Switch Serves Well for Kim

Who knew what could happen with a borrowed racket?

Kevin Kim was practicing with his buddy Eric Taino one day last spring in Houston, facing a career crisis, having lost early at a challenger event in Calabasas. Something went off in his head and he decided to try one of Taino’s Volkl rackets.

New racket, new player.

If it were always that simple. But if you listen to the 26-year-old Kim talk, well, it had plenty to do with his ascension the last few months, resulting in the best Grand Slam result of his long career.

On the women’s side, two of the top players at the Australian Open were pushed to three sets before prevailing. No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo of France beat Dinara Safina of Russia, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, and Wimbledon champion and No. 4 Maria Sharapova of Russia defeated Lindsay Lee-Waters, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, needing six match points to move on.

Earlier, Kim, of Newport Beach, became the first player to reach the third round on the men’s side.

Kim dispensed with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain with impressive ease in the second round at Melbourne Park, winning, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2, in 1 hour 40 minutes. And Garcia-Lopez is no slouch, coming off the biggest upset in the tournament, knocking off fifth-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain in the first round.

Kim, who played one season at UCLA, had never won a round at a Grand Slam event.

“It means a lot,” he said of reaching the third round. “This is a goal I’ve had for a long time. You never really expected it and it comes at you quickly. It’s overwhelming and you appreciate the moment.”

He played far away from the main show courts, out on Court 7, and walked back to the dressing room by himself, receiving little notice from fans on the grounds. But that’s the way it has gone in his career. Kim said he has never had an agent all these years and spent years trying to tell people that, no, he is not tennis pro Alex Kim, who has since retired.

Kim said he was ranked about No. 250 when he made the racket switch in the spring. A major breakthrough came when he beat Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain at a tournament in Beijing in September. By then, the racket company was sending him stuff, so he didn’t have to rely on the kindness of Taino, his former Bruin teammate.

Not that Taino has forgotten.

“He always jokes about it,” Kim said. “I’ve bought him a couple of dinners. He’s been more than compensated.”

Kim was joined in the third round by another Southern Californian, Taylor Dent of Huntington Beach. Dent defeated Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4, in the second round, improving his chances of being selected for the Davis Cup team for the upcoming match against Croatia in the first round.

Suffering a setback in that race was Mardy Fish. French Open champion and No. 10 Gaston Gaudio of Argentina beat Fish, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (4), in three hours. Fish let it slip away, having taken the first set and ahead 3-1 in the second.

Fish said that his five-set, first-round match did not take a toll today.

“I’m not disappointed to lose to someone like that,” he said. “I don’t think I took a step back.”

Meanwhile, repercussions continued in the Svetlana Kuznetsova case. It had been revealed by a sports minister in Belgium that the U.S. Open champion had tested positive in December for the substance ephedrine during a four-player charity exhibition. The drug, however, is not prohibited out-of-competition under the World Anti-Doping Agency code.

The minister, Claude Eerdekens, faced severe criticism from Larry Scott, the Women’s Tennis Assn.’s chief executive, for revealing the apparent positive drug test at the Belgian event and the name of the player. Eerdekens told an Australian radio station that he would not apologize and that he was merely doing his job.

He kept on talking today.

“We have completed our mission, but the WTA apparently doesn’t even intend to study the Kuznetsova file,” Eerdekens told the Belga news agency. “It’s staggering. I’m under the impression there is something rotten at the highest level of the WTA, which should have every interest in collaborating in the fight against doping instead of giving the impression of doing the contrary.”

Still, it appears to be a moot point because Kuznetsova faces no penalty even if the not-yet-tested B sample comes back positive.

The sniping was not limited to sports officials. Elena Dementieva, one of the four players at the Belgian exhibition, indicated she was displeased with her countrywoman Kuznetsova, saying she did not want to talk to her after the controversy.

“The WTA, the way they’re trying to handle this problem by saying there’s three victims, but I see only two victims in this story -- me and Nathalie Dechy,” she said.

Dementieva and Dechy, who also played in the charity event, came under scrutiny in front-page media reports because the Belgian sports minister did not initially identify the player, only saying Justine Henin-Hardenne had not tested positive.

Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport revealed that she was fortunate not to get pulled into the mess.

“You know, I was supposed to play in that exhibition, and I would be dying if they had said it was one of these three players and hadn’t told me if it was me or whatever,” she said. “So, you know, can only sympathize with Svetlana as well as the other two for the last few days who have had to deal with really unfair questions as well.”

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Featured Matches

Thursday at the Australian Open:

ROD LAVER ARENA

* Mikhail Youzhny, Russia, vs. Rafael Nadal, Spain.

* Shuai Peng, China, vs. Venus Williams.

* James Blake vs. Lleyton Hewitt, Australia.