Greg Rusedski continued to ride the crest of a wave today, demolishing German Lars Burgsmuller to join Tim Henman in the last 16 of the Australian Open in Melbourne. In one of the most one-sided matches of the championship so far, Rusedski followed up his magnificent five-set victory over top seed Gustavo Kuerten with a 6-1 6-2 6-1 annihilation.
The win over the last remaining qualifier in the event - a player ranked only 185th in the world - was completed in a mere 85 minutes and the gulf in class could hardly have been wider. Burgsmuller, clearly nervous, won only eight points off Rusedski's serve all match and lost his own serve an embarrassing seven times, three of them with double faults on break point.
While eighth seed Henman prepared to take on 12th seed Pat Rafter tomorrow, the unseeded Rusedski looked ahead to tackling 15th seed Arnaud Clement on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals - something far beyond his wildest dreams after his injury-plagued 2000. The Frenchman beat him in the first round of the Olympics last September, but this is a far different Rusedski.
“I'm not worried about going out because I didn't think I'd be sitting here in the second week,” he said. “I've exceeded anything I expected and it's been unbelievable. I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far. If I'm going to beat Clement (which he has done three times) I'm going to have to play my attacking tennis which I did against Kuerten and again today.”
This is only the third time both Henman and Rusedski have reached the last 16 in the same Grand Slam event. The other two were Wimbledon, in 1997 - both won again before going out in the quarter-finals - and 1999, when Rusedski got no further while Henman reached his second successive semi-final. This now represents Rusedski's best Australian Open in seven visits and equals Henman's best in six.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
