http://championships.wimbledon.org/
Lapentti Survives Another Long Battle

Henry Wancke

Monday, July 1, 2002

The 22nd seed, Nicolas Lapentti, survived another
long match at The Championships today as he came
back from two sets to one down to oust Arnaud Clement,
3-6, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Lapentti had already gone the distance in the first
round, against Jamie Delgado, and the third round when
he faced Andrei Pavel. However, tiredness did not seem
to affect him today as he played with enterprise to beat
last year's Australian Open runner-up.

It was the 20th win out of 29 five-set encounters in
his career and he became the first player from Ecuador
to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon since Andres
Gomez in 1987.

Not surprisingly, he raised his arm in relief and
satisfaction to the band of supporters waving the
Ecuadorian flag in the stand of No.2 Court, and sat
shaking his head in disbelief long after his opponent
had left the court.

Lapentti said he was not exhausted after his five-set
marathons. "I've been feeling pretty good," he said.
"I think once my body got used to the grass, my legs
and everything have been responding well. So far,
everything's going the way I would like."

The three-hour, 45-minute encounter was a classic display
of two clay-court exponents adapting their game to grass,
with aggressive baseline exchanges. Both were not averse
to net play but only on their own terms so the points
were worked well to try to accommodate a killing volley.

Neither player had reached the last eight at The
Championships so there was a lot at stake. The Frenchman
took the early initiative but had not counted on the
durability of his opponent who played a patient game in
the early stages.

Having lost the opening set, Lapentti struck back in a
bizarre second set that saw both players struggling to
hold serve. Clement finally conceded it with a backhand
error. An early break in the fifth virtually wrapped it
up for the 25-year-old from Guayaquil who held on to take
the set and the match in five sets.

South America, a continent more noted for its clay-court
exponents than fast surface players, is guaranteed at
least one representative in the Wimbledon semi-finals as
Lapentti will now take on Argentine David Nalbandian,
seeded six places below him at 28, in the quarter-finals
on Wednesday.

Additional reporting by Andrew Rigby.