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by Christopher Gerby Novak/Rikl vs. Arthurs/Kratzmann Doubles: Quarterfinal Court 1 Anyone who followed the USA vs. Czech Republic Davis Cup tie last year knows what an effective doubles team Jiri Novak and David Rikl are. They've steadily improved from year to year and came to Montreal fresh off an appearance in the Wimbledon final. Passing the test for true doubles tandem cohesiveness, they were sporting matching outfits this morning: red shirt; black shorts (similar to what the officials at this tournament used to wear). Oh, and Novak has shaved his head, so now they may be more aerodynamic than ever. An early break of Andrew Kratzmann was all the Czechs needed to take a 6-4 win of the opening set. Wayne Arthurs (he of the deadly left-handed serve) rained down four aces, but Novak and Rikl were the more solid, consistent team. Arthurs dumped a backhand volley in the net to bring up break point in the opening game of Set 2, but cracked two more aces to hang on. The set went with serve to 3-3, when Kratzmann found trouble again. He managed to fight off a pair of break points with good serves, but caved in on the third chance, netting a forehand volley. Andrew angrily whacked the ball into the clouds (I think it sailed all the way over Court 2) and was assessed a code violation. There were some entertaining rallies in the next few games, but Novak and Rikl never lost control of the match. Despite being outaced 11 to 0, the Czechs scored a solid 6-4, 6-4 win over the Aussies. They'll have unseeded opponents (David Adams and Sjeng Schalken) in tomorrow's semifinal. Tarango/Vacek vs. Gambill/Larose Doubles: Quarterfinal Court 1 Simon Larose picked up more publicity for an off-court mishap (an attempted marijuana purchase gone awry) in 1999 than for any of his subsequent tennis results. He changed all that this week, first taking a set from Lleyton Hewitt in a lively singles match before embarking on a surprise doubles run with longtime buddy Jan-Michael Gambill. They needed a wild card just to enter the main draw, but immediately made an impact, upsetting # 3 seeds Daniel Nestor and Sandon Stolle. Their encore was a down-to-the-wire win over the rapidly improving Bryan twins. For this fairy tale to continue, Larose and Gambill would have to find a way past veterans Jeff Tarango and Daniel Vacek, who rode a 4-0 tiebreak record into the quarterfinals. Tarango/Vacek couldn't put a single return in play during the opening game, an impressive hold by big-serving Gambill. The weakest server on the court was probably Tarango, who faced a 15-40 deficit in Game 4. He dug his way back to deuce, but then missed a reflex volley and coughed up a break-yielding double fault. Tarango thought that fault call was dubious and asked the linesman, "You're not gonna see if he (Larose) has the guts to win the point?" He went on to chastise the official about wearing sunglasses during the match -- "if that worked, we'd wear them." Leading 3-1, Gambill served a double fault which was argued about by...Tarango, who was still annoyed by the man in sunglasses. "This guy's a joke," Tarango told chair umpire Norm Chryst. "Have you ever seen this guy before in your life? Why is he on the service line?" Two games later (after Gambill/Larose extended their lead to 5-2), Jeff spent an entire changeover asking Chryst why they weren't using professional linesemen. He was pretty calm about it, though, and held serve at love to make the score 3-5. Gambill thumped an ace to move within two points of winning the set at 30-15, but a fall-away forehand winner by Vacek and a well placed return by Tarango brought up break point. Gambill responded well to the pressure, bombing in three good first serves to complete a 6-3 win of the opening set. The crowd on Court One was not huge, but it generated some pretty good volume celebrating their countryman's fine start. Strangely, Tarango served first for his team in the second set. He promptly fell behind 0-40, inspiring a "break! break! break!" chant from the stands. The first two break points went by the wayside, but Gambill and Larose played some great defensive tennis at the net at 30-40, finally earning the break when Vacek missed an easy backhand volley. Riding a wave of emotion and crowd support, Gambill/Larose increased their second set lead to 3-2. Tarango/Vacek gamely battled back, though, and a powerful passing shot by the California native forced an errant Larose volley error to break for 3-3. Tarango rolled to a 40-15 lead at 4-4 in the second set. As he was going into his service motion, Larose lunged foreward. Tarango stopped and Larose said "sorry," to which Jeff replied, "You're sorry for closing like an idiot like that?" Of course, the crowd lustily jeered that comment. When Vacek put away a smash to win that point and the game, there were a few seconds of stone silence, followed by more booing. Upon reaching his chair, Vacek looked up into