ESPN.com - French Open 2002 - Tough Canas isn't a big surprise
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Thursday, July 17
Tough Canas isn't a big surprise
By Cliff Drysdale

PARIS -- The upper half of the men's draw is wide open after what happened Sunday at Roland Garros.

No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt is gone. No. 3 Tommy Haas is gone. No. 7 Gustavo Kuerten is gone.

That means that one of these players -- 15th-seeded Guillermo Canas, No. 18 Alex Corretja, No. 20 Albert Costa or No. 22 Andrei Pavel -- will be in the finals next Sunday.

The fact that Lleyton Hewitt lost on clay to Canas isn't a huge surprise. He doesn't move as well on clay relative to how well he moves on a surface where he can get his feet stuck on the court. And he hadn't been tested in this tournament.

When he comes up against an excellent clay courter like Canas, he's in for a tough match. And that showed today.

Kuerten just made too many unforced errors in losting to Costa, who's got plenty of clay court credentials of his own. You can't make mistakes and win here, and Kuerten had 64 unforced errors in three sets Sunday.

Corretja, who beat Mariano Zabaleta in straight sets, is strong as an ox. And he's tired of being a bridesmaid after losing in the finals twice (in 1998 and 2001). This might be the year he finally ties the knot -- and what happened in his half of the draw helps a lot.

Going forward, Canas has the toughest assignment. Costa is a very good player. But I like the idea of a Canas-Corretja semifinal.

The wild card is Canas -- as long as he has some gas left in the tank, he'll be tough to beat. He's had some long, tough matches. But Canas is lively, attractive, feisty and fiery. He doesn't step aside for anybody, especially here. His match with Carlos Moya (a five-set war) in the third round was excellent, and he showed today that he had enough left.

We'll see what he has left going forward.

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