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 Grand slamming Sweden's Johansson upsets 11th-seeded Kafelnikov
Posted: Tuesday September 08, 1998 03:05 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Sweden's Thomas Johansson continued his remarkable U.S. Open run Tuesday with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) upset of 11th-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The victory, Johansson's second straight over a seeded player, sent the 23-year-old right-hander into the quarterfinals, his best appearance in a Grand Slam tournament. Kafelnikov was his own worst enemy on a crisp, bright day that seemed more like fall than the waning days of summer. After winning the opening set, he seemed to lose his rhythm and committed 53 unforced errors for the day, unusually high for the Russian. Johansson took advantage by keeping the ball down the middle to cut the angle and letting Kafelnikov self-destruct by pounding groundstrokes into the net or spraying them around the Arthur Ashe Stadium court. In the deciding tiebreak, Johansson jumped out to a 5-2 lead. Again Kafelnikov rallied, but on the third match point, Johansson finally closed out the win when he rifled a backhand down the line that ticked off the end of the Russian's racket. Johansson had reached the fourth round when No. 5 Richard Krajicek retired with tendinitis of the knee. Eighth-seeded Andre Agassi was just two points away from being ousted from the tournament Monday night when he reverted to the moonballs of his youth and the power game of his winning years. That was enough to send his match against No. 9 Karol Kucera to a fourth set. Then the rains came. Again. Kucera led 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 0-3 when play was postponed until today because a steady rain washed across the National Tennis Center. In the early afternoon Monday, play was delayed for 21/4 hours when a severe thunderstorm lashed the area, turning the sky midnight black. The second stoppage affected two other men's fourth-round matches at the year's final Grand Slam tournament. Defending champion Patrick Rafter led No. 14 Goran Ivanisevic 6-3, 3-2, and No. 12 Jonas Bjorkman led Jan Siemerink 6-4, 1-4 when play was stopped. All three matches were scheduled for Tuesday. Earlier, top-seeded Pete Sampras gained a quarterfinal berth by defeating Marat Safin of Russia 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. In women's fourth-round matches, No. 2 Lindsay Davenport downed No. 10 Nathalie Tauziat 6-1, 6-4; No. 4 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated No. 15 Anna Kournikova 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; No. 5 Venus Williams stopped No. 12 Mary Pierce 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) and No. 13 Amanda Coetzer upset No. 7 Conchita Martinez 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. The women's quarterfinals pair Davenport against Coetzer and Williams against Sanchez Vicario in the bottom half of the draw. The top half, scheduled for today, has No. 1 Martina Hingis, the defending champion, vs. No. 6 Monica Seles, and No. 3 Jana Novotna against No. 11 Patty Schnyder. Sampras had 18 aces and never lost his serve in his victory over the 18-year-old Safin. It was the 600th match win of his career. "I was cracking it pretty hard throughout the match," Sampras said. "I got the serve going, which has been a little bit up and down throughout this past week. Today it seemed like it clicked." After winning the final six points of the tiebreaker in her win over Pierce, Williams celebrating by shimmying to the net. "I really shouldn't have done the dance, I should have waited until later," she said. "I didn't plan to do the dance. I planned to win the second set really easy." At 5-5 in the second set, the two delighted the crown with a game that lasted 13 minutes, 57 seconds, and ended when Williams converted her seventh break point. Pierce broke right back and took a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but didn't get another point in the match. In the only singles match completed before the afternoon rain, Coetzer and Martinez traded moonballs and baseline rallies for 2 hours, 39 minutes. One game had 28 points, including 11 deuces, and consumed more than 20 minutes.
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