IT was a mixed-up mismatch on centre court at the Odlum Brown VanOpen Monday night at West Vancouver's Hollyburn Country Club but in the end it sorted itself out to produce some riveting tennis.
To the untrained eye it appeared that North Vancouver's Philip Bester was the clear favourite - the six-foot-two 24-yearold towered over Belgium's Olivier Rochus, one of the shortest professionals in the sport at a listed height of five-foot-six. And Bester was bringing the heat with his serve as well, cranking shots at 130 miles per hour en route to 14 aces. Rochus, meanwhile, managed just three aces from his lower point of projection.
To the trained eye, however - or to someone who cared to look up the world rankings for each player - the mismatch was clearly in the opposite direction.
Though short in stature, the 32-year-old Rochus towers over Bester in the rankings. Currently ranked No. 146, Rochus sits 360 spots higher than the North Vancouver pro. Just last year Rochus was in the top 50 and he is the owner of two career ATP singles titles as well as a Grand Slam doubles title he earned at the French Open in 2004.
Bester, meanwhile, has never cracked the top 200 since his debut on the standings in 2005 and he barely made it into the main draw at this year's VanOpen, earning a last minute wild card spot thanks to the success of another North Vancouverite. The wild card entry was supposed to go to young phenom Filip Peliwo but last year's Wimbledon and U.S. Open junior champion was granted a special exemption into the tournament after he made the quarterfinals at the Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championship Challenger in Lexington, Kentucky on Friday. That exemption opened up another wild card spot that went to Bester, who found himself on centre court in the Monday night feature just three days after learning he'd be in the tournament.
Though he was thoroughly outranked by the Belgian, Bester put up a serious fight. Rochus proved early in the match that he wasn't intimidated by the big serve, using his court speed and strong returns to take the first set. The second set needed a tiebreaker and, with the match on the line, Bester cranked up his game, winning the first four tiebreak points and then holding on to take it 7-5. Set point, fittingly, was clinched with another scorching ace.
In the third Bester looked poised to take control early, earning two break points with the score tied 1-1. Charging the net for what looked like a sure winner, Bester instead volleyed into the net, allowing Rochus to roar back and take the game. Rochus continued to roll from there, building a 5-2 lead. Bester battled, fighting off two match points to make it 5-3, but Rochus cleaned it all up on his own serve to take a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 win.
Bester may have had the biggest serve but it wasn't the perfect weapon - he connected on only 47 per cent of his first serves and Rochus took advantage, flashing his impressive return game to win the point on 50 per cent of Bester's second serves.
So it was another early exit for the hometown hopeful but Bester, who grew up playing on those same Hollyburn courts, left feeling good about the love he felt from his Vancouver fans.
"Support was amazing tonight. Thank you," he tweeted following the match. "Love playing in Van. Before my career is over I will hold the (VanOpen) trophy."
The tournament continued with a big day of action Tuesday following North Shore News press deadline. Peliwo, who spent all night Monday sitting in the front row on centre court catching all the action, stepped over the fence to take the court against fellow Canadian Frank Dancevic in a centre court feature match. Canadian Vasek Pospisil was also in action, taking on Taiwan's Ti Chen. Pospisil, seeded No. 2 in the tournament, was the topseeded player left following Monday's action as No. 1 seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia was upset by Great Britain's Daniel Evans.
On the women's side No. 2 seed Kimiko Date-Krumm, at 42 the oldest woman ranked in the world's top-100, made her tournament debut Tuesday against Australia's Olivia Rogowska.
Today's schedule will feature the first appearance of women's No. 1-seed Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan, the world's 41st-ranked player who won the Wimbledon doubles championship earlier this month. The tournament is scheduled to wrap up with championship finals Saturday and Sunday. Visit vanopen.com for updated results and daily order of play lists.
