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NEWS ARCHIVES 2003

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Other Archives - 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999

3 December 2003 - Tim appoints Annacone as new Coach

Tim finished the year by beating current grand slam champions, Federer and Roddick, back to back before winning his first Tennis Masters shield by beating Andre Pavel in Paris.  Tim has now admitted that he sought some advice from Pete Sampras' ex coach, Paul Annacone, on the way to victory in Paris and has now taken the step to team up with Annacone on a part time basis for the 2004 season. 

29 November 2003 - Tim Memorabilia for sale

Various Adidas/Telegraph Tim display boards, posters, calendars for sale.  The list is now available...Click here for more information.

28 November 2003 - Tim charity match at RAH

Tim has been on holiday relaxing before starting training for next year and has one last duty left for 2003 when he plays Rainer Schuettler (should have been Goran) at the Honda Tennis Classic at the Royal Albert Hall, for his charity, Kids at Heart. 

2 November 2003 - Tim wins his first Tennis Masters Series "shield"

This was the first time since 1988 that the Paris Bercy Super 9/Tennis Masters event final was played between two unseeded players.  After two of his best victories of the year against Wimbledon Champion Roger Federer and US Open Champion Andy Roddick, Tim was at the top of his confidence as he walked onto court to play the final against Pavel. 

He looked the best player from the start, breaking his Romanian opponent twice during the first set to take it 6-2 and severely dent the new found confidence of the Romanian player who, like Tim, has suffered from injury setback during much of 2003.   Tim took the initiative again in the second set by getting an early break but Pavel fought back extremely hard to level at 5-5 and eventually force a tie break.  This was touch and go for a while but Tim got the upper hand back again to take the breaker 8-6 and a stranglehold two set lead which all but extinguished Pavel's hopes of victory.   However, the Romanian was not finished yet.  He knew just what was at stake (having won a TMS shield himself in Canada a couple of years back) and forced another tie break in the third set.  Tim got the first point of the breaker and had a strangehold lead which he never relinquished, winning the breaker 7-2 when Pavel sent his last return into the net. 

Tim held his arms aloft to show his delight at winning his first Tennis Masters shield and his 11th career title.  The not inconsiderable prize money will be put to good use but it is the ranking points that really show how well Tim has done.   He gets 500 points for his entry system ranking and will finish the year at No.13 in the world - thus guaranteeing him a top flight seeding position for the Australian Open in January. 

This is a stupendous finish to Tim's year - his first Tennis Masters Series title (incidently the one which Greg won in 1998) and this should silence the doubters in the media who have been saying that Tim's career is on the wane.  The state of British Tennis might be in a pretty bad way, and no one knows what is going to happen with Greg Rusedski in 2004 (whether he will play or not) - but Tim is most definitely on an upward curve once again - Bring on 2004 - I can't wait! 

1 November 2003 - Tim teaches Roddick a lesson (or two)

Tim reached the peak of his season just at the right time - when he had the chance to teach Andy Roddick a lesson or two in the semi finals and attempt to reach his third tennis master series final.  This was a contest which was dominated by serve as both players have extremely powerful service actions. 

Tim won the toss and elected to receive and this tactic worked instantly as Tim got a break of serve in the very first game when Roddick was "cold".   He held this break throughout the first set until he was 5-4 up and serving for the advantage.  However, Roddick is not at the top of the rankings for nothing and countered well to break back and a tie break was the only way to split the players.   Although Roddick had a superior record in tie breaks for this year, he did not play the breaker well while Tim played brilliantly to take the breaker 7-4 and take the first set advantage.

The second set was another really tough battle.  No early breaks - in fact no breaks of serve - before the players were forced to play another tie break (Tim's third for the week).  Tim had an early lead but Roddick came back with some really good counterpunching.  The climax of the match came in the 16th point of the tie break when Tim led 8-7 and forced Roddick to hit an attempted winner wide.  Tim was in the final of a tennis masters event for the first time this year - and his last ATP event of 2003.  There he would play Andre Pavel - who like Tim was another lucky player to get into the draw only on the withdrawal of others.

