Cash Ousted in Tuneup for Wimbledon

American Paul Chamberlin set back the Wimbledon preparations of comeback-minded Pat Cash, upsetting the 1987 champion 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 today on the opening day of the $450,000 Stella Artois grass court championships.

“I’ve got a couple of weeks before Wimbledon starts to iron out a couple things and hopefully I will be playing well by then,” Cash said after his fifth double-fault ended the 1-hour, 56-minute match on the Queen’s Club center court.

A Wimbledon quarterfinalist last year, Chamberlin was happy with the victory.

“He is a tough player on grass and I know he is not quite up to his normal par, but for me to beat him is a major accomplishment in my career,” said Chamberlin, ranked 71st in the world.

Chamberlin’s win spoiled the expected second-round match between Cash and reigning Wimbledon champion Boris Becker.

Becker, who won his third Wimbledon title last year, received a first-round bye, as did the other top seeds in the 56-player field. Top-seeded Ivan Lendl and former Wimbledon champions Stefan Edberg and John McEnroe also got byes.

After rupturing his right Achilles’ tendon last April, Cash sat out until returning to singles play in March. After three consecutive first-round losses, Cash was a runner-up in Seoul and a winner in Hong Kong to boost his world ranking from 626 to 142.

“My whole game is gradually getting better, and while I’m disappointed I didn’t play as well as I could, I got to look at it realistically that this was a tough tournament,” Cash said.

Cash’s ranking isn’t high enough to earn him direct entry into the 128-player Wimbledon field. Five of the tournament’s eight wild-card entries have already been awarded to British players. The last three are expected to be announced later this week by Wimbledon officials.