Grosjean vs. Moya; Clement vs. Kafelnikov
by Prip
Sebastien Grosjean had simply outclassed Carlos Moya in his match,
and Carlos had absolutely no idea what to do on court. The Spaniard
was making terrible errors, but that was also in part to Sebastien
not letting him get any rhythm, blasting his serves in and mixing
up the pace of his shots. In what looked more like a first-round
massacre than a quarterfinal match, Sebastien not only met his goal
of getting to a grand Slam quarterfinal, but one-upped it by getting
through to the semifinal. The 5'9" player from Marseille, once
rejected from the French Tennis Federation for being too small, has
impressed from the time he stepped onto Centre Court in Wimbledon
against Pete Sampras in 1998.
Waiting for him in the semifinal is his best friend Arnaud Clement,
who put a lot of heart into his match against Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The
match was not the prettiest, with Yevgeny basically giving it away,
and unable to put away the big points. The Russian was unfortunate in
that he came up against such a speedy player, but can only blame
himself for hot getting any further in the tournament. Match point
was a typical example of the match: Yevgeny started the point strong,
and drew Arnaud wide to his forehand side, getting the short response,
and drilled the ball into the open court. Arnaud scrambled from way
over the other side of the court, barely got his racquet on the ball
and threw up a high lob. Yevgeny, with his 6'3" stature and not
standing too far behind in the court, hit the overhead, which clipped
the net and fell back on his side.
Taking off his trademark bandanna before shaking Yevgeny's hand,
Arnaud, in his joy, first threw his bandanna, then his shirt into
the stands. Then he thought, why stop there, and threw his shoes into
the stands. No point holding onto your socks, then, mate, so they
went into the stands, although one didn't quite make it far enough,
and that left the Frenchman standing in his shorts, following what must be
the biggest match of his life. After such a disappointing start to
the year, not even Arnaud could have imagined that he will be playing
the semifinal of a Grand Slam against his best friend. He simply
looked amazed at how good life seems at this point.
The match tomorrow should be a very entertaining one, and those
interested should know that his thigh strap was only precautionary,
and will probably be off in tomorrow's match. But whatever the
outcome, Yevgeny and Carlos's losses have probably left Andre Agassi
once again thanking his lucky stars.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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