31 October 2003 - Tim derails the Federer Express

Although Tim was unseeded, he certainly went into his match against Roger Federer with the upper hand - because he had a winning record against Federer in their previous meetings.  (The only time that Roger had prevailed was when Tim had had to default their match in Miami with a neck injury and this didn't really count as Tim was injured). 

This quarter final match was obviously eagerly awaited, as the auditorium was near capacity when the players came on court.  Roger had more than his fair share of Swiss supporters whilst there were a few Union Jacks in evidence.  The first set was extremely tight.  Tim held his own early on and stayed on level terms with Federer as the set progressed.  At 4-5 down, Tim suddenly slipped to break points down giving Federer a chance to take the first set.  However, Tim produced a fantastic defensive lob on set point which Roger eventually hit out.  The set eventually went to a tie break which Roger initially led.  However Tim countered well and soon had the upper hand, winning the breaker 7-5.  Tim well and truly had the upper hand in the second set as he broke early and raced to victory 7-6, 6-1.  A victory over the Wimbledon Champion was one battle and the semi final would be another as Tim had the opportunity to settle a score against the current US Open Champion Andy Roddick - and new world number one and to take the American down a peg or three!

30 October 2003 - Tim closes the "Kuertens" on Guga's year

After a very confident win over the home favourite Grosjean, Tim went into his third round match against Gustavo Kuerten in a very determined mood.  The fact that Kuerten was on a high as well from winning the previous week in St Petersburg did nothing to dampen things.  Tim was in no nonsense mood and never really let the Brazilian get into his groove on his flashy groundstrokes.  Tim controlled things throughout, frequently racing to the net on return as well as serve and was able to finish things with a very cheeky ace - 6-4, 6-2 and set himself up with a match against Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.

29 October 2003 - Tim gains revenge over Grosjean

Tim was most definitely "very up" for his match against the French favourite, Sebastien Grosjean.  Grosjean was another player with an outside chance of qualifying for Houston so he too was extremely motivated.  The first set went to the Frenchman who used the particularly partisan crowd to his favour when Tim made a few too many unforced errors early on.  The nerves disappeared during the second set and Tim was able to bring his own pressure to bear to break Grosjean, take the set and force a decider. 

This match was one of the highlights of the day - and the featured evening match - and the final set definitely did the billing justice.  Both players put up a good fight but it was Grosjean who buckled first and allowed Tim to take advantage and win 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. 

27 October 2003 - Tim beats Davydenko in Paris

Tim's falling ranking meant that he was very nearly forced to play the qualifying event in Paris but thankfully this problem took care of itself when several higher ranked players were forced to pull out.  Tim actually had Thomas Johansson for his place in the main draw.

In the first round, Tim drew Russian Nikolay Davydenko who has had a good year on the Tour but obviously struggles on the indoor surfaces of Europe.  This match was a good workout for Tim and he won fairly quickly and easily in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.  This gave him an second round match against Grosjean and an opportunity to gain some revenge over the Frenchman for defeats at Wimbledon and Queesn during the summer.

24 October 2003 - Tim beaten by Nalbandian again in Basel

Tim's chances of reaching another semi final evaporated quickly during his quarter final match in Basel.  For the second straight year, he had to play David Nalbandian from Argentina and I think that many would agree with me that Tim did not really do himself justice as he lost in straight sets 2-6, 4-6, especially after the confident way he had played Verkerk and Zib.

23 October 2003 - Tim reaches quarter finals in Basel

This week the ATP is at its annual stop in Basel, Switzerland.  This must be one of Tim's favourite tournaments because he has twice won the event as well as being in the final and latter stages in other years.  Due to his slip in the rankings, Tim was not seeded for this year's event and drew seed Martin Verkerk in the first round. 

