Arthurs' crusade for unlikely lads

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

If you believe those people who are comparing this Wimbledon to the World Cup in terms of unexpected exits by famous names, then the most likely tennis equivalent of South Korea is down in the bottom quarter. By Friday night, at the close of the third round, six of this section's eight seeds were history.

Pete Sampras and Marat Safin were the headline victims, but the demise of grass-court veteran Todd Martin was a smaller shock only by a matter of degrees. Big serving Max Mirnyi was gone in a day, while 12th seed Jiri Novak was out by the second round.

The only élite survivors from this bizarre upheaval were the 20-year-old Argentinian David Nalbandian (seeded 28) and the Ecuadorian heart-throb Nicolas Lapentti (seeded 22). They will be joined in the fourth round by the grizzled, 31-year-old Australian journeyman, Wayne Arthurs, and Arnaud Clement of France, who has a Grand Slam final in Australia on his cv.

One of these will get to play in a Wimbledon semi-final for the first time in their careers. And though whoever it is will be the least favoured of the four eventual semi-finalists, they can all suddenly scent the glory, and each of them can see the immediate enemy, and not be afraid.

Asked if he had yet thought about winning the tournament, Arthurs immediately broke into a smile of denial, as he digested the implications of his remarkable all tie-break demolition, in four sets, of the big-serving American Taylor Dent.

"No. I slept really well last night. Didn't think about anything. I try not to." But Arthurs already had half an eye on the screen high up in the interview room, showing him that Nalbandian would be his next opponent. "The courts are definitely favouring me, because they're a lot faster than they would normally be in the first week of Wimbledon."

By "favouring" you should know that Arthurs sent down no fewer than 32 aces against his younger opponent, who is himself no shrinking violet when it comes to giving the ball a leathering. Neither man dropped their service through the course of 48 games, with only the lottery of the tie-breaks bringing a decisive edge.

"If Wayne serves that well in his next games, I can't see anybody breaking him," Dent said in appreciation. "I had three break-points in the fourth set" – Dent was two sets to one down at the time – "and every time he hit aces on the line. You could see the chalk fly all three times. There's not much you can do if he serves like that, and backs it up with his volleys. He's gonna be tough to beat."

Although both Dent and Arthurs traded services in the region of 125 mph at times, often on the second serve in Dent's case, there was a touch more finesse about the Aussie's play than Dent could summon. Some smart volleys at the net, great back-hands down the line, and the occasional killer-lob, were enough to keep the beefy American at bay.

Yet Arthurs has a modest record on the circuit after 12 years as a pro, with only three last-16 appearances to his name at the French Open in 2001, at Wimbledon in 1999 and at Flushing Meadow in 2000. It would also be safe to say that he doesn't have much in the way of buzz or chatter, just a quiet smile and an almost fatalistic demeanour.

A journalist from his home country – though Arthurs now lives in the wild suburbs of Pinner – tried to give him what I believe is known Down Under as "the gee-up" by asking: "Is there a bit more of a mongrel in Wayne Arthurs these days?" (Good job he wasn't talking to Anna Kournikova.)

"Yeah, and I think I should show it a bit more, as well," Arthurs replied, before going back to Middlesex for a weekend of modest dreaming. Tomorrow, he'll face another "baby", the gifted Nalbandian, a former junior champion at the US Open in 1998, when he beat Roger Federer in the final.

Nalbandian cruised past George Bastl, the Swiss who conquered Sampras, in straight sets. His fellow South American, Lapentti, meanwhile turned in a remarkable effort, coming from two sets down to beat the Romanian 15th seed, Andrei Pavel, out on No 18 Court.

Lapentti knows the grass of Wimbledon all too well, having been part of the Ecuador Davis Cup team that won here two years ago. He probably took a chunk of it home with him.

Lapentti now faces the man who may be the darkest of these four already shady horses, Clement. Despite an injury to a thigh that required a medical "time-out", Clement was able to see off Safin's nemesis, the diminutive Belgian Olivier Rochus. Very weird. Indeed, at one stage on Friday the repetitive conjunction of two names, "Arthurs" and "Dent", suggested an equally exotic journey, the tennis version of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.