So desperate is Goran Ivanisevic to kickstart his BlackRock Tour of Champions campaign in 2008 that the Croatian successfully pleaded with organisers to give him another 24 hours to be ready for his second round-robin match in Hamburg.

Ivanisevic, whose reasons for withdrawing from matches during his career included sleeping funnily and waking up with a stiff neck, stepping on a sea-shell, and breaking all of his racquets in anger during a match, pulled a calf muscle while 7-6, 5-4 up against Anders Jarryd on Wednesday.

The Tournament Doctor advised him to see how the injury was on Thursday before deciding whether to withdraw from the tounament. He did so, but still felt less than 100% fit. Cue much discussion with Tournament Referee Norbert Peick, Tournament Director Carl Uwe Steeb and Goran’s scheduled opponent Marc-Kevin Goellner.

Goran’s charm-offensive eventually paid off and his match against Goellner was rearranged for Saturday. He hopes to play against Pernfors on Friday after a late fitness-test.

The two matches that were contested on Thursday saw a trimmed down Thomas Muster - complete with recently sculpted six-pack - seeing off the challenge of Henri Leconte. The Frenchman has been putting in the off-court work himself recently, and could this morning be seen preparing with an 8-kilometre run around a lake near to his hotel. It didn’t help him against Muster, who won 6-2, 6-4.

Earlier, Anders Jarryd won an all-Swedish battle against Mikael Pernfors. Jarryd, the oldest man in the draw, is another man in tip-top condition, and he came back from a set down to win 5-7, 7-5, 10-3 (Champions’ Tie-Break).

The Tour opened in Belfast in February with Anders Jarryd successfully defending his title. in Barcelona last month, Marcelo Rios triumphed, while Muster won in Rome last week.

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