Courier Beats Tarango in a Loud, Ugly Match

Tempers flared predictably when Jim Courier and Jeff Tarango played each other Wednesday at the Australian Open. It was an ugly American match of umpire baiting and racket throwing.

Courier, twice champion of the Australian, vented his frustration by flinging his racket and cursing to the sky. Tarango expressed his displeasure with line calls by keeping up a running argument with the umpire.

The antics of both players spiced a baseline confrontation Courier finally won with a run of nine consecutive games that brought him back from 1-4 down in the third set to a 7-5, 6-7 (7-2), 6-4, 6-3 victory.

No such commotion accompanied Monica Seles’ 6-1, 6-1 romp over Katarina Studenikova of Slovakia, a 51-minute victory that gave Seles a 23-0 mark in Australian Opens as she pursues her fourth title.

Seles had been worried that the groin pull that hurt her Tuesday in a first-round victory might be aggravated by playing two days in a row. But she moved well on the court and hit with familiar power and accuracy.

Tarango was allowed to play in the Australian Open only after apologizing a month ago to the Grand Slam Committee for his behavior and comments at Wimbledon last year. He left in the middle of his third-round match at Wimbledon, called the umpire “corrupt” and thanked his wife for slapping the umpire twice.

By comparison, he was on relatively good behavior in Wednesday’s second-round match, and he came close to upsetting the No. 8 seeded player.

A series of errors cost Tarango the first set when he lost his serve at 5-6.

Courier repaid the favor when he was serving for the second set at 5-3. Apparently trying too hard to finish it, he dropped service at 15-40 and then was unable to cash in on two set points, with Tarango serving at 4-5 and 5-6. Tarango saved the first with an ace and the second by suddenly shifting to slow-ball tactics that led Courier to hit a backhand long. More Courier errors gave Tarango the tiebreaker.

Tarango complained to the umpire twice about Courier getting away without a penalty for foul language.

“Jeff feels punished,” Courier said. “He feels that if he were in my shoes, he would have been hit with a warning.”

Said Tarango: “I was just wondering if [the umpire] was deaf. I was asking how many times someone has to say something to get warned.”

Tarango added that he was also wondering aloud to the umpire “if it was OK for me to throw my racket.”

“I’m restraining myself, and it would be very relaxing to know that I could throw my racket,” Tarango said. “There’s a lot of stuff in the back of my head that I have to keep suppressed.”