Arazi keeps control to set up match with Federer

The artistry of Hicham Arazi is a joy to behold. It is just a pity that the 29-year-old Moroccan has been unable to complement his talent with his temperament more often, otherwise he would have won more than the solitary singles title achieved in Casablanca, his home town, in 1997.

Arazi managed to hold both his game and his mind together here yesterday, justifying his wild card by defeating Russia's Yegeny Kafelnikov, the eighth seed, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, to advance to the quarter-finals of the Dubai Open. Arazi now plays Switzerland's Roger Federer, the top seed, whose mission is to redeem himself after being accused of not giving his best effort when losing in the second round last year. Federer was too strong for Maximilian Abel, a German qualifier, yesterday, defeating his second-round opponent 6-4, 7-5.

Unseasonable cloudy weather is not the only odd feature at the tournament this year. Martina Navratilova's doubles partner, Svetlana Kuznetsova, called for a trainer to spray her hair, which was blowing in her eyes; a British umpire, Gerry Armstrong, was accidentally hit between the eyes by a stray forehand practice shot from Marat Safin; and yesterday seagull droppings stopped play.

The large flock completed two leisurely flights over the stadium and left their mark, adding to the job of drying the court with towels after a few spots of rain. The players, Rainer Schuettler, of Germany, and Max Mirnyi, of Belarussia, did not have to leave the court during the mopping-up operation. Indeed Schuettler, who went on to win a place in the quarter-finals with a 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 victory, regarded the bird droppings as a good omen.

"My season got off to a good start after a bird was shitting on my head in Chennai [India]," the 26-year-old from Korbach said. "I got the quarter-finals in Chennai, then reached the semis in Sydney, and was in the final of the Australian Open. So when the birds came [in the second set] today I thought it would be lucky for me again."

The fifth-seeded Schuettler needed good fortune after finding himself 4-1 down in the final set. Mirnyi tended to have more pace than accuracy in his serving, double-faulting 15 times, and his volleying was also erratic. Schuettler, having fought back to force the second tie-break, had to save one match point before converting his third to win, 10-8.

Armstrong was not feeling well enough to officiate a doubles match after taking the force of Safin's forehand while standing between his chair and the net-post waiting for a warm-up to finish on Tuesday.

"I'm lucky the ball didn't hit me in the eye," Armstrong said. "Afterwards I had a headache and felt fuzzy, and a bit sick when umpiring a singles match, and decided not to do the doubles." Happily he was soon back on duty.