Wimbledon Surprises

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When Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Marat Safin, who between them have won 21 Grand Slam titles, came up against comparative unknowns in second-round matches at Wimbledon, the world's oldest tennis tournament, they were supposed to win comfortably. But someone had forgotten to give George Bastl, Paradorn Srichaphan and Olivier Rochus the script. They blew the big guns out of the competition.

In just over three hours the three stars contrived to lose to players all ranked outside the world's top 50. Third-seeded Agassi lost in three sets to Thailand's Srichaphan, while the second seed Safin seemed powerless against the clever play of the Belgian Rochus. Afterwards Agassi and Safin admitted they had not been able to play well. But Sampras, who had won the Wimbledon title seven times in the last nine years, was stunned by his defeat. During the match, he read and reread a cheering note from his wife Bridgette, but it couldn't save him from defeat by the Swiss Bastl, who entered the tournament only when Spain's Felix Mantilla withdrew. "I plan on coming back next year," Sampras said. "I want to end on a high note, not like this." The real surprise of Sampras' and Agassi's defeats was that they lost on grass, a surface that has been well suited to their style of play. Few tournaments now are played on grass, so Wimbledon always throws up some shock results. By the end of the first week, 14 of the top 16 men's seeds had gone, while in the women's side of the draw six of the top 16 had been knocked out.

But some things remained unchanged. World No. 1 and top seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia powered on through the draw. The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, kept up the winning ways that have made them the world's top two women players. And Anna Kournikova lost in the first round. It was the 10th first-round defeat this year for Kournikova, who found yet another loss so galling that when a BBC interviewer suggested that her confidence must be low she threw a tantrum. Kournikova even lost out in the pin-up stakes to Slovakia's statuesque Daniela Hantuchova, recently voted the world's sexiest player in a poll of fans. In 1913 Wimbledon was accorded the title World's Championships on Grass. Though it is the only major championship still played on grass, the tournament remains the one that every player wants to win — because being Wimbledon champion means becoming part of history

MOTOR RACING
A Fine for the Ferrari Shuffle
It comes to something when the excitement in Formula One happens in an office in Paris rather than on the track. A meeting of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) fined the Ferrari team and drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello $500,000 for causing the biggest rumpus in the sport's recent history.

At the Austrian Grand Prix on May 12, racing fans jeered and booed their disapproval when Ferrari team bosses ordered Barrichello, who had led the race from the start, to pull over and allow teammate and World Championship leader Schumacher to win. But it was not for that fix that Ferrari had to pay up, it was for failing "to observe Article 170" of the sport's regulations, relating to the podium presentation. Hearing the crowd's reaction, Schumacher had pushed Barrichello up to the top step, embarrassing Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, who didn't know who should get the first-place trophy.

What Ferrari should have been penalized for was the crass and cynical application of team orders. While the FIA "deplored the manner" of Schumacher's win, it concluded "with reluctance" that it could take no action since the drivers were "contractually bound to execute orders given to them by the team." Since Ferrari is way out in front in both the drivers' and constructors' championships, and Schumacher could have his fifth World Championship sewn up by the end of July, the FIA would do better to think of some way of keeping the public interested in the racing rather than the rules.