’s Club, London, today, in typically contrasting mode: Henman calmly cautious, Rusedski excitably optimistic. Henman, seeded fourth, has a bye in the first round before meeting either Goran Ivanisevic or a qualifier. Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski go into the Stella Artois grass court event, which begins at Queen’s Club, London, today, in typically contrasting mode: Henman calmly cautious, Rusedski excitably optimistic. Henman, seeded fourth, has a bye in the first round before meeting either Goran Ivanisevic or a qualifier.
The British No 1, beaten in the final by Pete Sampras two years ago after taking the first set, said: “If I look at the way I’ve been playing, I certainly feel I know what I’m doing I’m looking forward to the challenge. We’ll have to see how well or how badly I deal with it.”On Saturday Ivanisevic narrowly lost an exhibition match at Surbiton to Rusedski, who said: “It’s great to get back on grass and have one match before the real show starts with Queen’s, Nottingham and Wimbledon.

I think it’s important to get your form right away because the grass season is so short. If you can play well at Queen’s and Nottingham, it gives you a real boost for Wimbledon.”Rusedski appears to have put the horrors of last year behind him ­ he fell from the world’s top 10 to 69th ­ after changing technique to help his body cope with the stresses imposed by his power-game. Fitter and more confident, he starts today against his fellow Briton Arvind Parmar, who replaced him, without success, in the humiliating Davis Cup defeat against Ecuador at Wimbledon last July. Parmar had an encouraging week at Surbiton, before going out in the quarter-final to the experienced Byron Black.The top eight seeds, who all have a bye, are led by Marat Safin, who knocked out Rusedski 12 months ago.

Sampras and his conqueror in last year’s final, Lleyton Hewitt, have both returned in a field replete with young talent that will have London schoolgirls swooning: as well as Hewitt, the Americans Andy Roddick and Jan-Michael Gambill and Sweden’s Andreas Vinciguerra are all on display.The Britons Martin Lee and Lee Childs, both ranked above Parmar now, have a chance to put markers down in front of a home crowd, as Childs spends his 19th birthday today playing the 14th seed, Magnus Gustafsson. Lee meets the Ducthman Peter Wessels and Jamie Delgado plays Martin Damm, the winner meeting Rusedski or Parmar.The foreign contingent, meanwhile, will welcome the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with grass and a British “summer”; yesterday’s rain has already disrupted qualifying matches.. Jelena Dokic arrives at this week’s DFS Classic in Edgbaston looking for the second WTA tournament win of her career and hoping to put the personal problems of her previous trips to Birmingham behind her. Jelena Dokic arrives at this week’s DFS Classic in Edgbaston looking for the second WTA tournament win of her career and hoping to put the personal problems of her previous trips to Birmingham behind her.
In her two previous visits to the event, the 18-year-old Yugoslav’s on-court endeavours have been overshadowed by the presence ­ often disruptive ­ of her father, Damir. On one occasion he disrupted traffic outside the event by lying down in the road and refusing to move.