Tennis: Gustafsson on march

Saturday 02 November 1996 00:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Magnus Gustafsson became the first semi-finalist at the Paris Open yesterday when he put controversy over let calls to one side to beat Marc Rosset, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Rosset and Gustafsson got into prolonged discussions with the chair umpire, Rich Kaufman, over the electronic let detector used to feel the ball clipping the net on service. The device replaced the judge sitting with his finger on the net who was considered to be in danger of being hit by tennis balls coming past at high speed.

Rosset did not think much of the machine. "I think there's a better way than to spend so much money for a machine that does not work," Rosset said. "If you are serving more than 200kph [125mph], and the ball is passing close to the net, maybe the vibration is going to make the thing beep."

The tournament supervisor, Mark Darby, was summoned. "In the second [set] we had some problems and we tried to adjust the sensitivity of the machine. In the third set there were no problems. One thing for sure, it has to touch the net to make a sound," was Darby's contribution to a debate that provided more excitement than the match.

Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati moved closer to their first meeting since 1992 when they both won in the Ameritech Cup in Chicago yesterday.

Seles, who shares the world No 1 ranking with Steffi Graf, defeated Irina Spirlea 7-6, 6-2, in their quarter-final taking advantage of 33 unforced errors and 12 double-faults by the Romanian. Capriati, ranked 50th and a late entry in Chicago, put out the No 8 seed and defending champion, Magdalena Maleeva, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 in the second round.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in