Rusedski recovers to repel Parmar baseline challenge

Loyalties were divided on a packed centre court at Queen's yesterday and both Greg Rusedski and Arvind Parmar put their well-heeled supporters through the mangle before the British No 2 finally saw off his younger rival 7-6, 1-6, 6-2 to reach the second round of the Stella Artois tournament.

At 1-1 in the final set, the match could have veered either way and briefly seemed to be heading Parmar's. He had two break points as Rusedski showed the first sign of anger at another unforced error, then compounded his annoyance by double-faulting. But, 15-40 down, Rusedski pulled out one of his 14 aces, going on to save his serve, then break in the sixth and eighth games for victory.

"That was the turning point," he said later. "I started getting a bit more aggressive after that. He played well and had the chance to win if he'd got that break. I knew Arvind could play really well here, because these courts can help a guy who plays at the back of the court. I was really pleased with the way I played the first set, then I had a bit of a lapse in the second."

That assessment of the middle set was something of an understatement. Parmar, content to sit back, lured his opponent into error after error, two of them in succession leading to a break in the second game. Rusedski double-faulted twice and put an awful backhand out to go 1-5 down, and Parmar served out for the set.

He too, felt that failing to convert possibilities early in the final set cost him the chance of avenging Rusedski's straight sets victory when the pair met in the second round at Wimbledon two years ago: "I had him there, but he hit an ace and then I guessed the wrong way. But I think I dealt with his serve a lot better than at Wimbledon. I didn't let it intimidate me. I've shown a big improvement since that match and with me it's now a mental thing."

Parmar will now prepare for next week's Nottingham tournament while Rusedski takes on another Briton today in Jamie Delgado, who did well in ousting the tall Czech, Martin Damm, 6-1, 6-4. A further victory for Rusedski, leading to a probable third-round meeting with the eighth seed, Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus, would encourage the conviction that he has put the horrible form and injuries of 2000 behind him. He already sees parallels this year with 1997, "when I won Nottingham, got to the semi-final here, played Philippoussis at Wimbledon and reached the quarters there".

That is asking a lot, as is the suggestion that Rusedski, ranked 46th in the world, will sneak into the top 32 in time to be seeded at Wimbledon. He would need to win the Stella as a minimum, and the field is prohibitively strong. Tim Henman and Pete Sampras may not make their bow until tomorrow, but the top seed Marat Safin, Andy Roddick, Goran Ivanisevic and possibly Lleyton Hewitt should all be on today.

Neither of the younger Britons, Martin Lee and Lee Childs, will be seen again, at least in the singles. On his 19th birthday, Somerset's Childs began well and surprised the 14th seed, Magnus Gustafsson, who almost qualifies as a veteran these days, by racing into a 4-1 lead, before being pegged back. He lost a fluctuating tie-break 7-4 in the first set and was never in contention in the second, which the Swede took 6-2.

Lee, the shaven-headed Millwall fan, went out to Peter Wessels of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-3.