WIMBLEDON, England -- Martina Hingis wiped away a tear as
she walked off Centre Court, a match that seemed within her grasp
suddenly gone.
James Blake figured it would take until about dinner time to get
over his loss to a much lower-ranked opponent.
David Nalbandian was ready to watch the World Cup after his
earliest exit at Wimbledon.
There were plenty of opportunities to dissect how top players
deal with disappointment at the All England Club on Friday. One
upset after another shook up the draws, with 1997 Wimbledon
champion Hingis, 2002 runner-up Nalbandian and No. 8-seeded Blake
joined on the way out by 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana
Kuznetsova.
"Somehow, at Wimbledon, you're never safe," Hingis said after
wasting a 3-0 lead in the final set and losing to Ai Sugiyama of
Japan 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. "When you're out on the grass, it seems like
you never know how the next point's going to go."
Half a season into her comeback after three years away because
of injuries, Hingis was playing at Wimbledon for the first time
since 2001. And she impressed until Friday, dropping a total of
seven games in the first two rounds.
But the five-time major champion looked fatigued as the match
went past the 1½-hour mark, double-faulting twice to get broken to
3-all in the final set, then slipping at the baseline on two points
as she lost the next game.
Hingis -- at 25, she's five years younger than Sugiyama -- got
more and more rattled as the match slipped away, complaining about
line calls and slamming a ball off the court after one miscue,
drawing a collective "Oooooh!" from the crowd.
"She's a tough cookie," Hingis said.
Blake played terrifically for 1½ sets, then collapsed completely
over the final two, betrayed by an ineffective serve and a
career-long aversion for big matches that go the distance: The 6-4,
3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 loss to 53rd-ranked Max Mirnyi of Belarus made
the American 0-9 in five-setters.
So what's the problem in the long matches?
"I lose 'em, that's the problem," Blake said. "I don't know
what it is."
No. 5 Kuznetsova, the French Open runner-up three weeks ago,
also blew a lead in her 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 loss to No. 27 Li Na, the
first Chinese woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.
Even some top players who won had problems, including 2002
Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt, pushed to a fifth set by
102nd-ranked Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea in a second-round match
suspended by darkness Thursday night.
And three-time defending champion Roger Federer endured what
amounts to a stunning lapse for him, getting broken for the first
time at the tournament -- when he was serving for the match at 5-3
in the third set against Nicolas Mahut of France. So he's not
invincible, huh? Then again, Federer broke right back for a 6-3,
7-6 (2), 6-4 victory, his record 44th in a row on grass.
"Lleyton Hewitt has been struggling, to my surprise, but he
came through after all," said Federer, whose next opponent, No. 13
Tomas Berdych, upset the Swiss star at the 2004 Olympics. "That's
what it's about in this game, coming through no matter how."
Berdych outlasted No. 19 Tommy Haas 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 4-6, 8-6,
improving to 8-0 in five-setters.
Blake ruled out physical distress as an explanation for his
fifth-set woes, although his serves and groundstrokes lacked pop
down the stretch. When Mirnyi slipped while hitting a return but
bounced up to hit a forehand winner on the fly to break to 3-0 in
the fifth, Blake swatted a ball 30 feet in the air, then plopped
down in his changeover chair and buried his face in a towel.
Blake was disappointed by his performance, but planned to eat
with his mother, brother and coach, and "by tonight, I'll be back
to my old self."
The American put in only 43 percent of his first serves in the
fourth set, 54 percent in the fifth, and paid dearly: Mirnyi
repeatedly came to the net behind returns, helping him win 19 of 24
points on Blake's second serves over the last two sets.
"He was red hot at the start. He was red hot at the end,"
Blake said. "Max Mirnyi, red hot on grass -- not a lot of guys are
going to beat him."
That would be the logical conclusion, given that the 6-foot-5
Mirnyi packs a big serve (16 aces Friday, at up to 139 mph) and
tremendous range. Against Blake, he volleyed from all kinds of
angles, sometimes going down on a knee.
"He has great hands, and he's extremely large. I mean, he's
huge," Blake said. "Up at net there, it's tough to get them past
him."
But Mirnyi, whose nickname is "The Beast," has won only one
career singles title and came to Wimbledon with a 26-28 career mark
at majors. He's put his skills to the best use in doubles, winning
four Grand Slam titles in men's, two more in mixed, and becoming a
popular partner. His cohorts have included Anna Kournikova (Mirnyi
recalled headlines referring to "Beauty and the Beast"), Roger
Federer (winning all three tournaments they entered), Lleyton
Hewitt (winning the 2001 U.S. Open doubles title) and, currently,
Jonas Bjorkman, who just so happens to be Mirnyi's fourth-round
singles opponent.
The match against Blake was Mirnyi's first in singles on Centre
Court, and he loved it.
"Everything's very silent," he said. "You hit a ball, you
hear an echo."
In the day's first match over on tiny Court 13, No. 4 Nalbandian
became the highest-seeded man or woman to lose, eliminated 7-6 (9),
7-6 (9), 6-2 by No. 28 Fernando Verdasco.
The timing was by Nalbandian's design, if the result wasn't: The
Argentine asked Wimbledon organizers to play early so as to be done
before his nation's World Cup quarterfinal against Germany.
"I think it's more important to win the tennis match,"
Verdasco said, "than see the football."
Alas, for Nalbandian, things didn't go well in either sport:
Argentina lost on penalty kicks.