31st May 1998 - Grass Court Update
I now have some information available on Greg's forthcoming tournaments. Next week at Surbiton he has requested to play two exhibition matches. Initial scheduling suggests that the first will be around 4pm on Thursday. The second is planned for Friday afternoon around 2pm and it is planned that this should be against Boris Becker. We have no information regarding the first opponent.
The following week when Greg plays at Queens the entry looks to be stronger than ever. Greg defends last years Semi Final points. To reach this stage again would be a superb achievement considering the rest of the field. Pete Sampras has accepted a wild card and Agassi looks odds-on to do the same. Already entered are Pat Rafter and Goran Ivanisevic.
The tournament has benefitted from the early collapse of the big stars at Roland Garros last week. Greg also looks likely to benefit from this. With only Rios in the top 10 having reached the fourth round, many top players will be losing points (eg Rafter) and those that gain will not gain many. Greg's ranking therefore should be largely unaffected going into the Grass Court season. (No new list is published this week being the middle Monday of a grand slam).
25th May - First Round Flop
Greg crashed out of the French Open today in three straight sets. Although he received treatment for a niggling neck injury he made it clear that the injury was not the cause of the defeat. Earlier this morning ironically, when the new rankings list came out, it was revealed Greg had moved up to 4 in the world due to Rafter losing points. This is equal to Greg's best ever ranking.
We won't though loiter on this defeat - but look to the forthcoming Grass Court season, where Greg has many points to defend. Next week he will play exhibition matches at Surbiton, and in the week beginning 15th June he has decided to take a Wild Card held for him at the Nottingham Open. I will update the schedule page to reflect these additions soon.
22nd May - Belgian Beginning
Greg's first round opponent at the forthcoming French Open is now known. He will play little known Belgian Johan Van Herck in his opening match early next week. The tournament is the second Grand Slam of the year and marks the end of the clay court season. Greg will definitely be looking to take his matches one at a time on the tricky clay courts of Roland Garrros. Greg is seeded 5th and if he was to progress though he would play a qualifier in the second round.
16th May - Saturday Night
For us in the UK a real treat tonight - a repeat of an 'Audience with Elton John'. Not very special you might think but Greg is a big star of this show, being seen in the audience and singing on stage in a backing group!! ITV 9pm tonight don't miss it.
12th May - This Site and BIG changes
As regular visitors will now have noticed this site has changed dramatically. This is in recognition of an agreement I now have with Greg's management company ProServ which will increase the amount and quality of information available to me and in turn you. Bear with me, as any technical problems are ironed out over the next few days and hopefully more information is added. Watch this space as we move into interesting times for both this site and Greg's tennis.
As you may have noticed on the notice board there is discussion of getting tickets to events. I have put all the information I have on the Schedule page, but again I hope to enhance this soon. While on the subject of Greg (!) things in Rome seem to be going in his favour at the minute with only Sampras and Kafelnikov having returned first round victories out of the top ten players having played so far.
11th May - Rome wasn't built in a day
Rome may not have been built in a day, but for Greg his tournament was all over in that length of time. He lost in the first round to Bohdan Ulihrach and had chances in both of the two close sets. Once again though it wasn't to be.
This now gives Greg 10 days to practise for his last clay court tournament of the year. (Giving his fans chance to finally breath a sigh of relief as the grass courts at the end of the dark tunnel emerge.) He will return to London for a workout both in the gyms and on the courts before travelling to Paris for the French Open. In a radio interview after todays match he said he would be hitting a few more serves in practise, sounding a little riled at his lack of aggression.
10th May - Rome News
Greg will be competing this week in Rome, in what is a super Nine event. In his first match he will play the strong Czech Bohdan Ulihrach. Greg goes into the match on the back of his first clay court win of the season last week.
8th May - Nottingham and Childrens TV
Two small bits of news today for you. Firstly the magazine 'Tatler' has an interview with Greg in it this month, well worth buying if you can lay your hands on a copy. Secondly David Lloyd has announced that the forthcoming Davis Cup tie will take place in Nottingham. Teletext reports on both...
Tennis ace Greg Rusedski longs to give stars like Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston a run for their money - as a presenter of Childrens programmes. The British Number One revealed that when his game starts to slip he aims to be a big hit on Television. He told Tatler magazine: "I don't want to coach or commentate, but I fancy being a children's TV presenter. The 24 year old, named BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1997 is now limbering up for Wimbledon in June.
Britain's Davis Cup tie with India in the World Group Qualifying round will be staged at Nottingham on a hard court from September 25 to 27. British Captain David Lloyd was considering playing the match on grass but decided against it as September may be too late for grass play. [ and India are good on Grass ! ] Both Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman, Britains two leading players are at their best on hard or fast courts. Victory would put Britain into the World Group of the top 16 nations.
7th May - So I was wrong...
Greg didn't come through in his match today, losing in straight sets to his jinx Goran Ivanisevic, despite what I predicted below. That was the eighth time he had lost to the Croatian without reply.
7th May - Greg into Third Round
Firstly I apologise for the lack of updates recently. The news anyway is that Greg has won through to the third round of the German Open in Hamburg today. He is seeded 2nd for the tournament and had a bye in the first round. Earlier this morning he completed a three sets victory against Emilio Alvarez started last night. Due to the heavy rain matches have slowed to a stand still at times, but weather permitting he will take to the court again today to play - Goran Ivanisevic. Although Greg has a nightmare record on clay and aginst the Croatian I have a small suspicion today might be the day he breaks both those. We will have to wait and see.
Greg has confirmed his entry to the Stella Artois tournament at Queens Club in the build up to Wimbledon. Tournament organisers have bizarrely named the seeds for the tournament already putting Greg 2nd behind Rafter. Henman will be seeded at 6.