Olde England’s New Lionheart

A few random thoughts near the end of this fortnight, while pondering whether Tim Henman will be knighted before teenage World Cup star Michael Owen. . . .

Most Impressive Performance (men): Henman. Yes, Henman lost to Pete Sampras in the semifinals, but he did win a set against the defending champion. As they say here, it was a very brave performance.

Henman responded to the countrywide pressure and got stronger and stronger by the second week, beating sixth-seeded Patrick Rafter and third-seeded Petr Korda in consecutive matches.

Most Impressive Performance (women): Jana Novotna. Banished Venus Williams, Martina Hingis and the demons . . . in that order.

Best Comeback (men): Goran Ivanisevic. Not only does Ivanisevic have to fight his opponent, he has to battle himself. Despite blowing two match points in the fourth set, he shocked nearly everyone by beating former champion Richard Krajicek in the semifinals, winning, 15-13, in the fifth set.

Best Comeback (women): Natasha Zvereva. She is delightfully quirky and quotable. Who else would be the only one on the Wimbledon grounds wearing wraparound sunglasses on a cloudy day? (We know it’s an endorsement deal, but isn’t playing on grass tough enough?) She managed to produce marvelous tennis, beating Steffi Graf and Monica Seles for the first time in her career.

Biggest Disappointment (men): Marcelo Rios and Andre Agassi. This category is getting repetitive, but how can you ignore Rios losing in the first round to Francisco Clavet and Agassi going out in the second to Tommy Haas?

Biggest Disappointment (women): Conchita Martinez. The former Wimbledon champion lost to Samantha Smith of England in the third round, continuing a downward Grand Slam cycle since she lost to Hingis in the Australian Open final in January.

Quote I: Novotna’s coach and friend, Hana Mandlikova, once a teenage prodigy herself, was critical of the brash-talking younger generation.

“They need a couple of years to develop,” she said. “They have to grow up, into the Grand Slams. How can Venus Williams say that she and Serena are going to be No. 1 and win everything?

“Excuse me, that’s bull. They’re going to be great, but at 17, I never would have said something like that.”

Quote II: Sampras has a subtle sense of humor, and he aimed it at Greg Rusedski a couple of times this fortnight. Rusedski, the Canadian-turned-Brit, had a rough time here. First he was hampered because of an ankle injury, and then he lost his first-round match and coach on the same day.

Sampras was quizzed about his Greek heritage at Wimbledon. Later, he jokingly was asked if he was going to pull a Rusedski and move to Athens.

“No, there’s not a big tournament there,” Sampras said.

Quote III: But even the accommodating Sampras has his limits. After the semifinal match against Henman, there was this long-winded question: “Pete, receiving serve on the deuce side, you were really crowding the forehand side, almost inducing Tim [Henman] to give you a slice backhand return. Did you feel that that was your best shot of getting a break against him?”

Sampras looked exasperated, and the question was asked again.

“I don’t get it. I’m fried, to tell you the truth,” said Sampras, mercifully ending that line of questioning.

HARD COURTS

At least one tournament is on Graf’s schedule leading into the U.S. Open, and it’s in Southern California, the Toshiba Tennis Classic, starting Aug. 3 at La Costa.

Graf, who lost to Zvereva in the third round at Wimbledon, found she did not feel comfortable in her three matches here.

“I felt that maybe I was a little tight and I wasn’t so relaxed once I was starting to play points because I haven’t really been in the habit of playing matches,” she said. “I want to play matches, I want to play tournaments and then see what happens. I feel confident I can play up there with everybody. So it’s just a matter of getting used to it again, playing.”

Graf was asked whether she admired the top-ranked Hingis.

“No. Why should I?” she said.

Perhaps as a fellow champion, the way she would have admired Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova.

“It’s different,” Graf said. “No, it’s very different. I respect her, but admiring, that’s a very different word.”

She has not played Hingis since returning to the tour, but they have only been in the same tournament twice in 1998--Indian Wells and Wimbledon.

“I think she’s very similar to Monica [Seles] in that she has the feel on how big the court can be or how big she can make the court,” Graf said. “She’s very clever on setting points up.

“She may be as not physically as strong as some like Martina [Navratilova] or even Chris [Evert] at times. I feel that there is a point where maybe the quickness is not there as maybe with some of the others. But she definitely has got her game plan and she’s really very calm about it.”

*

Staff writer Nicole Vargas contributed to this story.