Okay, so Sampras, Agassi, Rafter and Kafelnikov were nowhere to be seen. But the fans still turned out on Semifinal Saturday to see Levy, Novak, Safin and Ferreira. They got their money's worth with two tight matches and lots of controversy on a beautiful sunny day and pleasant evening in Toronto.
Harel Levy (Q) def. Jiri Novak, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4
Semifinal
Previous head-to-head: Levy leads 1-0
Happy birthday Harel! The qualifier from Israel gave himself a wonderful 22nd birthday present, assuring a berth in the Tennis Masters Series ? Canada final with yet another upset win. This time Levy survived by intelligently adopting serve-volley tactics in the third set to edge the more experienced Jiri Novak.
Levy had won the his only career meeting with Novak on hard courts last summer (first round in Indianapolis), but much more was on the line here. The first two sets were disappointingly one-sided, but an entertaining third set entertained the sellout crowd on a warm, sunny afternoon.
First set: The Israeli showed no signs of early nervousness, opening the match by pounding a winner with his excellent one-handed backhand. Levy broke Novak's serve after two forehand errors by the Czech, and cruised to a 5-0 lead. Novak was not playing well, making repeated forehand errors (9 in this set) and not serving effectively, while Levy was hitting well-placed service winners and controlling the baseline with his strong backhand and looping topspin forehand. But at 0-5 Novak finally wo
ke up, forcing six break points on Levy's serve. Harel saved the first five thanks to clutch serving, but on the sixth chance, Novak finally got a second serve to work with and Levy steered a forehand wide.
Novak was now striking his forehand more powerfully and accurately and coming to the net effectively behind it. Jiri broke serve again to pull to 3-5, as he used the powerful forehand returns we had seen yesterday in his victory over Rafter to put Levy in trouble, and converted a fine angled forehand winner. But serving at 3-5, Novak's momentum stopped. A backhand passing winner by Levy gave the Israeli a break point, on which Novak made a forehand error. First blood had gone to the spunky qualifier fr
om Israel, 6-3. But the tall, rangy Czech was slowly improving his returns and started to control the baseline points with his forehand, and was about to have his best moments of the match.
Second set: Novak started strong, breaking Levy's serve with a forehand passing shot. Levy was looking to return the favour with Novak serving at 2-1, and held two break points in the four-deuce game. On the second break chance Harel hit a poor forehand error, and showed his first sign of emotion with a scream of frustration. Novak pulled out the game with some serve-and-volleying to lead 3-1, and went on to sweep the next three games to claim the second set 6-1, to level the match. I was tryi
ng to play more aggressive and go to net," said Novak of his improvement, "but he wasn't playing 100 percent."
Third set: Most of the spectators were cheering for the underdog Israeli. Levy, who was being clearly dominated now from the baseline in the second set by the hard, flat drives of the Czech, realized he had to take the net to win the match. Harel started charging forward with increasing frequency. Novak was the first to worry his opponent's serve at 1-2, lobbing the onrushing Levy to make it 15-30. But Novak then misfired on a passing shot, and Levy saved the game. Then Levy had two break po
ints at 2-2, but Novak skilfully fought them off with some aggressive tennis of his own, a strong cross-court forehand approach and a big overhead. There were some fine rallies and stirring points now, and the crowd was finally into the proceedings. Levy's attacking tennis (he came to the net on 12 points in this set, winning 11 of them) and varied game, complemented with some skilled drop shots, was captivating the crowd.
At 4-4, Novak serving, the crucial break happened. Novak loses the first point on a wayward forehand. At 0-15, a lengthy rally ends with a Novak backhand that lands just long. A rare show of frustration from the laconic Czech, as he flips his racquet onto court and shakes his head, hands on hips. Jiri admitted to feeling the nerves at this juncture. "I was starting to get a little bit nervous and my hand was shaking, you know," admitted Novak. At 15-30, his shaking hand produced a costly double faul
t. 15-40, Levy misses a backhand passing shot. At 30-40, the Israeli gets his break. He chips and comes forward behind a second serve return, a tactic he rarely employs. Novak sends a backhand crosscourt; Levy reaches high and angles a lovely backhand volley winner. Levy clenches his fist excitedly, and will serve for the match.
