Greg Rusedski's 7-5, 6-3 win over Bohdan Ulihrach carried him to the quarterfinals of the Paris Open and, barring statistical freaks, into next month's ATP World Championship finals in Hanover. Both are British firsts, but so many have there been during the past few months one has already half come to expect them.
"I am extremely pleased and excited, but I want to do more here," said Rusedski, who has this year been one of the first two Britons simultaneously to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals in the open era, the first Briton in the US Open final during the open era, and the first Briton in either the world's top 10 or top five.
"There have been a few firsts, so why should they not continue?" Rusedski added. On this form, no reason at all. He appears to have improved the rhythm of his serve by cutting back slightly on its pace, though the frequency of the aces was almost as high yesterday. There were 14 of them, a 93 per cent first-serve success rate, and several times service games completed within 45 seconds.
When Rusedski did briefly lapse, putting a forehand volley into the net, seeing two fine Ulihrach returns sail past him, and failing to serve out for the first set at 5-3, it created a platform for him to show he is no longer merely Mr Serve.
Rusedski's next service game required him to combine a twisting backhand half-volley with a breathtakingly angled cut-off volley, and while breaking Ulihrach in the following game to capture the first set Rusedski produced two gems.
One was a winning lob, hit craftily over the backhand side, which left a hurtling Ulihrach with little option but fruitlessly to try to return the ball between his legs, and carried Rusedski to set point. That was converted by the combination of a sliced approach, a widely stretching forehand volley and a plunging, grunting backhand stop volley just as Ulihrach seemed certain to make a pass.
Rusedski celebrated with two aces and a love game which lasted a whirlwind 35 seconds. From the verge of reaching a first set tiebreak which might have crowned a surprising comeback, Ulihrach was again under constant pressure just to maintain second-set parity, and from that he never fully recovered.
The Czech's best moments came after saving two set points at 2-5, when the flowing groundstrokes which accounted for Jim Courier and Felix Mantilla earlier this week and for Pete Sampras at Indian Wells in March began to swing Rusedski from side to side.
But Rusedski is less vulnerable than he once was in the baseline exchanges and in the second set he timed perfectly the only break with a running forehand down the line, enabling him to serve for the match. During that Ulihrach, who was able to chisel only three points from the Rusedski delivery throughout the second set, returned only one ball into court.
Rusedski's rewards were qualifying for finals once dominated by boyhood heroes John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl, a meeting with last year's finalist Yevgeny Kafelnikov today and the increased probability of another British first - £1 million prize money in one season.
Last night, Pete Sampras took sweet revenge with a 4-6, 7-6, (7-2) 6-4 victory over Peter Korda, the man who had beat him at the US Open, Richard Krajicek won another important duel in his near desperate fight for an ATP tour final berth when he demoslished US Open champion Pat Rafter 7-5 6-2.
