Eight men out at French Open

By Chuck Culpepper

May 30, 2007 12 AM PT

Special to The Times

PARIS — It didn’t seem the worst U.S. tennis day of the men’s Open era at 1:49 p.m. Paris time Tuesday when Michael Russell lost to Roger Federer.

Everybody does that.

Nor did it seem the worst U.S. tennis day at 5:18 p.m. when Justin Gimelstob lost, or at 5:53 p.m. when Amer Delic lost, or even at 7:09 p.m. when a Russian with blond locks and spindly legs and the name Igor sent his 66th winner past Andy Roddick so that Roddick, too, lost.

Roddick stands 4-7 in French Opens, anyway.

He’s seen one third round and zero fourths on the sneering clay. His No. 3 seeding did seem inflated.

But then came the 9 o’clock hour, when the light hangs on up here at the 49th parallel and the nine-man American contingent wishes it didn’t. Because after Robert Kendrick lost at 9:05, and Sam Querrey lost at 9:10, and Vince Spadea plunked a forehand return into the bottom of the net to lose at 9:21, and James Blake’s cross-court forehand ticked the net cord and bounced back at 9:29 ...

Voila.

There went the worst U.S. tennis day in the Open era, which began in 1968 -- nine first-round matches, eight first-round losses and the only help coming from the tardy darkness, which caused suspension of Robby Ginepri’s match with Diego Hartfield of Argentina, at one set all.

Flipping through record books, International Tennis Federation officials found that the French Opens of 2004 and 2006 went to their second rounds with only two Americans, the previous worst. Among all the four Grand Slam events, only the 1972 and 1973 Australian Opens reached their second rounds with zero Americans.

That’s because none entered.

By 9:30 Tuesday night, some questioners wondered if the Americans might consider that approach for the French.

“I mean, that’s not a mind-set of someone who wants to compete, you know,” Roddick said. “This makes you enjoy it when it’s on your own terms a lot more” -- meaning grass and hardcourts -- “and, believe it or not, it helps, you know, playing here and trying to construct points in a different way.”

Said Blake: “I’m not going to stop coming here.”

There ended a cool, luminous Tuesday with cotton-ball clouds, the worst day.

Why?

For an event Americans Michael Chang won in 1989, Jim Courier won in 1991 and 1992 and Andre Agassi won in 1999, there seem almost as many answers as people.

Roddick, No. 3 in the world, cites racket strings. “I don’t know if back then you could hit a serve 135 and have someone completely top out on a ball, swing as hard as they can and have it drop in,” he said. “At least in the replays I’ve seen, I haven’t noticed that.”

Blake, at No. 8, saw harsh draws. He judged Igor Andreev, Roddick’s opponent, the toughest non-seed you could get. Of his own opponent, 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic, who is ranked 85th in the world, Blake said, “Playing Ivo is not a normal match.” Blake lost, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-5.

Delic got a former champion, Juan Carlos Ferrero, still ranked 20th. Querrey, the 19-year-old tower of promise from Thousand Oaks, did stretch to five sets against 306th-ranked French qualifier Laurent Recouderc, losing 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-0, 6-7 (5), 6-3.

For draw angst, none could match Russell, who had hit on the main court Saturday morning with his father, George, who manages the ATP Tennis Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. “A thrill for him,” Michael said, but there’s no such thing as Federer simulation.

In a two-day match interrupted by Monday rain, Russell, age 29 and ranked No. 68, adjusted, getting used to having spectators in his periphery.

“I don’t think he hits the hardest ball,” Russell said of Federer, to whom he lost, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, “and I don’t think he hits the heaviest ball, but there’s so much spin on it, you never really feel like you can get him off balance.”

He seemed well north of bummed, and the day seemed mundane -- not as if Blake would storm off upset at himself, and Roddick would hold loud conversations with himself before tossing a racket into the audience post-defeat, because he wouldn’t be needing it.

Repeatedly Roddick got a side view of forehands from Andreev, ranked 125th but upward bound, as they screamed by. Occasionally he’d look up at Jimmy Connors, his coach since last summer, but Connors didn’t win this thing either, even if he did reach two semifinals and three quarters. Even from Andreev’s back foot and other inconvenient postures, he sent forehands up lines and into corners in a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

At least Roddick’s fourth first-round loss in seven tries found him not adrift but outplayed. Other than glaring blunders on two break points in the sixth game of the fourth set, he played capably.

“I was frustrated,” he said, “but it wasn’t to the point of, you know, feeling lost out there. I mean, I talked about it with Jimmy. I’m like, ‘Is there anything I’m completely missing here?’ He said, ‘No, I can’t think of anything right now.’ ”

Roddick remains the lone U.S. Open champion of the Open era never to see the second week at Roland Garros, but by the time he spoke, the day hadn’t congealed as the worst. The Americans still had four losses to go before Blake could say, “I promise we won’t have all eight guys losing in the first round at Wimbledon.”

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U.S. history

Only three Americans have won the French Open since 1955:

*--* Michael Chang def. Stefan Edberg 1989 Jim Courier def. Andre Agassi 1991 Jim Courier def. Petr Korda 1992 Andre Agassi def. Andrei Medvedev 1999

*--*