Tennis: Rusedski reaches top speed

Greg Rusedski continued to do himself credit after being promoted to centre stage at the United States Open yesterday. The British No 1 equalled the progress made by Tim Henman here a year ago by advancing to the last 16. With Henman back in London after Friday's disappointing performance against South Africa's Wayne Ferreira, Rusedski made efficient work of defeating Germany's Jens Knippschild in the third round, 7-6 6- 3 6-1 after 92 minutes.

Rusedski now plays Daniel Vacek, a Florida-based Czech, ranked No 83, who eliminated the big-serving Australian Mark Philippoussis, 7-6 7-5 6-2.

Knippschild, ranked 100 in the world, experienced the full force of Rusedski's serve in the opening set, the lanky left-hander twice recording his fastest deliveries, 141mph (only Philippoussis, at 142.3mph, has been timed faster).

Rusedski, who had not won a match in his three previous visits to the US Open, has so far treated spectators to his serving power and the growing assurance of his groundstrokes on three courts - the Grandstand, No 4 and the huge new Arthur Ashe Stadium. He was scheduled to return to the Grandstand Court yesterday but was switched to the Ashe Stadium after Alex Corretja, the No 6 seed, injured his left thigh while warming up and had to withdraw from his match against Richard Krajicek, the 1996 Wimbledon champion. Corretja, the No 6 seed, does not have much luck at Flushing Meadow. Last year he advanced to the quarter-finals and held a match point against Pete Sampras, who was physically sick on the court. Sampras recovered to win.

Knippschild tried to confuse matters further yesterday with a hair makeover. Bottle blond when eliminating Henman in the third round of the Stella Artois Championship at Queen's Club, London, in June, he was back to his natural brunette yesterday. Not that Rusedski took much notice of that. He was too busy unleashing his serves and creating a winning position after working patiently towards the first set tie-break, which he won, 7-5. "In the first set we both had a little bit of jitters," Rusedski said. "We were both trying to get used to the new stadium. We didn't know we would be in there until just 10 minutes before we walked on court. It feels quite big. It doesn't feel like you're at a tennis court, it feels like you're at another sort of event when you walk into that stadium. It feels like a football match a little bit. But it worked out well. I can't complain."

The 141mph serves - an ace to hold for 3-2 and a service winner for 4- 3 - helped Rusedksi settle. "After I won the first set tie-breaker I started to make more solid returns," he said. "I was pleased the way I played the last two sets."

Rusedski was grateful to have come through so easily but, by contrast, it appears to have dawned upon the 17-year-old Venus Williams, who is one match away from the women's singles quarter-finals on her debut in the tournament, that her game can only be developed by playing competitive tennis on a regular basis.

"I think this is definitely the beginning for me," Williams said after defeating Anke Huber, the German No 8 seed, 6-3 6-4, in the fourth round on Friday night.

Until now, the tall, athletic Californian has received as much notice for her beaded, braided hair as her tennis. Shielded from junior competition, and stepping tentatively into the professional circuit, Williams has displayed raw, attacking power while lacking control and strategy.

The 22-year-old Huber serves as an example of a talent in one dimension. Although never reticent about playing at the highest level her game would afford, and achieving a fair degree of success in the process, she has relied almost entirely on the basics of thumping groundstrokes. Williams has time to discipline her capricious serve-and-volley style. "I know I can play well," she said. "A lot of times I just don't play well in the matches."

Conchita Martinez, the No 7 seed, was eliminated in the third round by Australia's Rachel McQuillan, 6-2, 7-5. This is the first year that Martinez has failed to reach the quarter-finals of at least one of the four Grand Slam championships since her debut year.

There were no trumpets for Henman in the old Louis Armstrong Stadium. He was out-played in the second round by South Africa's Wayne Ferreira 6-3 6-2 6-4. "When I'm good, I'm great; when I'm bad, I'm awful," Henman said.

The 25-year-old Ferreira will have noted that there is no longer a seed on his path to the quarter-finals since Yevgeny Kafelnikov, No 3, fell to Australia's Mark Woodforde, who now faces an Andre Agassi beginning to look like a force again. He swept past the Romanian Adrian Voinea 6- 0 6-2 6-2. Voinea chose to take the pace off the ball and let Agassi provide the power - which he did.