Dining at an adjoining table to Tiger Woods in a restaurant in Spain recently is still the highlight of Claire Curran's first summer away from tennis scholarship at the University of California. And unfortunately that situation remained the same for the young international after yesterday's opening day's play of the $25,000
Rover sponsored, Irish Women's Open at Riverview as Curran was comprehensively dismissed in an hour and 22 minutes by a cool
19-year-old Czech Eva Krejcova 6-1, 6-3.
Less than three hours later the fortunes of Britain's top seeded
Karen Cross, ranked 151st in the world, took a turn for the worst.
She was not quite able to contain the power of 20-year-old German
Athina Briegel, who will be putting her ambitions in medicine on hold as a result of an unexpected 7-5 4-6 6-3 win.
Briegel played doubles against the top seed in a similar event in
England last week and, following that experience, felt she stood little chance of success yesterday. However, she belied her world ranking of 300th by pounding the English girl into deeper trouble by the minute.
In a match that lasted over two and an half hours the German's only setbacks were losing the second set, having led 4-2, and earning a warning for racket abuse in the final set.
Curran promises to address her problems which mainly concern sluggish starts and a weakening forehand when she returns to college next month.
Still, her Czech opponent admitted to being concerned in the second set by Curran's improved form. The Irish girl had clusters of break points twice in that set and began to produce booming spot-on serves.
"She began to take risks in the second set and I felt I had to win the set to be sure of the match" said the talented Czech.
Curran's shot selection when the pressure was so obviously on
Krejcova militated against her chances. The Irish girl may have succumbed in the ninth game of the second set but not without a stubborn showing in the end.
Ireland's number one player, Gina Niland, was a victim of the weather. Her match against German opponent Sandra Waechterhaus was among two matches that had to be postponed until this morning because of rain.
Curran and Niland were both awarded wild cards into the main draw.
The other Irish challengers, Lesley O'Halloran, Zara Wolseley, and
Yvonne Flynn, were ousted in the qualifying rounds.
Singles: First round - A Briegel (Ger) bt K Cross (Brit) 7-5 4-6
6-3; F Siklosi (Ger) bt C Schneider (Ger) 6-1 6-1; C Watson (Aus) bt
M Zived-Skulj (Ger) 6-2 6-2; S de Beer (RSA) bt P van Acker (Bel) 6-2
6-4; E Krejcova(Czech) bt C Curran (Irl) 6-1 6-3.
British number one Tim Henman is unchanged in 18th place in the latest ATP Tour rankings, just four places below his highest-ever rating at the beginning of the year. Greg Rusedski, the British number two, is back to a career-best 24th after slipping one place last week. Neither Henman nor Rusedski are in action this week.
Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras retains the number one spot with
Sunday's Washington Classic winner, Michael Chang, in second.
LEADING RANKINGS: 1, P Sampras (USA) 5,388 pts; 2, M Chang (USA)
3,743; 3, G Ivanisevic (Cro) 2,788; 4, A Corretja (Spa) 2,526; 5, T
Muster (Aut) 2,412; 6, Y Kafelnikov (Rus) 2,224; 7, S Bruguera (Spa)
2,192; 8, T Enqvist (Swe) 2,148; 9, M Rios (Chl) 2,143; 10, C Moya
(Spa) 2,085; 11, B Becker (Ger) 1,918; 12, G Kuerten (Bra) 1,859; 13,
M Philippoussis (Aus) 1,820; 14, F Mantilla (Spa) 1,815; 15, R
Krajicek (Ned) 1,752; 16, P Korda (Cze) 1,677; 17, A Costa (Spa)
1,658; 18, T Henman (Gbr) 1,584; 19, P Rafter (Aus) 1,560; 20, T
Woodridge (Aus) 1,539.
