[Milano Indoors]Verkerk Stuns Kafelnikov
The 24-year-old from the Netherlands fired down 30 aces in the final
against Kafelnikov, the 1995 Milan champion, winning the match in just
over two hours.
Verkerk, whose best result on the ATP circuit prior to this week had
been a quarterfinal in Indianapolis in 2002, becomes the first
Dutchman to win in Milan (1978-2003). He also is the third first-time
winner on the ATP circuit this year, joining Nikolay Davydenko
(Adelaide) and Hyung-Taik Lee (Sydney).
Verkerk, who at No. 90 in the ATP Entry Ranking gained the last direct
entry into the tournament, served 109 aces during the week with
victories over Adrian Voinea, Thomas Enqvist, defending champion
Davide Sanguinetti, Ivan Ljubicic and Kafelnikov.
Kafelnikov was appearing in his 46th career ATP final (26-20), his
first since winning the title in Tashkent in September 2002. The
Russian, who turns 29 on February 18, did not drop a set en route to
the final, defeating qualifier Marcelo Charpentier, Kristian Pless,
Jonas Bjorkman and No. 8 seed Jarkko Nieminen.
In the doubles, Petr Luxa and Radek Stepanek claimed their third title
together when they defeated fellow Czech countryman Tomas Cibulec and
Pavel Vizner 6-4, 7-6(4).
What the Players Said:
Verkerk: "It's just a dream, I can't really express my feelings. This
is what I've practiced and lived for. Suddenly [all the hard work] has
paid off. When I served for the match at 6-5 I told myself 'This is
the moment, you should take it now'. I've worked unbelievably hard the
last two years, at the beginning of my career maybe I did not take it
so seriously. I was enjoying life a little bit too much. I am 24 but
really feel like 20, I'm a late bloomer.
"I have to thank my coach [New Zealand's Nick Carr] who believed in me
when people were wondering whether I would make it. He thought I was
not focused or professional enough and has made me work harder and
smarter.
"My serve has always been good but never this consistent. I served more
than 20 aces per match here. It will be difficult to do that all the
time but if I serve at 80-90 percent it will be good enough.
"Before I was saying that clay was my best surface but it would be
stupid to say it now."
Kafelnikov: "I'm happy with the way I played this week. I'm slowly
taking it step by step to try and come back to where I was.
"The scenario in the whole match was anytime I had a chance he came up
with a big serve. Anytime I faced a break point it felt like a match
point because it was so hard to break him. I was under pressure all
the time."
Stepanek: "It means a lot to win with Petr because we hadn't played
together for some time. We have won three of the four ATP finals we've
been in and look forward to playing with him again any time I am not
committed to play with Jiri Novak."
--
Stepanek剛拿下雙打冠軍，在信心方面不啻為一劑強心針，
只希望俄羅斯能多加油，小弟和老卡，希望都交給你們了啊！
--
我是一隻小火雞，
快樂的生活在沙皇的農城裡~~
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.csie.ntu.edu.tw)
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