[ROTTERDAM]New Champion to be Crowned in Rotterdam
There will be a first time champion at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
this year with all four semifinalist having never won the prestigious
tournament in Rotterdam. Former champions, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Nicolas
Escude are both out of the tournament. Sebastien Grosjean advanced to the
semifinals over Escude on Friday night, when the two-time defending champion,
still bothered by a strained right hamstring, retired late in the match at 4-4
in the third set.
Escude had been bothered by the hamstring last week in Marseille and withdrew
from his semifinal match in order to save himself for a chance at a third
consecutive title in Rotterdam. And though he was playing excellent tennis
and winning matches, including a tough three-set win over local favorite
Richard Krajiceck, the hamstring bothered him enough to retired against his
Davis Cup teammate.
Max Mirnyi also knocked out a former champion, 1999 winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
Before arriving in Rotterdam, Max Mirnyi had not won back-to-back matches yet
this season, but this week, the tall Belarussian, who reached the quarterfinals
of the US Open last year, has won three consecutive matches for the first time
in 2003. His 7-6(5), 7-6(4) win over Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov put him into
an ATP semifinal for the first time since the Mercedes-Benz Cup last July in
Los Angeles. The hard-serving Mirnyi has now played seven tiebreaks in his
past 10 completed sets of tennis, winning five of them.
Roger Federer advanced to the semifinals in Rotterdam for the second time in
three years with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4, victory over Holland's Sjeng Schalken.
Federer has now won 10 consecutive singles matches and is 13-1 since the first
round at the Australian Open where he reached the fourth round. Federer jumped
on Schalken early and was up a break in the second before Schalken broke back
for 4-5. Federer then toughened up and broke Schalken in the 10th game of the
set to move into the semifinals for the second time in three years in
Rotterdam. The only player to beat Federer at this event the past two years
has been eventual champion Nicolas Escude, who is no longer in the draw.
The fourth semifinalist is local star Raemon Sluiter, born and raised in
Rotterdam. He was a winner over Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero on Friday night
when the top seed retired after twisting an ankle early in the first set. For
Sluiter, it is his first ATP semifinal since reaching the last four at the
Stella Artois Championships in Queen's last year on grass.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
Roger Federer: "Now I am playing with a lot of confidence. The further I go,
the better I play. I'm definitely on a roll. I am not sure if I have had such
a long winning streak before."
"I am a different player to a couple of years ago when I was playing very well.
I am much more experienced. I know much more about the game."
"The center court here is beautiful. There's a good crowd, the surface... I
really like this tournament."
"I have good memories here. I was given a wild card in 1999 to play in the
qualifying. I reached the quarterfinals and almost beat Kafelnikov. I like
to come back here. I recognise that they helped me out when my career was
starting out so that's why I come back every year."
Federer was serving for the match at 6-2, 5-3, but Schalken broke back.
"He took chances and risks at the end to break my serve. We were also playing
with new balls which are difficult to control. It was important for me to stay
focused."
On his goals to be No. 1:
"My goal is to be No. 1 in a couple of years. If it comes earlier, I'll take
it. As I said before, I have a lot of points to defend until Hamburg, so I
will just try and keep my ranking. I don't have many points to defend in the
summer, so if I have a good slam or other tournaments, I have a good chance
of improving my ranking."
"I think I have a good character and charisma to be at the top. Right now, I
feel I have a lot of potential to improve all areas of my game. Mentally I am
feeling good. I know where I am on the court, who I want to be. That helps my
game."
Sjeng Schalken: "I am mad with myself. The last time I played Federer, I had a
pretty good feeling. This time he beat me too convincingly. His tennis was
amazing. When you take a look at the last seven matches of Federer, he's been
playing beautiful tennis. He beats everyone and it doesn't cost him energy. He
plays so easily. Federer at this moment is a superman."
"I had to work a lot harder than Federer during the match. I was very
disappointed about my service games, especially, my send serve. But when the
serve was good, Federer returned with high forehand strokes and short slice
backhands."
"At this moment, in my opinion, Roger is the best indoor player in the world."
Max Mirnyi: "It was a special match in so many different ways. It is special
when you come and play a close friend. It will be the same tomorrow. I've
gotten to know Roger (Federer) pretty well over the last years. We have played
a lot of doubles together and shared a lot of time off the court."
"Yevgeny (Kafelnikov) must have been tired having played his friend Marat last
night... it really is a battle of friends here. Although he was tired, he would
have benefited from the fact that I don't like to battle it out. I try and go
for quick points."
On the key against Federer:
"Winning the last point... Roger is a very flashy player. He is an exciting
player to watch."
"I believe my game is a winning one. I can beat anyone. I am finding my game
has come together. If I serve as well as I did today and hold my serve, I
reckon I'll have a good chance of breaking his."
On Federer's winning streak
"Well, somebody has to break it. I think he would rather lose to me than
someone else."
"We will be bringing a lot to the court tomorrow. There is a lot at stake --
being the 30th anniversary of the tournament. One thing I know is that it will
be fair play. I respect him as much as I think he respects me."
Juan Carlos Ferrero: "It's difficult to accept because I was playing well
here this week. I thought I had a lot of chances to win tonight's match. I
was leading by 2-1 and I was already creating break points on his serve."
"This is a great tournament and I hope to be back here next year."
"The last time I had an injury of this type was during Roland Garros last
year. With the help of pain killers, I was able to carry on and play through
the pain."
Raemon Sluiter: "It was incredibly bad luck for Ferrero. I am very sorry about
what happened to him. I would have loved to play the match in front of the
home crowd. After talking to the tournament director, I decided to place a
brief exhibition match to break into some sweat. I need to be in good shape
for the semifinal tomorrow."
Nicolas Escude: "Since the beginning of the tournament I've been playing at
around 50 to 60 percent and I have still managed to win two matches. It is
very tough. I really like this tournament. I came here to win a hat-trick.
Once I knew I definitely wasn't able to win the tournament, I decided to
retire from the match. Maybe I could have played through and won the match to
reach the semifinals, but I am not here to just get that far, I came here to
win."
In tomorrow's semifinals, hard-serving, hard-charging Max Mirnyi meets Roger
Federer and Raemon Sluiter goes up against Sebastien Grosjean. The last time
Mirnyi and Federer met was for high stakes in the round of 16 at the US Open
and Mirnyi advanced in straight sets. Sluiter and Grosjean met at the ABN
AMRO World Tennis Tournament last year with Grosjean winning in two tiebreak
sets.
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Rogi的狀態相當好...MM，加油吧！
蚊子和刀子臉...希望他們早日康復...
--
我是一隻小火雞，
快樂的生活在沙皇的農城裡~~
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