Tennis: Rusedski draws level with Santoro
Greg Rusedski kept his nerve in a second-set tie-break to redress the balance in his second round clash at Roland Garros.
Rusedski made the worst possible start in his bid to join Tim Henman in the third round of the French Open when he lost the first set of his match against Fabrice Santoro.
Rusedski was facing the passion of a partisan home crowd who had packed Court Philippe Chatrier to cheer on Santoro.
Rusedski's volleying let him down throughout and Santoro took full advantage, launching the fastest serve in the game and going on to take the first set 6-1 in just 21 minutes.
Rusedski, it seemed, had no answer to the faster-thinking Frenchman and again his volleying let him down as he lost his serve again in the third game of the second set.
Nothing was going right for the big left-hander, whose torment was summed up in the sixth game when he sent a mighty mis-hit sailing nearer to the Eiffel Tower than the opposite baseline.
In the eighth game he attacked the Santoro serve with big booming forehands, however, winning the game to love to snatch a break and a lifeline. It was a turning point.
The pair swapped service breaks again to take the set into a tie-break which Rusedski, showing the guts for which he is famed, won 7-4 to take the set 7-6 and square the match at one set each.