the stands and said "That's why you have such good players. You can't appreciate good shots." Ouch. But after the changeover, Gambill came out and fired a service winner, drawing a huge round of applause. "We appreciate nice shots!" one fan yelled at Vacek, who good-naturedly clapped with his racquet. Gambill added two aces in a love hold for 5-5. He and Larose looked truly inspired and psyched up as they followed that game with an easy break of Vacek's serve. There was a loud ovation as Larose came back from the changeover to serve out another upset victory. It didn't take long -- Gambill hit the heck out of an overhead smash on the first match point to give his team a very popular 6-3, 7-5 win. The modestly sized but passionately partisan crowd definitely seemed to play a role in the Gambill/Larose victory. "I think it's good for us that we played on Court One for those two matches that we played, 'cause you feel like the crowd is closer to you," Larose said in a hastily organized post-match press conference. "They can get into the match better than if it was on Centre Court and you're 5,000 feet in the air." I asked Simon whether he had to make an effort to ignore Tarango's antics. "Exactly, just gotta block it out. That's what he does a lot of times. He wants to win, obviously, and he has a lot of experience. He'd never seen me around, so I guess he thought he could get in my head, but I stayed on top of it and I stayed focused. I'm proud of that." Unlike the fans, though, Larose didn't think the "idiot" remark was a big deal. "He didn't call me an idiot, 'cause he would have had a warning. He said it was an idiot move, which he was kind of right (about)." Semantics aside, it was a very strong showing by the wild cards, who face Wimbledon kings Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer in tomorrow afternoon's semifinal. Andy Roddick vs. Andrei Pavel Singles: Quarterfinal Centre Court Just 24 hours after beating # 1 seed Gustavo Kuerten, Andy Roddick was in a dogfight with unseeded Andrei Pavel. I returned from the Larose interview to find the Romanian up 6-4, 6-7, 1-0. Roddick's serve was as big as ever, but Pavel was winning his own service games just as easily, to the youngster's obvious chagrin. Despite his somewhat doughy looking physique, Pavel was still full of energy, making frequent forays to the net and bouncing around after winners. On serve at 2-3 in the third, Roddick played his most impatient, undisciplined game of the tournament: two unforced errors, a double fault, and a backhand into the net. Pavel then held easily for 5-2 and Roddick slammed his racquet. A-Rod did channel his energy into a hold for 3-5, though, and got a 15-30 edge on Pavel's serve. Alas, he sent a backhand long for 30-30 and watched a Pavel ace sail by for 40-30. Andrei ran around with a fist in the air, went back to the service line, and drove home another ace to win the match. Thoroughly excited, Pavel raised his arms, lobbed a ball into the crowd, and applauded. The 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 win may not have been the biggest of his career, but it was clearly among the most sastisfying. Roddick was "a little disappointed" with his quarterfinal exit, but admitted that he "just ran into a guy who was playing better than I was." I asked Andy what, in his estimation, makes Pavel such a difficult opponent. "He hits the ball hard. I don't think he really has a weaker side. I mean, they're both solid. And then, when he's playing well, he's really tough. And he just played the bigger points a lot better than I did today." To hear Pavel tell it, this certainly wasn't a case of an elaborate game plan being executed. "I had no strategy. I just thought about returning his serve, and then start from there... When somebody's serving bombs with 230 (kilometers per hour), you know. I think my fastest in -- the fastest I saw was 206. And this was the fastest I ever served, I guess, or 207. He's serving like 206, you know, in the Sunday afternoon walk. I don't know what to call that. Almost every first service over 200." Arnaud Clement vs. Tommy Haas Singles: Quarterfinal Centre Court Pavel's semifinal opponent would come from this match, pitting speed demon Arnaud Clement against powerful Tommy Haas. The German had won all three of their previous meetings, so it wasn't shocking to find Haas with a 6-2, 1-1 lead here. Haas threw his racquet after giving Clement a double break point chance in Game 3, but he played some very solid tennis (including a winning drop volley and an ace) to fight back or 2-1. That was the last break point for a while, as Tommy's serves continued to overwhelm Clement, who was at least taking care of his own holds. The little Frenchman was just too erratic in this set and the loose play finally cost him in Game 10. Holding a game point, Clement made a wild backhand error and netted a forehand. Now it was match point for Haas, who whipped a nice backhand pass. Arnaud got