Sometimes big surprises come in small packages. While all the focus this year has been on the the Rafa Nadals and Andy Murrays and Jo-Wilfried Tsongas, life just a little further down the tennis food chain has been quite tasty for a veteran Belgian who stands 5-foot-7 in his socks. 

Christophe Rochus, who with his brother Olivier, has been on the tour for ten years, is starting to make experience count and two tall Americans have found it all very frustrating. Last week in Memphis, Rochus took out Mardy Fish in convincing fashion before losing in the quarters while here at Delray Beach, it was Sam Querrey who found Rochus much too confusing and collapsed in a heap after leading 3-1 in the first set — winning just two more games in his 6-4, 6-1 defeat.

"He comes to the net and has those cocky, arrogant backhand drop shots," complained Querrey, sounding like some of his compatriots who have been similarly upset by that other diminutive magician, Fabrice Santoro. "It’s really annoying the way he pulls those shots out of nowhere. Just a bad day, I guess."

Rochus, who hit a career high ranking of 38 in 2006 and finished last year at No. 69 on the ATP ranking, has refused to be phased by the increasing size of the game’s behemoths during his long, journeyman career because he has enjoyed using his brain to figure out the problems posed by power.

"I'm small so I can’t do some of the things taller players do," smiles Rochus. "I have to play tennis like a chess game. It’s like in life, I have to think through a problem to find a solution."

Working the angles; mixing up the play; darting into the net for those annoying drop volleys — they have all helped to carry Rochus through to another quarterfinal and, on Friday, he will be hoping to go further when he meets another tour veteran, Stefan Koubek of Austria.  

Koubek is only 5-9 himself but has the advantage of a 4-0 career record over Rochus although on the last two occasions they met, the Belgian was forced to default the match through injury. However, brother Olivier, who, believe or not, is an inch shorter than Christophe, has a 2-2 record against the Austrian and beat him 6-2, 6-4 when they met indoors in Zagreb last year. Maybe a sibling phone conversation is in order.

Meanwhile this well-staged and well-placed event — the public facility is just one block away from the beginning of Delray’s great strip of restaurants, shops and art galleries on Atlantic Avenue — continues to provide a good insight into the pro game for the numerous tennis fans who live on this Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach stretch of the Florida coast. Apart from Fish, who cruised through his second round match today against Vince Spadea 6-4, 6-1, the star attraction this year is the engaging Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. In the first round Baghdatis found himself facing the highly talented young Latvian Ernests Gulbis — a tougher first round than he might have expected at an ATP 250 event which, for those who don’t keep up with these things, is the third rung on the ATP list of tournaments behind the Masters 1000 and the 500 events. 

"But this is life on the tour these days," said Baghdatis who is attempting to force his way back to the top of the game after three different injuries sent his ATP ranking plummeting from 16 to 100 last year. "There are so many good players; you never get an easy match. Everyone can play good tennis."

Taylor Dent will not argue with that assessment. After the Californian’s horrendous back problems which effectively took him off the tour for over two years, Dent has made a miraculous recovery following surgery and is just content to be playing again. "At one stage there was a question whether I would be able to walk properly let alone play tennis," he said.

So he is quite happy to battle his way through qualifying rounds to get matches under his belt but ‘battle’ is the operative word because Dent found himself facing Xavier Malisse, a former Wimbledon semifinalist and two time champion here at Delray in the second round of qualifying. Dent came through 7-5, 6-3 and then had to beat Giovanni Lapentti, brother of Nicolas, to make it into the main draw where he went down to the German of Russian heritage, Mischa Zverev 6-4, 6-3. Today Zverev lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to the Frenchman Florent Serra who completed match point with the most delicate little backhand drop volley. The artists of Delray must really be enjoying Rochus and Serra.