SNATCHING defeat out of the jaws of victory has become something of a national obsession, heightened by events in Lisbon on Sunday night. Yesterday, Greg Rusedski fell victim to the malaise as the defending champion was beaten by Thomas Johansson, of Sweden, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 in the quarter-finals of the Nottingham Open.
A semi-final berth was within touching distance on several occasions for the Great Britain No 2 but in the end he will concede, like England against France, that the better opponent won on the day. After a brief interruption for rain, Rusedski broke the Johansson serve and com- fortably secured the first set and a relatively simple success beckoned.
Johansson, though, has pedigree. When he lifted the Australian Open crown two years ago, he became the first Swede to win a grand-slam title since Stefan Edberg claimed the US Open in 1992. He also prevailed here in 2001 but has been recovering from knee surgery for most of this year and thus was forced to qualify for this tournament despite his protected world ranking of No 23.
That class surfaced with a succession of passing shots that negated Rusedski’s chip-and-charge tactics at the net. The Briton lost his serve to concede the second set and although he saved one match point in the tenth game of the final set, his challenge was curtailed as Johansson, increasingly assertive, served out the tie-break 7-5.
The latest world rankings announced next week should see Rusedski demoted beyond the 150 mark, below Arvind Parmar, who would displace him as Britain No 2.
Advertisement
“I don’t care about rankings; if you are playing good tennis, it doesn’t matter,” Rusedski said. “I should have won today but I’ll have three or four days’ rest before I start Wimbledon next Tuesday. So this could be a blessing in disguise.”