Tauziat breaks Thai in tie-break drama

Nathalie Tauziat, the second seed from France, made one of the greatest of escapes when she beat Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 in the second round of the DFS Classic at Edgbaston yesterday.

Tauziat, playing her first match on grass since last year's Wimbledon, not only lost the first set but trailed 6-0 in the tie-break in the second. Yet from this near-impossible position of six match points down, Tauziat won the next eight points to take the second set and then romped through the third.

A relieved Tauziat explained: "She missed the first match point with a close call and then I played very well. I served good, hit winners and won the set."

Tauziat felt the first match point was the crucial one. "She hit the ball just over the line and when the line judge called `out', this man, who I think was her father, sitting on the side of the court, yelled `Oh, my God'.

"I thought, what is he worrying about? She has five more match points. What did I do when I won the set? I just looked up to heaven."

Before Tauziat's Houdini act, three British girls, Clare Wood, Sam Smith and Karen Cross, were all beaten in the first round. Wood lost 6-3, 6- 1 by the American left-hander Nicole Arendt, Smith fell 7-5, 6-3 to Miriam Oremans, of the Netherlands, and Cross lost 6-2, 6-2 to Maria Strandlund, of Sweden. Later , 18-year-old Megan Miller, the last British survivor, lost to Gigi Fernandez, the 1994 Wimbledon semi-finalist 7-5, 7-5 in the second round. Miller led 5-1 in the second set and had two set points.