Martin Match Highlights Legg Mason

Todd Martin turned 34 last month, but because of some prematurely grey hair around his temples, he looks more like a senior bank executive, out of place among his mostly far younger hard-body competitors on the ATP professional tennis tour. He is two months younger than Andre Agassi, the oldest active Top 100 player on the tour.

On the court in the opening round of the Legg Mason Tournament in Washington, D.C., Monday, however, Martin's powerful shots rocketed across the net looking every bit as frisky as those of his 26-year-old Dutch opponent Raemon Sluiter.

What resulted in this battle of ages was certainly one of the most gripping matches of the first days of the annual tournament, if not an archetypical classic more generally. On one side was Sluiter, quick with a serve that hit the upper 130s, sweating under the heat of the day but never showing fatigue or breathing hard. The other was the lanky Martin, clearly the crowd favorite, who was valiant under the constant pressure from the faster Sluiter, but who would huff and puff and more than once strolled the court to catch his breath, appearing pained with exhaustion after chasing volleys back and forth across the court. Out of action until last week due to an injury at Wimbledon, Martin was hampered perhaps not so much by age as a lack of conditioning.

Both men remained even-tempered and quietly resilient as they wrestled in what turned out to be three successive tie-breaker sets. It was almost three hours after the match's first serve that, in the final tie-breaker, Sluiter pulled away for the victory.

The match that followed, the day's main feature involving second-seeded Lleyton Hewitt, was a major letdown by comparison, a two-set blowout in which Hewitt won all but three games from Kenneth Carlsen.

Most impressive about the Martin-Sluiter marathon was Martin, so often appearing on the ropes, stubbornly fighting his own fatigue and refusing to give in. Sluiter had seven set points in the first set before Martin finally won the tie-breaker, 7-5. In the second set, despite being down 0-40 twice, Martin refused to have his service broken, ultimately requiring a second tie-breaker. Sluiter won that, 7-3.

Ironically, it was the veteran Martin, whose main claim to fame was making the finals of the U.S. Open in 1999, who committed three egregious unforced errors, including two in the final tie breaker, to decide the final outcome.

Possibly the result of fatigue, Martin blew a chance at breaking Sluiter's service late in the third set by driving an overhead slam of a desperation lob by Sluiter almost straight down to his own feet.

Then twice in the final tie break series, he had two opportunities at the net to bunt soft taps for winners into Sluiter's front court, but both were mishit into the net.

Finally, a double fault brought an end to the long day with a 7-5 Sluiter tie break victory.

The tournament continues through its finals on Sunday at the cozy William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center at 16th Street NW and Blagden in Rock Creek Park. Falls Church's own events management firm of Brotman-Winter-Fried is once again handling public relations for the event.

Agassi and Hewitt are the favorites to meet in the title match. Single session tickets remain available through TicketMaster.com.