by Ed Toombs
Mr Ed Goes to Nottingham Whilst in England for the wedding of a friend last week, your humble correspondent noted that the Samsung Open, a men's grass court tuneup for Wimbledon, was taking place in Nottingham. Keen to see grass-court tennis for the first time in our lives, we hopped a train to the East Midlands. We were pleased to find an intimate and enjoyable tournament in an interesting part of the United Kingdom.
Nottingham is a bustling city of 300,000 inhabitants with a rich history. Tourists can take in some interesting attractions. The man-made Caves of Nottingham were dug into the sandstone, and over the past 1000 years have served as homes for the poor, storage facilities, illegal gambling dens, tanneries, and most recently, air raid shelters during World War II. Nottingham Castle, originally constructed as a timber edifice under William the Conqueror, was the stronghold of the doomed Charles I during the 17th century civil war. And, of course, there is the Samsung Open, held in Nottingham the week before Wimbledon since 1995.
The tournament is held at the Nottingham Tennis Centre, an impressive complex situated in a verdant part of town, near Nottingham University. The cozy stadium seats just 3,500, and three side courts are pressed into action in the early stages of the tourney.
The first thing that strikes the spectators during the first days is? a sea of kids! School children swarm the grounds by the hundreds, usually decked out in their school uniforms. The tennis centre?s many hard courts are of course useless during this grass tournament, so the masses of youngsters invade them. They are led by a battery of instructors through clinics, drills and games of mini-tennis. The little tykes are adorable, and one could watch them for hours, if not for the fact that we were there to see the big boys play.
Nottingham tends to draw a fairly modest field. Not only is the new tournament still establishing itself, it must vie with a longer-standing tournament in the Netherlands for players. Furthermore, many of the top players prefer to avoid competition the week before a Grand Slam tournament. This year?s big attractions in Nottingham were rising American star Andy Roddick, the top seed, and British number two Greg Rusedski, who was in need of match play following a recent neck injury and, happily for the o rganizers, was a last-minute entry as the third seed.
The second seed, French racquet artiste Fabrice Santoro (seen at right), is known to tennis connoisseurs but his name does not exactly send casual fans streaming to the ticket windows.
The beautifully manicured courts, so pleasing to the eye, also seemed to provide a high quality playing surface. They appeared to give a true bounce, higher than the slicker lawns of Wimbledon, although it should be pointed out that the sunny and dry weather for much of the week probably helped in this respect. Still, this was grass. While we did see some good rallies, the power servers and serve-volleyers retained the upper hand, as could be seen by the final between hard-serving Aussie Wayne Arthurs and net-rushing Swede Jonas Bjorkman.
One big server who did not fare well was the popular Roddick, who was a first-round casualty. The American caught a tough draw, as he had to face Bjorkman, who later went on to dismiss another big server, Rusedski, on his way to the final. The Swedish veteran is an aggressive and cunning grass court player who took the Nottingham title in 1998. Bjorkman used his world-class returns and rushed the net repeatedly to attack Roddick?s suspect backhand. A 7-5 7-5 loser, Roddick also turned some of the pub lic against him with his constant complaints.
One suspects that world number one Lleyton Hewitt will have his hands full with Bjorkman, who looks extremely sharp, in their first-round match at Wimbledon next week. The amiable Swede was jokingly described by the stadium announcer as ?the second most popular Swede in England,? a reference to Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Swedish manager of England?s World Cup squad. Mind you, this was before England's quarterfinal loss to Brazil.
While Roddick?s fearsome serve was not quite enough, two big-serving lefties did terrorize the field. The treacherous delivery of Wayne Arthurs is thought by many observers to be the toughest serve in the game, and the 31-year-old Australian blasted his way to the first final of his career in Nottingham. We saw Arthurs withstand a gallant challenge from a solid Italian grass-courter, Davide Sanguinetti, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 in the second round. The cannon serve also served Rusedski fairly well, allowing the adopted Englishman to reach the semifinals, where he was taken out by the rampant Bjorkman, 6-3, 6-4.
It wasn?t just about the servers, however, as the quarterfinalists represented a nice mixture of styles. Santoro impressed, with his wicked two-handed slices and cunning shot selection. But the little Frenchman met his match in the person of Swiss Davis Cupper Michel Kratochvil (pictured at right), and was trounced 6-3 6-1. Kratochvil, who went on to lose to Arthurs in the semis, was impressive on the grass. The ex-hockey player takes his returns early (ŕ la Agassi), and is not hesitant to come forwa rd to deliver solid volleys (quite unlike Agassi).
Adding to the local interest was the most successful of the English wild cards, Arvind Parmar, who upset fourth seed Jarkko Niemenen and former world number four Nicolas Kiefer before being edged by Arthurs in the quarterfinals. The tall, rangy Englishman of Sikh extraction had first caught the public eye in this same tournament two years ago, when he also marched to the last eight. And it was also nice to see the towering Swede Magnus Larsson (pictured at right), a former top ten player who has had roug h luck with injuries in recent years, perform well.
The man known fondly as ?Lurch? made it into the draw as a ?lucky loser?, but performed well, and even held a 6-4, 3-0 lead over Rusedski in the quarterfinals before fading.
While the Nottingham crowds were firmly behind the British players, they were knowledgable and scrupulously fair to all the players, much like the Wimbledon fans so familiar to worldwide television viewers. Errors were greeted with sympathetic groans, and winners received applause and comments of ?Lovely!? It was also amusing to eavesdrop on the spectators? comments. As Chilean Nicolás Massú punctuated his warmup strokes with loud grunts, a gentleman behind me noted with a mixture of amusement and disa pproval, ?He?s a noisy one, is he??
We did not regret our decision to spend a few days in Nottingham. Like the legendary Robin Hood of nearby Sherwood Forest, we did not miss our mark.