Match point at 40-30 was a classic. Novak sprints to run down a drop volley and angles his reply crosscourt, but Levy recovers and on the full run flicks a forehand into the open court.
Levy celebrated by running to the opposite corner of the stadium to share the happy moment with his father Yoel and his coach Oded Jacob, both of whom had taken a 12-hour flight from Tel Aviv for the match, arriving at 6:30 this morning in Toronto. Harel had a nice hug with Dad.
Levy has been getting encouragement and support from a great source this week: French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten and Guga's coach Larri Passos. The three practiced together in Brazil during the off season and also frequently during this tournament. Levy thinks the association has helped him considerably in Toronto. "Larri Passos is a good friend of my coach, I've known him for seven years," explained Levy. "I have to be thankful to be with Guga and a coach like Larri, it's like a present from God."
Harel's father Yoel was overjoyed to have seen his son's shining moment in person. The elder Levy is a jewellery importer by profession and in his spare time collects the scores and results from Israeli players and sends them to Israeli media outlets "because they are playing all over the world and there is never anything about them in the papers."
Harel turned reporter during his father's press conference: he took a microphone and asked his father, "How long are you going to stay?" Dad smiled, stared at Harel accusingly and replied, "It depends on you!" Yoel explained that his son usually doesn't let Dad watch him play. "I wanted to go to watch the Davis Cup in Bulgaria. It's a two hour flight, very close. 'Can I come?' 'No.' Yesterday also, I asked him after the match, 'Can I come with the coach?' 'You know what? OK, come.' A good boy."
Levy becomes the first qualifier to reach a Masters Series final since Roberto Carretero's equally improbable run to the Hamburg final in 1996. If you believe in omens, things look good for Levy, since Carretero went on to win that Hamburg event. But Levy admits he's "a little bit tired" after 7 matches in 8 days, and knows tomorrow will be the toughest challenge of his career. "Safin is a very strong player with a big serve. Ferreira has a good serve, moves very well on the court, has a big forehand.
They're both great players," noted the articulate young Israeli, "but you cannot expect to play a bad player in the finals of a Masters Series."
Marat Safin (8) def. Wayne Ferreira, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4
Semifinal
Previous head-to-head: Safin leads 1-0
Levy's opponent will be 8th seed Marat Safin, who won a tight and nervous struggle over Wayne Ferreira. The final moments were bathed in controversy: Ferreira, furious over an overrule and a point penalty assessed by the umpire, shockingly refused to play the ball on match point!
First set: There's much to say, beyond observing that it was a horrible performance by Ferreira. We don't have the statistical evidence, but least half of the 47 unforced errors committed by the South African surely occurred in this set, as he was misfiring badly in every aspect of his game. Safin was playing reasonably well, but never needed to do much beyond keeping the ball in play against his blundering opponent. "I was excited and maybe a little nervous," admitted Ferreira. "Safin is a gre
at player, I was taken aback by his power."
Second set: Ferreira started where he left off, accumulating errors left and right. At 2-2, Wayne was broken for already the third time in the match, at love, and angrily slammed the ball down. With Safin serving at 4-3 and seemingly cruising to a straight set win, Ferreira finally woke up. Wayne is known for his outstanding returns of serve, but they were conspicuously absent until this game. He finally struck two potent first serve returns, and had Safin in difficulty at 30-40. The Russian t
hen committed a forehand error. Ferreira had his break and finally seemed into the match.
With Ferreira finally focused, mistakes started creeping into Safin's game and he was having increasing difficulty with his serve (his first serve percentage finished at a very low 45 percent). With Safin serving to stay in the set at 5-6, 30-30, Ferreira clocked his best forehand winner of the match so far. Set point down, Safin surrendered the set with a backhand error. The happy crowd, which had been cheering for Wayne to get into gear, roared as Safin angrily flung his racquet to the foot of his ch
air.