This was good draw for Tim as the tall Dutchman has found it hard to live up to other people's expectations since he reached the final at Roland Garros and Tim won in straight sets, to give him a second round match against Czech lucky loser, Tomas Zib.   This match was eventful - not particularly for the tennis - because it had to be stopped in the second set due to the lights going out.  However, this break did not affect Tim at all as he raced through the match in straight sets, giving him another quarter final match up against David Nalbandian (who beat Tim last year at the same stage).

15 October 2003 - Tim beaten by Fish in Madrid

Tim's next stop on the ATP Tour was the TMS event in Madrid.  Back in action were all the main combatents for the year, Roddick, Federer, Ferreira and there was a fierce contest between these three for the number one ranking.  Because of his lack of match victories, Tim was again unseeded in the TMS event and was drawn to play improving American, Mardy Fish, in the first round.  Fish has been having a great year and is definitely one of the players to watch for the very near future on the faster surfaces around the world.  He has a really strong serve and he is beginning to follow this up with great groundstrokes and consistency in his play. 

Tim tried to use his experience to give him the upper hand early on but Fish was having none of it.  He seemed to be able to counterpunch whatever Tim threw at him.  The first set went to a tie break.  When Fish was able to win it comfortably, Tim knew he had more than a real battle on his hands and once Fish had a break of serve, it was only a matter of time before he was the victor 7-6, 6-3 and Tim could return to the UK to celebrate the first birthday of his daughter Rosie!.

12 October 2003 - Tim fails to stop Carlos Moya

Moya's confidence indoors is obviously increasing with every match he plays.  Although Tim has had a year of ups and downs, it was a tightly contested match but it was the confident Spaniard who was able to come out on top.  Tim never gave up his fight but Moya was able to counter everything that Tim threw at him and came out on top 6-7, 5-7, leaving Tim to rue the chances he had.

10 October 2003 - Tim beats Bjorkman

After the battle against Schalken, Tim raced through his quarter final match against Swede Jonas Bjorkman - which as some of you may know is another one of Tim's "nemisis" players.  Tim underlined his superiority in singles winning 6-1, 6-4 and reached his first semi final since Washington.  There he would have to play Carlos Moya - who was all but qualified for Houston.

8 October 2003 - Tim back to his best?

Tim produced one of his best performces for some time on the ATP Tour when he beat Sjeng Schalken in the second round in Vienna.  Schalken who had a small outside chance of reaching the Tennis Masters Cup has been playing very solidly this year but Tim managed to bring the Dutchman to a standstill.  Although the match went the distance of three sets, Tim looked the better player in the final set, winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 putting him into a quarter final with Jonas Bjorkman.

7 October 2003 - Tim wins opening match in Vienna

Tim marked his return to the ATP Tour with a straight sets victory over Italian Stefano Pescosolido 6-2, 6-3 in Vienna.  His next opponent is Sjeng Schalken - who still has an outside chance of reaching the Masters Cup in Houston.  Tim on the other hand just wants to win some matches before the end of the season and to get his ranking back inside the Top 20 again.

Tim took a break from the Tour after his Davis Cup exertions in Casablanca and relaxed at home with Lucy and Rosie and has also finalised the purchase of the new family home in the last week or so. 

27  August 2003 - Roddick rolls through Tim

Tim was on the receiving end of another Roddick victory roll last night when he took on the American wonderkid in the first round in New York.  It was one of the typical copybook performances from Roddick that the fans have come to expect over the last few weeks.  He has only lost 3 times since St Polten (at Roland Garros, to Federer at Wimbledon and Tim in Washington).   Roddick's powerful serve became the key as the match went on, Tim just so few chances.  Tim had a few successes in the second set and served to take the set at 5-4 up but failed in his quest to level things up and from here on in it was only a matter of time as Roddick's confidence sky rocketed.  Tim lost 3-6, 6-7, 3-6 and will now return to the UK to make final preparations for the Davis Cup play-off tie vs Morocco, scheduled to take place in Casablanca starting on 19 September.

24 August 2003 - US Open Draw News

Tim has one of the toughest tasks ahead of him in New York this week as he was drawn to play Andy Roddick in the first round of the US Open.  Tim missed on a seeding position by 2 places and is now hoping for some players to pull out with injury.  (Safin has since pulled out to be replaced by Chela so Tim only has to wait for one more seeded player to pull out to avoid having to play Roddick on Tuesday). 

