FORMER champion Boris Becker survived five match points only to
surrender on the sixth as Richey Reneberg knocked out the seventh seed
in a dramatic fifth-set tie-break at the US Open.
''This was the best tennis I ever played in my life in the fifth set.
There's no way I could play any better,'' said Reneberg.
''No match I have ever been involved in compares to it,'' added the
28-year-old American, who has never been past the second round at the
final Grand Slam event.
Becker made the earliest exit of his 10-year US Open career to join
second seed Goran Ivanisevic on the sidelines on an opening day that
began and ended with stunning upsets.
Ivanisevic, the world No.2 and Wimbledon runner-up, who has never
played well on the hardcourts of Flushing Meadow, opened the first-day
programme by falling to Germany's Markus Zoecke 6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
By the time Becker had a chance to get used to the soft balls and slow
court conditions, the three-times Wimbledon champion was already in
trouble, two sets behind, and Reneberg found enough of his sparkling
early form again in the fifth set to pull out the 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 1-6,
7-6 (7-5) shocker.
Britain's Jeremy Bates went out in five sets to unfancied Venezualan
Maurice Ruah. Bates won the first set, but the 23-year-old from Caracas
hit back to seal a 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 success.
There was only one minor upset in women's play when twelfth-seed
Sabine Hack of Germany lost 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 to America's Gigi Fernandez.
World No. 1 Steffi Graf crushed 19-year-old American wildcard entrant
Anne Mall 6-2, 6-1 in 45 minutes. The top-seeded German showed no signs
of the back trouble that has hampered her this summer by powering 21
winners against Mall.
''Maybe, in the middle of last week I wasn't sure I could play,'' Graf
said. ''But I started practising on Friday and it's been great.''
Joining Graf in the second round was fifth-seeded Kimiko Date of
Japan, a 6-0, 6-2 winner over compatriot Rika Hiraki, and Germany's
Barbara Ritter, who beat Holland's Manon Bollegraf 6-2, 6-1.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article