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Herrera Puts Aside Injury, Grabb

Mexico's Luis Herrera rallied from a set down Monday to make American Jim Grabb the first upset victim of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Northwest Washington.

Herrera recovered from a one-sided opening set for a 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory in the opening day of D.C,'s annual stop on the ATP Tour.

While Herrera's on-court comeback was impressive, his return to the courts of ATP tournaments has been a much greater struggle. He underwent surgery on his left shoulder in 1993, and the 5-foot-7 serve-and-volleying left-hander was sidelined for nearly two years. Herrera, who will now face defending champion and top-seeded Michael Chang in the second round Tuesday night, was once ranked as high as No. 59 in the world. But that was in 1992—before the injury.

Since then it has been a long struggle back and has included having to play in the qualifying rounds of tournaments, like he did here this weekend. Though he lost just five games in those two matches, qualifying is not exactly what Herrera wanted to do.

"I would have preferred to have the day off," he said.

Monday's match against Grabb was far from an off-day either.

Grabb, an 11-year tour pro, is a doubles specialist, having won 20 tournament titles in doubles but only two in singles. But he played one of his best singles tournaments here in 1990, losing to Andre Agassi in the finals.

He looked sharp early Monday as well, winning the first set in just 25 minutes. But Herrera recovered by winning the first five games of the second set en route to evening the match at one set apiece.

With the match tied at 5-5 in the third set, Grabb appeared to be forcing at least a tiebreaker as he blistered two aces past the left-handed Herrera to take a 30-0 lead.

But a double fault by Grabb was followed by lost points on a missed overhead, a shanked forehand and another double fault, respectively, before Herrera ripped a passing shot down the line for a service-breaking winner to take a 6-5 lead that prompted Grabb to heave his racket across the court.

"I think he was a little tired in the third set," Herrera said.

The 5-foot-7 Herrera then repeatedly came to the net on his next service game and lost just one point to close out the match.

Herrera's next opponent—Chang, the world's No. 2 ranked player—is one that Herrera has never beaten.

"I'm just going to go out there and have fun," he said.

But win or lose, Herrera will be able to take comfort in knowledge that his recovery has nearly come full circle.

"To compete at this level, it took me a while," Herrera said. "Finally right now, I think I'm starting to be back."

© Copyright 1997 WashingtonPost.com

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