By Randy Walker
NEWPORT, R.I. – In his song “Short People,” Randy Newman sings of height-challenged people “They got little baby legs; That stand so low; You got to pick em up; Just to say hello.”
Thus will be the refrain in one of the semifinals of the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Championships this Saturday when Olivier Rochus of Belgium and Brian Dabul of Argentina will face off in likely the shortest semifinal in the history of the ATP World Tour.
Rochus, listed as standing at 5-foot-6, defeated South African qualifier Raven Klaasen 6-1, 6-3 in Thursday’s quarterfinal, while Dabul, listed at 5-foot-7, defeated Dustin Brown of Jamaica 6-4, 6-4 to also advance into the semifinals.
Rochus was also a semifinalist last year in Newport, losing to eventual champion Rajeev Ram. He is officially listed at standing at 5-foot-6 but as one well-traveled tennis writer remarked “we think he is lying and he is only 5-foot-4.” Patrons at the International Tennis Hall of Fame remarked that the two shortest players in the draw have a bit of an advantage in Newport as the low bounce off the soft grass courts works well for the two players built closest to the ground.
“I like to play on grass. It’s not that easy, but I’m playing good,” said Rochus. “Two semifinals in a row (in Newport). I like it. I wish there were more tournaments on grass for me.”
Dabul defeated 6-foot-5 Brown in only 67 minutes just one day after Brown upset top-seeded American Sam Querrey. He will be playing in first career ATP World Tour semifinal. The left-hander from Argentina said he admired Guillermo Vilas, the left-handed countryman who won the U.S., French and Australian Opens in the 1970s, but Vilas was already retired when he started to follow and play tennis. He said he also admired Marcelo Rios of Chile, also a left-handed South American, but was quick to modify that he admired “just his game,” alluding to the Chilean’s prickly personality.
Two other quarterfinals will be staged Friday and will determine who will play in the other semifinal on Saturday. No. 5-seeded American Mardy Fish takes on Canada’s best Frank Dancevic while American wild card Ryan Harrison will take on British qualifier Richard Bloomfield.
The winner of this $500,000 event will collect $75,700.
Randy Walker is a communications and marketing specialist, writer, tennis historian and the managing partner of New Chapter Media – www.NewChapterMedia.com. He was a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Tennis Association’s marketing and communications division where he worked as the press officer for 22 U.S. Davis Cup ties, three Olympic tennis teams and was an integral part of USTA media services team for 14 US Opens. He is the author of the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY (www.TennisHistoryBook.com).