By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff
Wayne Ferreira, like most professional tennis players, is used
to it being quiet during his matches.
That wasn’t the case, however, on Tuesday, during day two
of the Mercedes-Benz Cup, as some 250 kids with their boisterous
personalities invaded the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Kaiser
Permanente Kids Day. The event not only gave complimentary tickets
to the children for the day’s matches, it had former ATP Tour
players school the kids in tennis.
Despite the many conversations that were going on during their
match, the No. 2 seeded doubles team of Ferreira and Kevin Ullyett
obliterated Marius Barnard and Adam Peterson 6-1, 6-4 in a first
round match that took all of 43 minutes.
“They were loud,” said Ferreira, who is also ranked
No. 21 in singles, about the children in attendance. “If the
match is close and you’re trying to concentrate and things
aren’t going so well it becomes a problem.
“But it was an easy match for us so it wasn’t too
bad,” he added.
It didn’t seem like the kids bothered Ullyett and Ferreira
in the match’s opening moments. The duo jumped out to a 5-0
lead in the first set.
After Barnard and Peterson won their serve, Ferreira and Ullyett
closed out the set.
The No. 2 seeded doubles team had their serve broken once in the
match’s second stanza as they won 6-4.
Both Ferreira and Ullyett are no strangers to success in
doubles.
Ferreira teamed up with Byron Black to win the doubles title
last year in Los Angeles.
The Zimbabwe-born Ullyett is primarily known on the Tour as a
doubles player. In 1998 alone he won a career-high four doubles
titles.
The duo joined forces for this tournament because their normal
partners weren’t in town.
“We played once or twice before and he’s a really
good friend of mine,” said Ferreira, who won his first round
match in singles on Monday.
“We’ve got a really good chance,” he added.
“We play well with each other and he’s a good doubles
player.”
Ferreira and Ullyett will now face the winners of the Murphy
Jensen- Cecil Mamitt and Sebastein Lareau-Jocelyn Robichaud
match.
. . .
In other action on Tuesday afternoon, 19-year-old American
phenom Taylor Dent and his 133 mph serve lost to Frenchmen Lionel
Roux 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in a first round match.
Dent, who lives in Newport Beach, had a large contingent of fans
in the stands.
Roux was a late addition as he replaced No. 2 Andre Agassi after
the 1998 Mercedes Benz Cup champion withdrew due to back
spasms.
In another notable match, Australian Jason Stoltenberg beat
former Stanford star Bob Bryan 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.