It Rains on Henin’s Parade

PARIS —  Didn’t we always know that the traveling circus was the perfect training ground for the tennis tour?

Of course, the circus may be a bit more normal.

Hungarian Aniko Kapros, 18, spent her childhood watching her parents, Attila and Aniko, perform around the world in a traveling circus.

“They were artists,” she said. “It’s hard to explain. They have this board in the middle of the stage and my mom flips and my dad catches her. That’s mainly it.”

So, for years, she watched her parents flip. Then Tuesday, Kapros returned the favor, so to speak, turning the French Open upside down with one of the biggest upsets in recent years. On a rainy day in Paris--there were four weather-caused delays--the 179th-ranked qualifier defeated fifth-seeded Justine Henin of Belgium in the first round, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.

Henin, a semifinalist here last year, was in obvious physical discomfort, suffering from a sinus condition and an injured left thigh. In hindsight, she said she should not have played.”Everybody warned me, I must say,” she said. “I decided to play just the same. It’s a mistake. I suppose this is not a mistake I will repeat.”

This went beyond the usual disappointment. Henin had been viewed as a favorite here, particularly after her two terrific clay-court finals against Serena Williams earlier this month. They split those matches and most figured they would meet again in the French Open quarterfinals.

“No, I feel awful, beyond frustration,” Henin said. “I feel physically awful. I have great difficulties even thinking that I lost in the first round here in the French Open. I’m very disappointed. I haven’t been able to fend for myself. I was expecting more from myself, but this is not the end of my career.”

The weather didn’t help. Thirty-four matches were postponed until today, among them the first-round meeting of defending champion and top-seeded Jennifer Capriati and Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica. They started play on the main show court but when rain stopped them, their match was moved to Court 2 at 8:20 tonight, a curious scheduling decision.

Capriati led, 4-0, before Irvin got on track and cut the deficit to 4-2. Irvin had five break points to pull within a game when rain stopped the match and it was eventually suspended because of darkness.

Belgian Kim Clijsters, a finalist here last year, survived a spirited challenge and her shaky play, defeating Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6.

In a men’s upset, Hicham Arazi of Morocco defeated No. 8 Roger Federer of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Federer had been viewed as one of the top contenders after winning recently in Hamburg, Germany. Arazi has not played particularly well in 2002 but has twice reached the quarterfinals in Paris.

Conditions helped Arazi, Federer said.

“They were not suited for my game, obviously,” he added. “I’ve never experienced anything like it, raining consistently for over 21/2 sets. If it rains really [hard], we can stop. But it was just raining enough, so we could keep playing. That was a little bit unlucky.”

The first rain delay provided a significant assist to the three-time women’s champion, No. 6 Monica Seles, who was in danger of elimination against clay-court specialist Angeles Montolio of Spain. Montolio took the first five games and led, 7-6 (4), 3-3, as Seles struggled. After the interruption, Seles looked like a new player, leaning into her shots with more force and won the final nine games, taking the first-round match, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-0.

Meanwhile, all the rain delays couldn’t put the feverish Henin back together again.

Afterward, Kapros, the Australian Open junior champion in 2000, couldn’t stop smiling as she talked about growing up in the Bahamas, the circus life and her mother’s bronze medal in gymnastics at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

There is something to be said about a teenager who rattles off her weight--143 pounds--when asked and acknowledges that her serve is, well, essentially a liability.

“Pretty bad,” she said, laughing. “My serve sometimes depends a lot if I’m nervous. I served really bad today. It was surprising to win games on my serve.

“I mean, it wasn’t a hard serve. Maybe it even surprised her. It was a soft serve. You have to get used to it, that if you get a soft serve, you have to hit it in. She really didn’t.”

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Barbara Schwartz of Austria, who essentially beat the U.S. single-handedly in Fed Cup play in April, lost in the first round after suffering an injury in the third set against qualifier Maria Goloviznina of Russia, who led, 2-6, 7-5, 5-2, when Schwartz had to quit..... Seles was asked about captain Billie Jean King’s dropping Capriati from the Fed Cup team last month. Seles had supported King at Fed Cup and had spoken out again at an event in New York, apparently irritating the U.S. Tennis Assn. “They asked me not to talk about it, so I have to respect the USTA’s wishes on that matter,” Seles said.... Lindsay Davenport said recently that she intends to support King by playing in the Fed Cup this summer against Israel.