Tennis: Graf survives power of nemesis

WHEN STEFFI GRAF was beaten by Mariaan DeSwardt at Brighton in 1995 she said: "For the first one and a half sets, it was the best a woman has ever played against me." Yesterday she had a repeat dose in Wimbledon's second round and only just survived.

DeSwardt, a big serving, big hitting and, well, big South African, started with such a force she looked capable of blowing Graf away in straight sets.

Instead the second seed waited for the gale to subside and, with a greater range of shots, won 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. It was mighty close.

Graf is renowned for her power but she looked like the proverbial weakling waiting for her face to be sand blasted given the potency coming from the other side of the net. Within minutes she was 5-1 down and although the German got a break back it was too late to rescue the first set.

Pinning Graf back is one thing, keeping her there is another and she struck early in both remaining sets to grab the initiative. The last set was over in 18 one-sided minutes.

Monica Seles, the fourth seed and 1992 finalist, will have exerted more on the practice court than she did in her 35-minute demolition of Germany's Marlene Weingartner. The score was 6-0, 6-0, although the match was not as close as that.

Venus Williams, the fifth seed, also went through in straight sets, 6- 3, 6-4, against Elena Tatarkova and had the first indication she is having an impact at Wimbledon when one male supporter had "Venus" written on his bare stomach. She was asked if that was the thrill of a lifetime. "Hopefully I'll get a better thrill," she replied.

Jennifer Capriati, the erstwhile prodigy, went out of the tournament when she could not recapture the intensity of her first round win over Anke Huber and lost 6-1, 6-3 to Seda Noorlander. She left with words of advice for Hingis. "I don't think she's going through a crisis," she said. "When you are on top it's great but as soon as there's a little imperfection the press are like vultures. My advice is to block out the negativity and not let that start to control the way she feels."

Noorlander will now meet the eighth seed and last year's runner-up, Nathalie Tauziat, who defeated Amanda Hopmans 6-3, 6-4.