PARIS -- Gustavo Kuerten reached the French Open final for
the second straight year Friday with a victory against Juan Carlos
Ferrero that the defending champion called nearly perfect.
|  | | Spain's Alex Corretja returns a forehand shot in winning his semifinal match at the French Open. |
The top-seeded Brazilian won 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 against one of the
tour's most successful players this season and will face Spain's
Alex Corretja for the title Sunday.
"Today was pretty much close to my perfection," Kuerten said.
Corretja defeated Sebastien Grosjean 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4, denying
the Roland Garros crowd a chance to see a Frenchman play for the
championship.
This was the second consecutive year Kuerten defeated Ferrero in
the French Open semis. Last year, however, he needed five sets to
beat the Spaniard.
Ferrero, seeded No. 4, had dropped only one set before the
semis. But on Friday he whacked the ball skyward, hit the soles of
his shoes with his racket, hung his head and muttered in
frustration.
Kuerten won at Roland Garros in 1997 and again last year.
Ferrero beat Kuerten in five sets in the final of the Italian Open
last month.
"I was in perfect pace, feeling good," Kuerten said. "I think
I'm going to be ready to enjoy one great final."
He narrowly defeated American qualifier Michael Russell in the
fourth-round, saving a match point in the third set. He said the
close escape was the reason for his strong showing in the semis and
quarters, where he beat 1996 champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
"I was blessed that day," he said. "I feel myself with
nothing to lose anymore."
Corretja, seeded 13th, advanced to his second French Open final
by eliminating the 10th-seeded Grosjean.
The 1998 runner-up was broken twice in the first set but broke
back immediately both times. He took the tiebreaker with the help
of a string of mistakes from Grosjean.
The Frenchman, who defeated No. 3 Andre Agassi in the quarters,
took a 3-0 lead in the second set, then lost the next five games.
Unable to recover, he lost that set and a decisive break early in
the next.
The Spaniard closed the match when his opponent sent his last
forehand long.
"I was better than him mentally," said Corretja, who is
playing his 10th French Open.
Ferrero failed to convert 14 of his 16 break points during his
semifinal match against the reigning champion.
The two exchanged breaks early in the first set, but Kuerten won
the set by breaking in the final game. The second set followed the
same pattern, with Kuerten moving up a gear at each key point and
breaking serve to win the set.
At 3-3 in the final set, Kuerten saved three break points, with
a forehand winner, an ace and a drop shot. He held serve and broke
Ferrero in the next game with a crosscourt backhand that
wrongfooted his opponent.
In the final game, Kuerten blew his first match point, then set
up a second with his 10th ace and sealed victory with a heavy serve
that Ferrero sent into the doubles alley.
"It was a very strange match," Ferrero said. "I tried to
fight and to play well. It was not a matter of tennis, it was more
a matter of mental fitness."
The Spaniard has taken four titles this year and had won 27 of
his 29 matches on clay this season before the semis. He defeated
No. 6 Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets in the quarters.
Kuerten is aiming to become only the sixth player to win the
French three times. The last to do so was Mats Wilander, whose
third title came in 1988. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
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