Tennis: Wood proves more durable than Durie

BRITS were paraded early on day one of the United States Open, three of the nation's four representatives trading shots on the outside courts as the closing strains of the Star Spangled Banner faded in the main stadium.

A year ago, Andrew Castle played a first-round match against Bart Wuyts, of Belgium, out near the hamburger stalls, losing the opening set 6-0. A small boy arrived at the courtside just in time to see Castle win the next game. He was joined by a companion, who asked him what was happening. 'Castle's kicking butt,' he said.

Castle went on to win in four sets, and was defeated by the 14th seed, Emilio Sanchez, in the second round. The national champion, who is commentating for BSkyB, lost in the pre-qualifying tournament this time, and Jeremy Bates, our Wimbledon hero, is on his honeymoon. Any butt-kicking will have to be done by Clare Wood.

Wood and Jo Durie made a game effort yesterday. It was just unfortunate that they were playing each other. The butt-kicking was mutual, Wood, emboldened by her success in qualifying, striking first to take the opening set 6-1, Durie responding by romping through the second 6-0. The deciding set was even until Durie lost her serve in the eighth game, giving her rival from Sussex the opportunity to serve out the match 6-3.

The result was as much a relief for Wood, whose world ranking had slumped to 189, as it was a disappointment for Durie. 'I've won more matches in the last three weeks than in the last eight months,' the 24-year-old Wood said, admitting that she had wondered if it was worth continuing with her career.

Durie, the 32-year-old British No 1, has been consistent enough to merit a ranking of 37, her most encouraging performance coming in the French Open in June, when she defeated Anke Huber. Wood may face the German prodigy in the second round.

Sara Gomer was defeated by Louise Allen, of Texas, 6-4, 7-6. Afterwards, the 27-year-old from Torquay announced that she would probably retire after Wimbledon next year. For Monique Javer, the year will not include a single Grand Slam victory. She was defeated by Stephanie Rehe 6-4, 6-4. Though current rankings (Javer 62, Rehe 70) suggested parity, it is worth remembering that the American advanced to No 10 three years ago.

There was barely a peep out of Monica Seles as she began the defence of her title with a 6-1, 6-0 win against Audra Keller. The 20-year-old from Memphis was the one who was grunting as she strove in vain to make an impression on the world No 1 during the 45 minutes they shared the Centre Court.

The Wimbledon experience continues to rankle with Seles. 'I was a little bit surprised at the semi-finals, when Martina (Navratilova) said some words to the umpire about the grunting. I didn't hear what she said. A friend of mine just called me later and said 'did you hear what Martina said on national television?' I still didn't believe it.' Seles is projected to meet Jennifer Capriati in the quarter-finals, and the 16-year-old New Yorker has promised to donate a percentage of her prize money to the Hurricane Andrew disaster fund.

Capriati has also been shedding pounds, confirming that she has lost two stones since the Italian Open in May. While this has given the Olympic champion a slender look, it would take a good deal more to improve the lot of Jerald James, the most forlorn character on the American tennis scene.

James, a 23-stone umpire from New Jersey, has been excluded from the tournament. 'We try to get people who aren't seven feet tall or 400 lbs,' explained Sandy Schwan, the United States Tennis Association's chairwoman of umpires. 'We would like people to blend in.'

Schwan added that she had heard that a court chair had given way under James's weight. 'One time when I did a tournament at Neward Academy I did break a chair,' James admitted. 'But it was a cheap chair. I'm a good umpire.'

In the men's singles, Marc Rosset, the Olympic champion, was eliminated 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 by Goran Ivanisevic, the player he defeated to win gold in Barcelona.

In these recessionary times it is interesting to note that the prize money for this tournament is dollars 8.5m (pounds 4.3m), dollars 500,000 going to the winners of the men's and women's singles. When the game went open, in 1968, there was dollars 100,000 in the pot, and Arthur Ashe received dollars 14,000 after defeating Tom Okker in the final.

Ashe, who won a total of dollars 1.6m in a career which ended in 1979, continues to make money from the sport, though his goal has changed since he made it known that he had contracted Aids during heart surgery. He has started a fund to help fight the disease and aims to raise dollars 5m during the next 15 months.

The fund was launched on the eve of the championships, when John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario were among the leading players who took part in a celebrity challenge on the Centre Court.