| | Youngster should make a
Dent
Posted: Fri September 4,
1998 
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will report frequently from Flushing Meadows during the U.S.
Open.
Many deluded American teenagers think that because they win
in Kalamazoo or have fared well in the NCAAs, they're ready
to assume
Pete
Sampras's mantle. Time and again, players like
Tommy
Ho,
Michael
Joyce,
Lindsay
Lee and
Meilen
Tu turn pro prematurely, wear out their wild-card welcome,
and then fritter away on the challenger circuit.
Taylor
Dent, however, is the rare 17-year-old who is ready for the big
time.
The son of former Australian tennis star
Phil
Dent, Taylor made his debut as a pro at the U.S. Open and made
it abundantly clear that he needs junior tennis like
Andre
Agassi needs a haircut. Though he barely looks old enough to
shave, Dent hits a huge ball off both sides and has the
130-mph serve that is
de rigeur
in today's game. More important, a level head rests atop
his broad shoulders. Dent "won" his first match
as a pro when his opponent, German qualifier
Alex
Radulescu, retired in the third set. "Man," Dent said
afterwards, a wide grin welded to his face. "It feels
good to be 1-0 as a professional. But the pros are so
different from the juniors, it's
unbelievable."
Though he lost his match Thursday to another upstart
teenager, Russia's
Marat
Safin, Dent played with an intelligence that belied his youth
and hit some positively atomic shots that had the agents in
the stands salivating. It's entirely too early to anoint
Dent as anything other than a bright prospect, but suffice
to say, neither
Sampras nor Agassi hit the ball nearly as hard as Dent does when
they were a year removed from a learner's permit. And if
there's any temptation for his head to swell, having a
father who was once in the top 20 is an effective
tonic.
"I have beaten all the best juniors, but my dad's
like, 'You haven't felt anything yet,'" Taylor says.
Still, he's more than happy to fill the vacuum that
currently exists in American tennis. "If I'm not good
enough to be the best American player, I'm
going to die
trying."
VOLLEYS:
Here we are just two rounds into the Open, and it's already
apparent that stamina will play a huge role in determining
the eventual men's champion. Agassi, who vows he's in
"top-notch" shape, was extended to five sets
Thursday by Frenchman
Guillaume
Raoux; Sampras was on the court for more than two hours, fending
off a game
Paul
Goldstein in four sets;
Pat
Rafter was down 0-2 against
Hicham
Arazi before rallying on Tuesday night; and
Greg
Rusedski has already played 10 sets in two rounds and has survived
match points in both contests. "I think it shows how
many good players are out there," says Agassi.
"There's so little that separates the guys out
here." ... The women are another story.
Steffi
Graf is the only woman among the top eight seeds to drop a set
so far. And after getting past
Corina
Morariu, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, she destroyed her next opponent,
Marlene
Weingartner, 6-0, 6-1 ...
Lindsay
Davenport has surrendered four games in her first two matches.
Thursday she thrashed 34-year-old
Lori
McNeil, the last pure serve-and-volleyer on the WTA Tour, 6-1,
6-1 ... Barely a year ago
Iva
Majoli beat
Martina Hingis
in the French Open finals. Since then, Majoli has been
losing early and often—so much so that Reebok dropped
her midway through her endorsement deal. Struggling to stay
in the top 20, Majoli beat another foundering player,
Anke
Huber, in the first round. Thursday Majoli played a strong first
set before capitulating to Hingis, 7-6, 6-0 ... Though it
was more difficult than he had hoped,
Alex
Corretja dispatched the oldest player in the men's draw,
33-year-old
Gianluca
Pozzi, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 ... The "tattoo" that adorns
Mary
Pierce's left shoulder blade isn't permanent. It's an ad for a
French perfume. Don't
ask.
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