| | Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- Marcelo Rios, angered when his opponent
served before he was ready, was defaulted for swearing at the chair
umpire in a first-round match at the Mercedes-Benz Cup on Wednesday
night.
|  | | Jan-Michael Gambill bounced back from a disastrous Davis Cup weekend for the United States. |
Rios, the No. 3 seed from Chile, trailed 5-3 in the first set
against Goichi Motomura of Japan when he called for time as
Motomura began serving. Motomura served an ace, and chair umpire
Tony Nimmons ruled Rios' signal came too late.
Rios protested, saying he was distracted by moving fans. He used
profanity during a four-minute tirade with Nimmons, who called in
ATP Tour supervisor Gayle Bradshaw. After conferring with Nimmons,
Bradshaw defaulted Rios.
"It's not fair. I go to talk to him (Nimmons) and he says I said something bad," Rios said. "I didn't say it to him, I said it to me."
Bradshaw decided that Rios "said the magic words to the
chair."
"It was said to the official and he heard it," Bradshaw said.
Rios was unapologetic about the outburst, which will cost him $3,500 in prize money, his free hotel room and additional fines to be levied by Bradshaw.
"If I didn't say it to him, I shouldn't be sorry," Rios said.
"The sport is getting too strict. It bothers me because I didn't
say it to him."
No. 4 Michael Chang defeated Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe 6-1, 6-3.
Rios' unexpected departure was the latest during a tournament
already hard hit by the withdrawals of eight other players,
including top-seed Andre Agassi.
Motomura stayed behind the baseline and said he didn't hear
anything.
"I was surprised," he said of the default. "I was playing good. There was a very small chance to win against him."
Motomura quickly canceled his Thursday flight to Toronto and rescheduled it for Friday. He'll play Australian Jason Stoltenberg on Thursday.
Just three days removed from his part in the United States' third-worst Davis Cup defeat, Jan-Michael Gambill beat Cecil Mamiit 6-3, 6-2.
Gambill lost two singles matches as Spain stunned a weakened
American squad 5-0, the first time in 101 years that the United
States was beaten so badly without the Davis Cup title on the line.
"What happened in Spain was not that bad," Gambill said. "We
were so close to winning a few of those matches, but we didn't do
it."
He had no such trouble with Mamiit, a former NCAA singles
champion at Southern California. Gambill, the sixth seed, served
seven aces in the 66-minute first-round match at the Los Angeles
Tennis Center on the UCLA campus.
In two second-round matches, fifth-seeded Wayne Ferreira of
South Africa needed nearly 2½ hours to beat Paradorn Srichaphan of
Thailand 7-6 (1), 4-6, 7-5, while No. 8 Arnaud Clement of France
defeated Neville Godwin of South Africa 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Gambill's Davis Cup teammate Vince Spadea never made it on
court. Spadea, who lost a meaningless three-set match in Spain on
Sunday, withdrew because of overhydration.
Spadea became the eighth player to drop out this week due to
injuries or illness. Agassi withdrew Monday with lingering back
problems from a post-Wimbledon car accident.
Spadea was hospitalized Monday in Spain, arrived in Los Angeles
on Tuesday and was examined by the tournament doctor Wednesday.
"I'm disappointed not to play in L.A.," he said. "I was looking
forward to playing, but something unexpected happened."
Scott Humphries of Tampa, Fla., replaced Spadea in the draw as a
lucky loser, and gave No. 2 seed Mark Philippoussis a battle before
the Australian prevailed 7-5, 7-6 (2).
"He's got nothing to lose, so he's going to go out there
swinging. I wasn't that comfortable with my serve," said
Philippoussis, who nevertheless had 11 aces and connected on 63
percent of his first serves.
Humphries dropped to 0-14 in ATP Tour career matches, although
he beat Philippoussis for the 1994 Wimbledon junior singles title.
"I just keep plugging away. I've had a lot of close ones,"
said Humphries, who learned 1½ hours before that he made the
singles main draw.
Gambill was never in trouble in his first tournament since
losing to eventual champion Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals of
Wimbledon. No less an authority than Sampras singled Gambill out as
the future of American tennis.
"That's the greatest compliment anyone has ever paid me," he
said. "Pete doesn't pay compliments lightly. He doesn't say
anything at all. He just goes out there and plays, and that's why I
think he's the greatest player to have ever played the game."
| |
ALSO SEE
Wednesday's results
Chang gets a smooth ride in his Mercedes Benz Cup opener
Lower back strain keeps Agassi out of tournament
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