Enqvist withstands Australia's best
Swede stays on comeback trail after disappointing year
Posted: Sunday January 24, 1999 09:36 AM
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Philippoussis says the only person he see giving Enqvist (above) trouble is Andre Agassi AP |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- In two matches against Australia's top players, Thomas Enqvist looked like a heavyweight boxer, standing his ground and daring his opponents to whale away at him.
When they were over, the 24-year-old Swede had brought down both the U.S. Open champion and runner-up, whose larger-than-life images are plastered all over Melbourne on billboards promoting this Australian Open.
Enqvist risked letting it slide away Sunday when he faltered while serving for the match in the third set. It took him another 1:17 to complete a 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 4-6, 6-2 victory over Mark Philippoussis, the Open runner-up, and advance to the quarterfinals.
Still, Philippoussis, the 14th seed, was impressed.
"I can't remember the last time someone has hit the ball so clean," Philippoussis said. "The guy hasn't lost a match this year. He hit some of the ground strokes so clean, so big, flat, and just so consistent. He really is dangerous out there. ...
"At the moment I really can't see anyone really hurting Thomas, except for Andre."
Andre Agassi, at the No. 5 the highest of the four surviving seeds in the tournament, has lost only 17 games in winning his first three matches.
Two days earlier, Enqvist had ousted No. 3 seed Patrick Rafter, winner of two consecutive U.S. Opens, in four sets by returning well and hitting even second serves that the aggressive Australian couldn't attack.
In extending his winning streak this year to 12 matches, Enqvist let Philippoussis do a lot of the attacking, and the missing. And if the attack wasn't sharp enough, Enqvist punished him.
Enqvist had a 45-42 edge in inners, and a 60-78 advantage in unforced errors.
"I think I played a perfect match until I was serving for the match in the third set," said Enqvist, once as high as 6th in the rankings but now 21st after a season ruined by an ankle injury. He has spoken of being "hungry" starting a new year.
At 5-4 in the third, three straight errors gave Philippoussis the break points he needed to get back in the match.
"After that game I went a little bit tense maybe. Mark also took the opportunities to play better, and I was very happy to win that fifth set," Enqvist said.
The Swede hit 34 of his 60 unforced errors in the third and fourth sets, but despite being worried, "I think I stayed mentally in the game. That's why I was able to finally win the fifth set," he said.
He next faces Switzerland's Marc Rosset, a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 winner over Czech player Bohdan Ulihrach. Rosset said that to win in the quarterfinals, "I would have to improve my forehand a lot and come up a bigger shot than I did today."
Enqvist, meanwhile, feels like "I'm playing well enough to have a chance to win the next one."
Enqvist, who was the world's No. 1 junior in 1991, is among the latest in a series of Swedish standouts who include five-time Wimbledon champion Bjorn Borg. The latest to win a grand slam event was Stefan Edberg at the U.S. Open in 1992, and the latest Swedish champion here was Mats Wilander in 1988.
Enqvist himself has never gone beyond the quarterfinals of a grand slam. He reached that round at the 1996 Australian Open.
He said he doesn't know why he is having such a good year so far.
"Confidence is always important. If you win a lot of matches, you get more comfortable playing those shots when it's a critical moment in the match, and that's probably the big key," he added.
And his next opponents here are unlikely to be receiving the kind of boisterous backing, including trumpet calls, that Philippoussis had from the home fans Sunday.
Not that it bothered him.
"It was a nice atmosphere the whole match, with a full Center Court, and the crowd was into every point," said Enqvist.
Philippoussis tried to use the crowd to his advantage. After breaking Enqvist for 5-5 in the third set, he waved his arms frantically to bring up the cheering level to a thunderous roar.
"Those 30 Swedes were making a lot of noise, and I was trying to get the crowd into it. ... I started getting them into it, and getting them revved up, and then they started pumping me up, and it was good," he said.
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