Tuesday, Jan 21, 2003
Tuesday, Jan 21, 2003 |
| Sport | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Sport
-
Tennis
By Nirmal Shekar
This was one act that was not in the original script. For, if anyone had ventured to predict that the world champion and top seed--seeking to become the first Australian to get his hands on the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup since Mark Edmondson in 1976--would end up losing to a man called Younes El Aynaoui from Morocco, you might have referred him to your psychiatrist. Ah, funny business sport is! A circus clown may be fatal to it. In the event, it was with a sense of awe and utter disbelief that we watched the 31-year-old El Aynaoui shatter the dreams of an entire nation with his extraordinary 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 6-4 defeat of Hewitt in three hours and 30 minutes in the fourth round match. So, for the man from Adelaide, the jinx continues. In seven attempts, he has failed to get past the fourth round of his home Slam. But who would have imagined that a man from Rabat who has only twice before made the Grand Slam quarterfinals would turn executioner on the warmest day of the championship with air temperature touching a high of 37! In a match of gladiatorial severity and nerve-jangling compulsion, one in which there was a solitary service break--on Hewitt's serve in the seventh game of the fourth set--El Aynaoui played fantasy tennis, so to say, landing 70 per cent of his first serves, firing 33 aces and hitting 24 winners with that pile-driver of a forehand he possesses. As El Aynaoui walked up to serve for the match in the 10th game of the fourth set, over 15,000 spectators at the Rod Laver Arena sat like Furies in Greek play, waiting for the bitter denouement. Not long after, they would troop out dazed, speaking in hushed tones, still unable to digest the enormity of the upset. "It was a high intensity match. He was in a zone. I gave everything I had and lost to an opponent who was better than me today," said a disappointed Hewitt. It was a savage and brilliant demolition. Although he lost the close first set on a tiebreak, early in the second El Aynaoui, a father of two, had imposed his gigantic, overwhelming game on an opponent who was getting increasingly frustrated. Soon, Hewitt found out that roadblocks were looming between him and a storybook finale--featuring him and Andre Agassi--that everybody was hoping for on Sunday, January 26. Serving rocks and unleashing a destructive spurt of steep forehand winners, El Aynaoui, who won three of his five career titles last year, past age 30--something that put him in the esteemed company of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi last season--made the world No.1 look like a hapless novice. The slide began for the top seed midway in the second set tiebreak. Hewitt up 3-2 but allowed his concentration to waver after arguing a line call and then dumped a forehand--something he would have made blindfolded nine out of 10 times--in the net. Before long, the Moroccan had won the second set with a forehand winner and from there it is all one-way. Although Hewitt did have his chances, El Aynaoui uncorked the big winners--serve, forehand, occasionally even the double handed backhand up the line--whenever he was in trouble. "It has been difficult for me to play at a high level through four or five sets. I did today," said El Aynaoui. "Nobody gave me a chance today. Who knows me around the world." Surely, a lot of people will, by the time you get to read this. And not just in the ancient lanes and by lanes of Rabat and Casablanca. Maybe he will get a call from King Mohammed VI of Morocco as he did last year when he won in Dubai. Coached now, off and on, by the mercurial Jeff Tarango, El Aynaoui faced the first hint of trouble on serve in the opening game of the third set when he had to fight off two breakpoints. Those were the first breakpoints of the match and by then more than an hour and 45 minutes had passed in the match. So much for intensity. For his part, Hewitt too fended off a breakpoint in the next game and two more (set points) in the 12th before an amazing drop volley followed by a lob gave the Moroccan the lift he needed in the tiebreak which he took with a superb backhand winner. Finally, the pressure got to Hewitt in the seventh game of the fourth when he gifted the break to El Aynaoui with a double fault. "I realised I could win the match and I knew I had not been broken until then. I was nervous," admitted El Aynaoui, who hit a double fault and then faced a breakpoint when serving for the match. To meet Roddick El Aynaoui will take on Andy Roddick of the United States, seeded nine, in the quarterfinals. The American battled back from two sets down to outlast Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 for a place in the quarterfinals. The turning point of the match came in the seventh game of the third set when Roddick fought off two breakpoints. He went on to break Youzhny in the 12th for the set and never looked back from there. Paes, Rikl in quarterfinals Meanwhile, Indian Davis Cup hero Leander Paes and his Czech partner David Rikl made the quarterfinals of the men's doubles with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 defeat of James Blake of the United States and Mark Merklein of the Bahamas. Paes and Rikl were well on their way to a straightforward win, leading by a set and 4-2 but Blake and Merklein broke both the Indian and the Czech in succession to turn things around. In the decider, Merklein was broken in the opening game and then the Indo-Czech pair broke Blake too before Rikl served out the match. Paes's former doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi, playing with Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan in mixed doubles, got past Nathan Healey and Evie Dominikovic of Australia 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 in the second round. Dev Varman, Rastogi advance At long last there was some success for Indians in singles here, and it came in the boys championship on Monday. Somdev Dev Varman and Karan Rastogi won their first round matches in contrasting styles on adjacent courts in the "outback". Dev Varman fought back with courage and skills for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 victory over the chunky Rick Schmidt of Germany even as Rastogi made short work of the Australian Lachlan Ferguson 6-2, 6-2. After losing a close first set, Dev Varman broke Schmidt's serve in the eighth game of the second but lost his own service game when serving for the set, positioning himself rather poorly for a smash on a crucial point. But the boy from Chennai went on to break the German's serve in the next game to take the set and then came back from an early break down in the decider to win five games in a row, three of them on his opponent's serve. Hitting superb winners with his double-handed backhand and calling the shots from the baseline, Rastogi was in command from the start. There was the brief hint of challenge from the Australian early in the second set but the Indian broke to 4-2 and never looked back. The results: men's singles (fourth round): 9-Andy Roddick (U.S.) bt Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) 6-7(4), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2; Younes El-Aynaoui bt 1-Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 6-4; Rainer Schuettler (Ger) bt James Blake (U.S.) 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; 10-David Nalbandian (Arg) bt 6-Roger Federer (Sui) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Women's singles (fourth round): 1-Serena Williams (U.S.) bt Eleni Daniilidou (Gre) 6-4, 6-1; Meghann Shaughnessy (U.S.) bt Elena Bovina (Rus) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4; 8-Anastasia Myskina (Rus) bt 10-Chanda Rubin (U.S.) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; 4-Kim Clijsters (Bel) bt Amanda Coetzer (RSA) 6-3, 6-1.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
