Becker Quits Monte Carlo Open After Father's Death
April 22, 1999 - 0:0
MONTE CARLO Boris Becker pulled out of the Monte Carlo Open after his father died of cancer. The former world number one, who had beaten Frenchman Cedric Pioline in the first round, returned to Germany after the death of his 63-year-old father Karl-Heinz on Monday night. "I am very, very sad. I admired my father a lot and I owe him a lot," Becker said in a statement.
Third seed Tim Henman followed Becker out of the tournament on Tuesday, failing once again to adapt his game to clay and losing 6-7 6-4 7-5 to Brazil's Fernando Meligeni in the second round after receiving a bye in the first. Henman, who has a dismal career record of six wins to 14 losses on clay, has probably never come closer to victory on the surface than he did in this contest which lasted two hours and 38 minutes.
But he foundered in the end against clay-court specialist Meligeni. The slightly-built Brazilian, 67 kilos in weight and 1.80 meters tall, never stopped fighting and saved a match point in the third set. "It is a great feeling because I do not have a big serve and a great volley like he has," Meligeni, ranked 51st in the world, said. "But I fought a lot and I was a little bit lucky on match point." Meligeni, who has a fine clay-court record and reached the quarterfinals in Estoril and Barcelona in the last few weeks, moved into the third round along with Frenchman Jerome Golmard, who had been due to face Becker and progressed on a walk-over.
Henman, beaten in the first round here last year, managed to win a match in Barcelona last week against little-known Argentine Mariano Puerta but that was also a close contest with two tie-breaks. Against Meligeni the Briton showed signs that he might one day master clay. Courage is one of the main qualities needed on the slow surface and Henman revealed some.
In the first set he soon found himself 5-2 down but fought back bravely, picking his shots right and serving well to force the Brazilian into a tie-break, which he won 7-5. The second set was again hard fought, with Meligeni having the better start but Henman again battling back. Henman kept fighting in the last set but Meligeni was the more consistent player and won deservedly.
(Reuter)
Third seed Tim Henman followed Becker out of the tournament on Tuesday, failing once again to adapt his game to clay and losing 6-7 6-4 7-5 to Brazil's Fernando Meligeni in the second round after receiving a bye in the first. Henman, who has a dismal career record of six wins to 14 losses on clay, has probably never come closer to victory on the surface than he did in this contest which lasted two hours and 38 minutes.
But he foundered in the end against clay-court specialist Meligeni. The slightly-built Brazilian, 67 kilos in weight and 1.80 meters tall, never stopped fighting and saved a match point in the third set. "It is a great feeling because I do not have a big serve and a great volley like he has," Meligeni, ranked 51st in the world, said. "But I fought a lot and I was a little bit lucky on match point." Meligeni, who has a fine clay-court record and reached the quarterfinals in Estoril and Barcelona in the last few weeks, moved into the third round along with Frenchman Jerome Golmard, who had been due to face Becker and progressed on a walk-over.
Henman, beaten in the first round here last year, managed to win a match in Barcelona last week against little-known Argentine Mariano Puerta but that was also a close contest with two tie-breaks. Against Meligeni the Briton showed signs that he might one day master clay. Courage is one of the main qualities needed on the slow surface and Henman revealed some.
In the first set he soon found himself 5-2 down but fought back bravely, picking his shots right and serving well to force the Brazilian into a tie-break, which he won 7-5. The second set was again hard fought, with Meligeni having the better start but Henman again battling back. Henman kept fighting in the last set but Meligeni was the more consistent player and won deservedly.
(Reuter)