12 August 2003 - Cincinnati Flop

Tim did not have a good week in Cincinnati when he lost to another Argentinian Guillermo Coria in the first round of the 7th TMS event of the year.  Coria took the first set quite easily producing much of the same tennis that has been evident on the clay courts of Europe as he won 3 consecutive events in Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel and Sopot.  The second set was tense and hung on a few points but eventually Tim squeeked it out to take the match into a decider.  The final set was a highly charged affair and came down to a couple of line calls in the very latter stages of the set.  Unfortunately, Tim came off second best and shortly afterwards Coria was celebrating entry to the second round.  

5 August 2003 - Tim beats Gonzalez again

Tim had a brief but lucky first match in Montreal when he played Fernando Gonzalez for the second time in 48 hours.  After a quick flight and change of venue, Tim took the court in Montreal on Tuesday and seemed to be continuing his dominance from Washington.  Early on, Gonzalez was struck with the pain from the tendonitis of the knee which he has been suffering from on and off this year and had to have treatment.   Tim raced to a 5-2 lead and when he took the set 6-2 Gonzalez decided to call it a day.  Tim was lucky in that he had a brief match but it was just long enough to get accustomed to the courts, the balls and the weather conditions.  He plays David Nalbandian next.

4 August 2003 - Tim claims 10th Title in Washington

"It's a special day for me" was how Tim summed up his triumph in Washington. His first title on American soil and the 10th of his career as Tim showed a cool head against the Chilean speedster, Fernando Gonzalez. The inclement weather conditions certainly helped Tim – he held serve 1-0 when the rains came and when the players returned, Tim took immediate advantage racing to a 4-0 lead.

Gonzalez is known for his hard hitting, for his "do or die" attitude with his play and in this match rather than succeeding with incredulous winners, he was spraying the balls everywhere. Tim took the first set and when he broke again early in the second, there was only going to be one winner. Although Gonzalez cranked up his serve even more towards the end, Tim weathered the Chilean storm and came away the winner 6-3, 6-4 with his first title since January 2002 and his first since shoulder surgery last December. It is certainly a sign that Tim's rehabilitation is working.  Tim now heads to the Tennis Masters events in Montreal (where interestingly his first match with be a rematch vs Gonzalez) and Cincinnati to bolster his ranking ahead of the US Open.

2 August 2003 - Tim reaches Washington Final

Tim has had a triumphant return to ATP Tour action this week.  After a first round bye, Tim had a tough fight against Paul Goldstein before coming through in 3 sets, then straight sets victories against Nikolay Davydenko and Paradorn Srichaphan before the semi final against Andy Roddick.

In his first encounter with Roddick, Tim looked to be out of his depth when the American raced to the first set 6-1.  However he managed to turn things around to level the match 6-3.  With much riding on the final set, things were tough for both players.  Roddick has won 3 or his last 5 tournaments (won St Polten, Queens and Indianapolis) and had a match point in the 10th game.  However, Tim saved this and the match was decided by a final set tie break.  After losing the first point of the breaker, Tim overwhelmingly won the next 7 points to put himself in his first final of the year.  He will play either Andre Agassi or Fernando Gonzalez.

1 July 2003 - Wimbledon Update

Tim has progressed through the early rounds of Wimbledon fairly easily.   After the few opening round hiccups against Tomas Zib, Tim progressed against two consecutive qualifiers, France's Michel Llodra and Sweden's Robin Soderling. 

The second week is when the big guns start to meet each other.  Tim's 4th round opponent was last year's finalist, David Nalbandian.  Tim raced through the first set with ease.  The second set was a different matter though and it went to a tie break with the Argentinian player won.  The third set was more like a clay court battle as service breaks were traded (and traded and traded - 7 in all) before Tim took the set on the 12th game.  After that, with the crowd totally on his side, Tim played through the 4th set and came through the victor.  In a rain affected day, Tim had to wait until later on Tuesday afternoon before he found out that his quarter final opponent would be Sebastien Grosjean (the player who beat Tim at Queens a few weeks ago).