a racquet on it, but his volley found the net. Put a 6-2, 6-4 win in the books for Tommy Haas, who must have been relieved to get off the court so quickly. His previous match was the longest of the tournament, as he needed 2 hours and 47 minutes to edge Jerome Golmard. (Especially exhausting stuff when you factor in Tommy's assertion that he hadn't been getting much sleep.) Haas has pretty much flown under the media's radar this week, but he doesn't mind. "I don't even know what's been written around here really, because I'm not from this country, so I'm not too interested in it at all. Plus Andy Roddick is a young and upcomer. He is only 18 years old, turning 19 during the US Open. He's playing sensational tennis. He beat some big players here with Moya and Kuerten, so it's normal they write about him if I beat (Ivan) Ljubicic on Court One." Juan Carlos Ferrero vs. Patrick Rafter Singles: Quarterfinal Centre Court While the fast courts in Montreal should favor a serve-and-volley specialist over a Spanish baseliner, somebody forgot to tell Juan Carlos Ferrero that before Friday evening's marquee match. He was dominant in the early going, making Rafter look a step slow as he bolted to a 2-0 lead and a 0-30 hole shot on the Aussie's serve. Rafter finally got it together, though, and had righted the ship by the time he held for 2-3. The level of Ferrero's play suddenly dropped from the penthouse to the basement in Game 6, as he basically broke himself at love. Rafter was humming along now, making most of his volleys en route to a 6-5 lead. At 30-all in Game 12, a topspin lob by Ferrero fell just long of the baseline. A set Rafter looked out of early was now within reach at 30-40. Pat crushed a forehand return, immediately drawing an error from "The Mosquito". First set to Rafter, 7-5. Rafter's net game went off the boil again in the early stages of Set 2. Ferrero broke him for 2-1 and extended that lead to 5-4 without facing a break point. Juan Carlos was making the speedy court work for him, stepping into winning groundstrokes early in the rallies. Serving for the set, he opened with an ace and got to 40-0 when a pair of defensive Rafter lobs were far off target. All three set points disappeared, though, courtesy of a double fault, winning Rafter return, and Ferrero forehand error. Ferrero then rifled an unreturnable forehand to earn a fourth chance. This time he converted it, winning the set 6-4 when Rafter came over a backhand and sent it wide. The two-time US Open champion got an early break chance in the third set, scoring a backhand winner for 30-40 in Game 2. Ferrero then tossed in his most costly double fault of the night to fall behind 0-2. Rafter took a 3-1 lead, but needed to sidestep a pair of break point. After tucking away a backhand volley for 4-1, Rafter got a big round of applause from the capacity crowd. Ferrero closed out the following game with two consecutive aces, but Rafter held at love for a 5-2 lead. The Spaniard was fading mentally and dropped into a 15-40 hole on his serve. On double match point, Rafter chipped a forehand approach just long. However, at 30-40, he hit an exquisite backhand pass which Ferrero couldn't handle. The match lasted nearly two hours and was not without its nervous moments for Patrick Rafter, but he'll gladly take a 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 win over the # 4 seed. Immediately after shaking hands with Ferrero and umpire Norm Chryst, Rafter jogged to the stands and offered a third handshake. The recipient was neither a coach nor a family member -- it was Pat's friend Louie, a boisterious fan who's been giving him advice and cracking him up all week. Ferrero gave his opponent full credit after the match. "I think he plays so good all the time. He's solid all the time. He serve many first service all the time. I think it's one of the best Patrick Rafter I saw." Along with his A game, Rafter has carried a sly sense of humor into the semifinals. He had a bit of fun at an RDS television interviewer's expense, stonewalling her with one-word answers during a courtside chat. Then in the press conference, Rafter deflected a pedestrian question about how he played tonight by simply replying, "Pretty good, thanks for asking." To an inquiry about the support he's gotten from his large family, Pat deadpanned, "This week they haven't been influential at all." One thing the # 9 seed's not laughing about is a schedule which has him set to play a third consecutive evening match on Saturday. "It makes the day very long. Wake up late, come out, have a hit, then I go home and sleep a few. It's trying to kill hours without losing too much energy running around town. My whole day is structured around lying down and putting my feet up. Makes for a very boring day." Rafter has a history of losing big matches under the lights (including one to Canada's own Daniel Nestor in the 2000 Olympics), but he'll aim to buck that trend against tricky Fabrice Santoro. |