Quarterfinals Day Headlined By Rafter, Roddick, and...Larose?
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.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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