20 June 2003 - Tim's seeding promotion

The All England Club Seeded Committee have given Tim a confidence boost in the lead up to Wimbledon when they promoted him from his 29th place in the Entry system to a seeding position of 10. 

15 June 2003 - Queens Update - Tim loses out in Semi Finals

Tim reached the semi finals at Queens before he came up against an opponent too far.  After victories over Sanguinetti, Saulnier and Dupuis, Tim played his third Frenchman in a row, Sebastian Grosjean, but lost in straight sets.  Tim very nearly defended his final points of last year and with his injury troubles of the last few months that is really good. 

Tim will no doubt have a day or two's rest before he makes his final practice preparations for Wimbledon which starts on 23rd June. 

31 May 2003 - Tim makes debut on the Centre Court in Paris

After two good victories against Voltchkov and T Martin, Tim had a severe test of his clay court prowess when he took on Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero (and the favourite for the men's singles title) on Roland Garros' Phillipe Chatrier court on Saturday.  After Tim took the first set with some strong serving, Ferrero turned up the pressure and eventually started to get the upper hand and came out the winner 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. 

30 May 2003 - Tim beats Todd Martin in Paris

Tim came through one of another tough test at the French Open when he beat American veteran, Todd Martin, in four sets to progress to the third round in Paris, after his 7-6, 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 victory.   Tim has now successfully defended his points from the same stage last year which is good from his ranking point of view. 

As a result of slipping down the rankings, Tim only managed to be granted the 25^th seeding position in Paris. The draw when it was made gave Tim a reasonable chance of success. He was set to play Vladimir Voltchkov from Belarus. The only ominous thing on the horizon was a possible third round match against Juan Carlos Ferrero, who is one of the favourites to win the title this year.

After all the preparations, Tim's clay court season came down to Paris. You may remember his opponent from Wimbledon a few years ago. Vladamir got to the quarter finals in 2000(?) and did so much better than he was expecting that he ran out of shirts and had to borrow some from his Russian colleagues. Anyway, that was then. Although he does have a game to trouble many players, he is better known as a fast court player and has struggled on the clay. He has "dodgy" movement on the red stuff at times and this match was no exception. After a slight hiccup early on when both players were trying to find their feet, Tim ran away with the match 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 and was through to a second round encounter with Todd Martin.

Turning to the Masters Series events in Rome and Hamburg, I am sure that Tim will not want to dwell on Rome too long. Still trying to find his feet on the clay and work his way into the 2003 season, Tim drew Guillermo Coria in the first round and, not to put too fine a point on it, played pretty badly. (I was there). As the match went on, I got the distinct impression that Tim was just trying to survive. He had no answer to Coria's tactics and the match was over quickly 6-2, 6-1 and it was just luck that saved Tim from being "bagelled".

The tournament in Hamburg was certainly more successful. For the second time this year, Tim was drawn to play Jan-Michael Gambill in the first round and although this match was not quite as simple as the last, Tim still came away from it with a straight sets win to put him into a second round match with Sebastien Grosjean. The Frenchman has been plagued by injuries almost as much as Tim over the last few months so it was a case of two comeback attempts. This match was delayed several times by the weather but it was Tim who let the rain breaks affect him the least, because he won an up and down match 6-0, 3-6, 6-2. This was a milestone for Tim for 2003 – the first time he had two consecutive match victories.

It was good to see Tim winning again but the third round was as far as he could get at this stage because he lost to Olivier Rochus (remember him? he beat Marat Safin at Wimbledon last year) in straight sets and was left to set his sights on his French Open preparations.

Like in Indian Wells and Miami, Tim decided to play doubles in Rome and Hamburg and this time he played with Guga Kuerten. Both players have been struggling for matches this year and it did them both good to get some extra competitive court time in the lead up to Roland Garros. Although things did not completely go to plan, the boys still managed to get some extra practice on the clay.

