With rain-lashed Brighton offering a passable impersonation of Lake Woebegone yesterday afternoon it was difficult to believe that tennis was actually taking

With rain-lashed Brighton offering a passable impersonation of Lake Woebegone yesterday afternoon it was difficult to believe that tennis was actually taking place, even indoors. But sure enough, behind the sea-front gridlock, there was action in the Samsung Open at the Brighton Centre in front of a huddled few. With rain-lashed Brighton offering a passable impersonation of Lake Woebegone yesterday afternoon it was difficult to believe that tennis was actually taking place, even indoors. But sure enough, behind the sea-front gridlock, there was action in the Samsung Open at the Brighton Centre in front of a huddled few.
The second seed, a 22-year-old from Slovakia by the name of Dominik Hrbaty, required a mere 50 minutes to roll over Vladimir Voltchkov, the self-styled Vladiator from Belarus, 6-1 6-0.

Hrbaty, whose name in his mother tongue means “hunchback”, has surged into this afternoon’s final for the loss of one set and only 14 games.This is a player of much skill who has beaten Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov this year, who was the runner-up in St. Petersburg to Marat Safin two weeks ago and who, in Bratislava on Wednesday, will be awarded his nation’s Player of the Year trophy by the Slovakian President Suster.Accordingly, even if he wins today’s final, Hrbaty will fly home with a full head of hair so that he will look presentable for the ceremony. Hrbaty, it seems, is one of those athletes who celebrates success by shaving his head. When he won the doubles at the Italian Open in Rome in May he and his partner, Martin Damm, became instant baldies.Hrbaty has also won two singles titles – at San Marino in 1998 and Prague last year. Now that he has finally finished high school, graduating in 1999, the possibility is that he will be able to devote more time to accumulating titles and dollars instead of his previous curriculum of geography, philosophy, English and the Slovakian language.Originally through the achievements of Miloslav Mecir, and more recently on the back of the success of such players as Karol Kucera, Jan Kroslak and Hrbaty, tennis is a fast-rising sport in Slovakia, just behind ice hockey in popularity but, he says, ahead of football “because they are playing bad and there was some money corruption.”His tennis year completed after today, Hrbaty will indulge in his favourite hobby and play in two charity ice hockey matches between the tennis players of the Czech Republic and Slovakia The man’s hobbies are legion. He is a home cinema buff, boasting a large screen with surround-sound, and also collects coins Only New Zealand coins, apparently “They are so beautiful, so nice. Every year there is a different picture and on the other side is Queen Elizabeth.”Like most of the competitors, Hrbaty has found life in Brighton this past week a little trying.

“I don’t see much of the place because 50 metres is too far to go in the rain.” As a devotee of Japanese food Hrbaty confessed, “I don’t find British food suits me, so I take Italian or Japanese.” Perhaps he had heard that Voltchkov, the surprise semi-finalist at Wimbledon this year, existed all week in Brighton on fish and chips.As Hrbaty has conclusively proved, the carpet in the Brighton Centre suits his baseline style. “I like the surface, the ball bounces high and not too fast,” he said, adding that he has invited his older brother, George, a tennis umpire, to fly in for the final. Hrbaty’s highest ranking this year, after Rome, was 13 and he now stands 18th in the ATP Champions Race. His opponent today will be either Tim Henman or the Korean, Hyung-Taik Lee, who were playing late last night. He has faced Henman once before, losing a tight three-setter in Rotterdam early last year.The brevity of yesterday afternoon’s semi-final was another whack to the midriff the sponsors and promoters could have done without, following as it did Friday’s quarter-final disappointment when Henman’s scheduled opponent, Chris Woodruff, pulled out with an arm injury and there then arose an unsavoury dispute involving Henman and Greg Rusedski about who would, agree to play an exhibition match to cheer up the ticket holders. Rusedski declined because he was still involved in doubles, despite calling it “social doubles.” Yesterday his social duties ended in a 6-3 6-2 semi-final defeat with Marc Kevin Goellner against Jeff Tarango and Mike Hill.. Top seed Tim Henman won his first ATP title in front of his British fans today when he outplayed second seed Dominik Hrbaty 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the Samsung Open in Brighton.