The wild and crazy third set: The first four games were routine, the server holding easily. The wackiness started on Ferreira's serve at 2-2. The South African is broken at love on a double fault, and drives a ball up into the north stands. "Code violation, warning, ball abuse," says umpire Rudi Berger. This sets off a series of five consecutive service breaks. Safin serving, 3-2, 30-40: Marat hits a forehand wide of the line. Marat does slams down his racquet for the first, but not the last t
ime. Ferreira serving, 3-3: a long three-deuce game featuring numerous errors by both nervous players and another Safin racquet-slam. Advantage Safin, third break point of the game: Ferreira has an easy overhead and flubs it! He slams the ball off the court and is not warned this time. Safin serving, 3-4, 30-40: Ferreira nails a perfect forehand pass. Ferreira serving, advantage Safin: Another unforced forehand error by Ferreira.
It's 5-4, and if Safin holds serve for a change, the match is his. Here's how it went:
- Safin approaches against the backhand of Ferreira, whose running pass is wide.
- 15-0: Safin goes for a forehand, but pulls it dangerously close to the line. The line judge quickly and loudly calls "out!" Berger overrules from the chair, and awards the point to Safin. Ferreira appeals to Berger without success. After the match Ferreira maintained: "In my opinion the ball was out. I didn't think there was any reason to overrule that ball." And even given the overrule, Ferreira didn't think the point should have been awarded to Safin. "I thought I could have had a play on it.
" How did Safin see the call? He thought it was a correct overrule. "For me the ball was in. I saw it clearly." The replay we got was inconclusive. I thought it looked out, the reporter next to me thought it looked in?.
- 30-0: Ferreira refuses to take his position to return serve. Umpire Berger asseses a time violation warning, which becomes an unsportsmanlike conduct code violation when Ferreira refuses to heed Berger's warning to stop holding things up. Because Ferreira had already been guilty of a code violation for his ball slamming earlier in the set, this translates into a point penalty. Tour supervisor Gayle Bradshaw is called to adjudicate the dispute, and not surpringly backs the umpire.
- So Ferreira thinks it should be 15-15 in a perfect world, but in the real world it's 40-0, triple match point for Safin. "I guess I don't know the rules," lamented Ferreira. "I thought a time violation was not a code violation, and I needed to take the time to cool down." The fans, sympathetic to Ferreira's plight, howled with anger at Berger.
40-0: Second serve to Ferreira's backhand. He does not attempt to play it, waving at it with his hand at it sails by. An obvious act of protest by Ferreira to a sequence of events that he felt cost him the match. "I believed I handled the situation correctly. I did what I believed was the right thing."
Safin empathized with Ferreira's frustration: "For him, it was a little bit tough. I can understand him perfectly, and the people [in the crowd] understood perfectly."
Indeed, the fans made their feelings known by giving Ferreira a standing ovation when he left the court after refusing to shake Berger's hand. Ferreira smiled and gave the crowd a "thumbs up" sign in complicity. As Rudi Berger left the court, he received a resounding chorus of boos. Berger smiled as if he had no worries, surely convinced he was right all the way.
ATP supervisor Gayle Bradshaw was at last report undecided as to whether to fine Ferreira for his conduct. When he was asked in the parking lot if Ferreira had a right not to play the final point, he firmly said "no." Ferreira said he had had a "good discussion" with Bradshaw after the match: "He accepts my opinion and thinks I have a valid point."
Safin was not nearly as solid and controlled as he had been against Sampras the night before, but was overall the better player and a deserving winner. Tomorrow he will be the overwhelming favourite against the miracle worker Levy, but is wary of his opponent. "For you guys," he told reporters, "Levy, it doesn't sound good. But he's played 8 matches [the ATP representative corrected him], 7 or 8, whatever, so he's playing his best tennis. He beat Grosjean, he beat Golmard, he beat Novak, so he can bea
t me."
That would be unlikely, but in this crazy tournament, who knows?