Wednesday, August 09, 2000
Corretja only has feat for clay
Spaniard loses on hard court in opening match
By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Alex Corretja
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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MASON — Alex Corretja always needs time to get warmed up on hard courts. So the sixth seed at the Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati almost always struggles here because he is coming from clay-court tournaments overseas.
He is 2-6 lifetime and has never won more than one match in a year at the ATP Tennis Center.
His woes continued Tuesday, as Corretja — sixth in the ATP Champions Race and riding a 16-match winning streak — was ousted by wild card Jonas Bjorkman 6-4, 6-4 in a first-round match.
But it was his departure from another tournament that was most discussed in his postmatch press conference.
Corretja and fellow Spaniard Albert Costa, his best friend, boycotted Wimbledon because they — and countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero — were not seeded despite being among the top 16 players in the ATP Entry System.
Wimbledon is the only event that does not use the Entry System — or, previously, the world rankings — to seed players; it uses its discretion according to how players perform on grass.
In effect, the three were penalized for being perceived as better on clay courts.
What if Pete Sampras were to be unseeded at the French Open because of his lack of success on clay, Corretja asked. What if every tournament seeded however it wished?
“We have a ranking, an ATP ranking, so we have to respect that,” Corretja said. “Otherwise, we don't need any ranking.”
The former president of the ATP Tour Players Council said 25 to 30 other players — mostly from Spain or South America — came up to him later and said they would have joined the boycott.
But Corretja's goal was not to embarrass Wimbledon; he just wanted to prove a point.
“I feel proud about it, because I have principles,” he said, “and I took them to the end. Some people said we didn't act well because we didn't play, but at the end, everybody said that we were right acting like this.”
ATP Tour CEO Mark Miles said Tuesday there have been seven different proposals discussed by officials to resolve the problem.
“I'm optimistic we can find an acceptable solution, maybe not to everybody,” Miles said. “I don't think there is a silver bullet that's going to completely please everybody.”
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