Another slight shoulder injury forced Tim to pull out of the Tennis Masters event in Monte Carlo. Although not as serious as the original injury which required surgery, Tim experienced niggling pain when he started his clay court preparation and as a precaution decided to pull out of the Monaco event.

Once he had rested and recovered, Tim decided to get some extra match practice by taking a wild card into the BMW Open in Munich. This helped to a certain extent. He did get one clay court victory under his belt when he beat Nicolas Lapentti in the first round, however progress came to an abrupt standstill against Stefan Koubek in round 2 when Tim lost in straight sets 4-6, 0-6.

Davis Cup news:  Team Great Britain have been given the unenviable task of an away tie vs Morroco in order to retain their place in the World Group.  I am sure that the LTA will shortly be providing news on their website about possible travel packages, but on this occasion, I will not be organising a group.  

Tim headed towards the Tennis Masters event in Indian Wells with a fair number of points to defend. As runner up in 2002, he hoped that a return to the fast hard courts of California would mean a change in luck.

After so long out of the tour, Tim's first duty in the desert was to take part in the annual Indian Wells fashion show (which also featured Nicolas Lapentti, Chanda Rubin and Natalie Dechy). In previous years, the players that took part in this event just wore their tennis clothes and just strutted up and down the catwalk on the arms on the models – this year the players even wore leisure outfits (all from Saks Fifth Avenue stores). The photos are highly amusing to say the least (and are available on Henmagic Photoworld).

Tim's first round match in the singles competition was against American Jan Michael Gambill. This was certainly a tricky encounter for Tim because he did not have a good record against him and also was aware that Jan-Michael had just won the tournament in Delray Beach to prove his pedigree on hard courts in America. The first few games were extremely tight and it looked like Tim might have trouble as the match wore on. However, Tim managed to get a break of serve late in the first set to take it 7-5 and from then did not look back. He raced through the second set 6-2 and was back to winning ways. The second round against Agustin Calleri did not go quite so well. Calleri had also come to Indian Wells after winning the tournament in Acapulco and his confidence was extremely high. It was not a particularly nice match to watch because the tennis was pretty ugly at times. The Argentine star took the match in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 and left Tim ruing his missed chances.

Lady luck was not with Tim either the following week either when the Tour crossed to Florida and the TMS event in Miami. After his opening round bye (which all the top 32 players get), Tim had to play Nicolas Escude – who is another player that Tim struggles against, even when fully fit. I think the media were a bit unfair on Tim after this match, because I was there (at least for most of it). They said that Escude just rang rings around Tim, but this is not totally correct. True, Tim did lose in straight sets but it was certainly not the whitewash that some of the journalists wrote about.

In a slight change from his usual stance in TMS events, Tim paired up with Mahesh Bhupathi in the doubles events in both Indian Wells and Miami. At the first, they did quite well and it certainly added to Tim's on court time in March, but in Miami the pair came up against the well-experienced partnership of Roger Federer and Max Mirnyi in the first round and lost having taken the first set. Incidently, the Federer/Mirnyi partnership went on to take the title so obviously Tim and Mahesh were just unlucky to have been drawn against them at the start of the tournament.

February 2003 Update – Tim back in ATP Action

After over three months off the Tour, Tim tried his shoulder out in Rotterdam and Dubai. Unfortunately in both cases he failed to win a match – however at the time, Tim said he was just glad to be back on the ATP Tour and playing tennis again without any major nagging pain.

January 2003 - Tim out of the Aussie Open

After confirming his surgery rehabilitation was not as far forward as he would like but before he officially pulled out of the first Grand Slam of the year, Tim was out and about with the two ladies in his life - Lucy and Rosie.  These pictures are from the Daily Mail (published 27/12/2002).  

Soon after these pictures were in the paper, Tim confirmed that he was indeed not going to be going to Australia to take part in the Australian Open, but did leave things open for him to take his place in the Davis Cup team for the tie against the Aussies in early February.  More news soon.