Or you would be, if we hadn’t changed the name.” There was a silence as Mr Lightman pondered this nomenclatural slant. “Perhaps,” he said, “I was a bit hasty …” “It’s too late,” snarled the pitiless Maguire. “He’s Will Freeman now.” Mr Lightman sounded a little bemused, I’m told, as he watched his 15 minutes of fame swirl down the plughole.. The Frenchman Nicolas Escude yesterday fought his way out of a corner for the third time at the Australian Open in Melbourne to reach the men’s semi-finals and earn place in Grand Slam history.

He beat Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 to set the enviable record of being the first player to fight back from two sets down three times in a Grand Slam event.
The Frenchman, ranked just 81st in the world, also came back from the brink against Sweden’s Magnus Larsson in the first round and the experienced American Richey Reneberg in the third round.Escude, who had beaten the 12th seed and French Open champion, Gustavo Kuerten, in the second round, won a match lasting 2hr 27min that was packed with incident.Kiefer needed treatment on an injured ankle in the fourth set and the match was also held up for more than 30 minutes by a downpour of rain. “I can’t say it’s a great feeling,” said Kiefer, ranked 29 in the world and the German No 1 now that Boris Becker has gone into semi-retirement. “I had a lot of chances to win the match and I’m very disappointed. It was a great chance to get into the semi-final.”Escude is now on track to become a new French tennis “musketeer”. If the 21-year-old beats ninth seed Marcelo Rios in the semi-final, he will be the first Frenchman to reach the Australian Open final since the legendary Jean Borotra won the title in 1928.Borotra was one of the four “musketeers” – with Lacoste, Cochet and Brugnon – who dominated the sport in the 1920s.The Chilean Rios booked his match with Escude by rallying to beat the Spaniard Alberto Berasategui 6-7 6-4 6-4 6-0.

Rios’ victory ended the run of Berasategui, who beat the second seed, Patrick Rafter, and ended Andre Agassi’s comeback campaign.But the Chilean admitted he was very close to leaving the Czech Petr Korda as the only seed still in the men’s competition as increasing leg cramps slowed his game. The Chilean told his opponent when they shook hands at the end of the 2hr 34min match that he could not have gone into a fifth set.”At 5-0 I felt some pain in my leg and thought a fifth set would have been really tough,” Rios said. He is now the only player to have reached at least the fourth round at the last five Grand Slam tournaments.In the women’s singles Martina Hingis marched on towards a second Australian Open title by sweeping aside France’s Mary Pierce, her opponent in last year’s final, to reach the last four.Hingis beat Pierce 6-2, 6-3 to set up a semi-final with the 10th seed Anke Huber, who recorded a surprise 7-6, 7-5 win over Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez Vicario “I just played very well from the start,” Hingis said “She just made so many unforced errors. “We had all played far too much cricket and anyone watching could have told that our players weren’t enjoying it not just in terms of runs but generally.”I had played almost every game on tour as well and that injury gave me some time to rest, maybe not in a way I wanted but it was a chance to get out of the game because, at that point it was no more fun. “I was mentally dead on that tour I would say from about the third Test on,” he explained.

“I’ve paid more attention to detail and I think I’m a better player now than three or four years ago.”That is a big claim for then Adams was rated top of the world by the Coopers & Lybrand system.There is a body of opinion that a fearful blow from Somerset’s giant Dutchman Adrianus van Troost on the 1995 tour of England shattered not only cheekbone but his confidence as well.Adams puts a far different interpretation on it. “In the past, because things were going so well, there were aspects of your batting you didn’t pay attention to and they caught up with you after a while,” he said. “I think I was tired mentally as well but you’ve got to give credit to the bowlers who worked on the weaknesses.”"I’ve now had a chance to go back to basics and to work on my game,” he added. But although that move will place more of a burden on Phil Tufnell to do the stock bowling, Atherton will be looking for a concerted performance from his pace bowlers, particularly Andy Caddick, whose performance against West Indies A was disappointing.Dean Headley will also be under pressure.