Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Spadea's day: Vince Spadea's comeback started when he stopped trying to win. The American overcame nine match points and a 5-1 deficit in the fifth set Monday to beat French qualifier Florent Serra 7-5, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7), 9-7. Spadea said he began taking risky swings when he found himself on the verge of defeat. "I was like, 'Just give it away. Forget this tournament,' " he said. "And everything went in." Serra held so many match points in the 4 1/2-hour marathon that Spadea lost track. "I think he had about five or six," Spadea said. Instead, Spadea survived one match point trailing 7-6 in the tie-breaker. He overcame three serving at 5-3 in the final set, then erased five more in the next game to make the score 5-all. Spadea, seeded 27th, converted his first match-point chance. "I'm a passionate guy about what I'm trying to accomplish," he said.
Way out there: It doesn't get much farther from center court at Roland Garros than Court 17. Yet that's where two-time French Open finalist Alex Corretja of Spain played his first-round match. "I'd prefer to play on a better court," Corretja said after beating American Jan-Michael Gambill 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 Monday. "It was very distracting. There were people walking around all the time. I could hear car horns beeping." Ranked a career-high No. 2 in 1999, he has dropped to 97th. "I'm obviously not one of the favorites right now, from a ranking point of view," he said. "My main motivation is to win. I can't say to myself, 'I won't play my best because they put me on Court 17.' " Corretja lost to Carlos Moya in the 1998 French Open final and to Gustavo Kuerten in the 2001 championship match. He reached the semifinals in 2002, then lost in the first round last year.
Withdrawals: No. 13 Chanda Rubin of the United States, and No. 15 Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands withdrew Monday. Rubin has a recurring knee problem, while Schalken cited a viral infection.
-- Associated Press