Tennis: Bates books his passage to the last eight: British No 1 gathers momentum towards the final as Ivanisevic rolls out
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Your support makes all the difference.THE show goes on. Jeremy Bates became only the second British player ever to advance to the quarter-finals in the 15 years of the Stella Artois Championships here yesterday, capitalising on Tuesday's victory against Boris Becker by defeating Daniel Nestor, of Canada, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Becker will be joined on the practice courts by his German compatriot, Michael Stich. The defending champion was defeated 7-6, 6-3 in gathering gloom by Australia's Jamie Morgan, who made up for the disappointment of seeing Stich save four match points against him in last year's semi-finals.
Stich, who complained about the damp condition of the Centre Court when sent out to play after the Bates match, wanted the match suspended after the opening set.
'It's all right for officials, they don't have to risk hurting themselves,' Stich said. 'You wouldn't ask a Formula One driver with a flat tyre to drive at 200 mph because people had paid their bucks to see him.'
The 1991 Wimbledon champion was not the only leading player to go. As Bates was in the process of winning the opening set on the Centre Court, Goran Ivanisevic, the fourth seed, slipped out on the adjacent No 1 Court, leaving the Briton to face Sweden's Jan Apell, ranked No 127 in the world, for a place in the semi-finals.
Having beaten Becker, Bates was expected to overcome Nestor, who was familiar to his opponent if not to the majority of spectators. Last time Bates was on a high, after winning the South Korean Open in April, the Serbian-born left-hander stopped him in straight sets in the first round of the Taipei Challenge.
Yesterday, when the BBC postponed an episode of Biggles until after Wimbledon in order to stay with Bates, the 31-year-old from Solihull remained airborne to emulate Chris Bailey's advance to the last eight in 1989.
Nestor, ranked 48 places below Bates at No 142, entered the main draw as a lucky loser from the qualifying event. The Dane, Kenneth Carlsen, withdrew with suspected appendicitis and the Australian, Michael Tebbutt, with a knee injury.
'It was pretty grubby tennis, to be honest,' Bates said after spending an hour and 55 minutes on a court which became increasingly slipperly during a day of rain delays.
Ivanisevic, who lost to Britain's Chris Wilkinson in his opening match last year, was defeated, 7-6, 7-6, by Apell, a fellow left-hander who arrived in London after playing in the French Open doubles final on Sunday. That was a disappointment, Apell and his compatriot, Jonas Bjorkman, lost to Byron Black and Jonathan Stark.
(Photograph omitted)
Results (Sporting Digest) and more tennis, page 39
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