Ivanisevic retires after losing Head
By John Parsons
Published: 8:29PM GMT 24 Nov 2000
THERE is a first time for everything, as Goran Ivanisevic proved at Brighton yesterday, when he was forced to retire in the second round of the Samsung Open against Korean, Hyung-Taik Lee, because he had smashed the only three rackets he had with him.
"I've never experienced something like it before," said referee Alan Mills, who fulfils the same role at Wimbledon and is one of the game's best-known officials.
Ivanisevic, three times a Wimbledon runner-up, rejected the suggestion from supervisor Gerry Armstrong that perhaps he could borrow a racket from his doubles partner, Ivan Ljubicic, who was watching from the balcony as the incredible scene unfolded.
"He uses Slazenger rackets and I can only play with Head," Ivanisevic replied as most of the crowd waited - mystified by what the debate at the umpire's chair was about. "Get on with it Goran'" came one cry. "Lee, lend him a racket," was another.
Eventually the impasse was broken when Armstrong, the Sussex umpire who disqualified John McEnroe at the Australian Open in 1990, instructed match umpire Kim Craven to announce: "Due to lack of appropriate equipment, game, set and match Lee." The 400 spectators reacted with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement.
Ivanisevic had been warned for breaking one racket when he was broken to trail 5-6 in the first set after double-faulting to 30-40. He threw a second racket away after netting a tame backhand on set point but it remained usable.
On the day after his first victory on the ATP Tour since Queen's Club in June, it was clear from his occasional sighs and verbal brooding that he was again struggling to find motivation or inspiration.
Ivanisevic's mood improved in the second set, although his form continued to fluctuate, possibly in tune with the pain he now regularly suffers from a career-threatening shoulder injury which now seriously inhibits his ability to deliver record-breaking numbers of aces.
For one glorious moment, when he held for 5-4 in the second set with the most skilful backhand drop shot, an ace down the middle and two masterly serves, it looked as if another mental crisis had been overcome.
Not so. When he missed one break point in the third game one could sense the frustration returning. When he missed another after Lee had double-faulted, he ominously smashed the racket on the ground three times. He continued with it but then after Lee had aced him to hold for 2-1, confirmed the suspicion that the racket was broken, by also consigning this one to the wastebin.
After double-faulting for the second time to go 15-40 down in the fourth game, Ivanisevic again took it out on the racket, which like the first, was left in a misshapen mess. The point penalty, which in turn cost him the game, was inevitable.
Only then did Ivanisevic reveal that there were no remaining rackets in his bag and that he would have to give Lee a 7-5, 6-7, 3-1 passage into the quarter-finals.
The immediate cost was two fines totalling £720 for breaking the rackets plus a frantic trip by his general factotum, Andy Fyfe, who had been summoned from his home in Ealing, to deliver a fresh supply of the £179.99p Head Prestige Classic 600 which are in their last year of production, in time for the doubles in which he and Ljubicic played South Africans, Paul Rosner and Jason Weir Smith.
Earlier Italy's Renzo Furlan beat the American, Paul Goldstein 7-5, 6-4, who the night before had brought Greg Rusedski's dismal year to a tame end by beating an uninspired British left-hander 7-6, 6-3.
