A tale of two winners, everyone but on the …
A tale of two winners, everywhere but on the scoreboard
From The Age
By Linda Pearce
2003 - My Favourite Moment
December 13, 2003
Those privileged enough to see it will never forget the epic El Aynaoui-Roddick
battle, where statistics and records could only ever tell part of the tale,
writes Linda Pearce.
In the early hours of January 23, after an epic match that was instantly
proclaimed as one of the greatest in grand slam history, and to which one
million local TV viewers were still glued at midnight, Younes El Aynaoui said
he would remember the Melbourne Park crowd most of all.
"Everybody stayed until the end, you know, five hours," the desperately weary
but gracious Moroccan said later. "They were pushing us at the end.They were
not with Andy or me, they were just enjoying a good match."
A good match? Good? El Aynaoui was not speaking in the first of his six
languages, and may well have been delirious with fatigue, so we shall forgive
his outrageous understatement. Technically, El Aynaoui had just lost 21-19 to
Andy Roddick in the fifth set of a quarter-final in which the record-breaking
quantity of games and minutes played was matched only by the sustained quality.
By every other measure, the non-winner had lost nothing at all.
If Lleyton Hewitt's Davis Cup semi-final comeback against Roger Federer was
nothing short of miraculous, and the wounded Mark Philippoussis's dramatic
effort in the final against Juan Carlos Ferrero unsurpassed for local theatre,
El Aynaoui-Roddick was a contest of timeless, cross-border appeal, in a sport
in which the only time limit is what bodies and minds can bear.
It was one for the ages, but in which age played little part. It was about the
endurance of a young punk of 20 and a journeyman of 31, but also the audacious
excellence of the near-nerveless tennis played over four hours 59 minutes, into
the early hours of a cool Melbourne summer's night.
Records were set - many of them - from the longest final set in an Open-era
grand slam (two hours 23 minutes), to the most number of games in an Australian
Open fifth set (40), to the highest number of games in a match at the Open in
the three-plus decades of the tie-breaker (83). Statistics reveal only part of
what transpired on the rubberised hard court named after Rod Laver, although
the fact that the tournament's ninth seed and its 18th both separately belted
more than 100 winners paints a little more of the background of this grand
picture.
Fellow American Jim Courier was euphoric, hailing it as the turning point of
the Roddick career that, less than nine months later, celebrated a breakthrough
grand slam victory.
Having cancelled their dinner reservations hours before, tennis writers from
around the planet were scrambling for superlatives while reminiscing about
comparable five-setters such as Hoad-Trabert (1953), Gonzales-Pasarell (1969),
Rosewall-Laver (1973), Borg-McEnroe (1980), Sampras-Courier (1995) and
Ivanisevic-Rafter (2001). Those of us with harsher deadlines watching the final
stages from the Melbourne Park media centre could only write, then rewrite,
then rewrite again to accommodate the many ebbs and flows, while hoping to do
justice to the drama in progress.
When it was over, when El Aynaoui netted a forehand volley a lifetime, or so it
seemed, after Roddick had saved a match point in the 10th game of the fifth set
with a cracking forehand that, considering the circumstances, he agreed was the
best shot he had ever hit, the Arab and the American met at the net for a three
-minute ovation, a handshake and an embrace. Roddick held El Aynaoui's arm
aloft, later proclaiming his opponent as "a class act". With the exception of
some Roddick outbursts towards French chair umpire Pascal Maria, it was, indeed
a wholly classy show.
"I know it was an amazing match and I don't know if I'll duplicate it in my
career," said Roddick when he eventually arrived in the interview room,
revealing that the pair had never met before tossing the coin. "We could see
each other 10 years down the line and know that we shared something pretty
special."
And, for Roddick's career, something pretty significant. It was acknowledged as
such by eventual champion Andre Agassi, who was snoozing in his hotel room at
the denouement, having reluctantly dragged himself away from the TV about 20 -
yes, 20 - games into the fifth set. Agassi awoke to nominate this as a career
milestone for his young compatriot, one which would help him to become "a
better player".
Fellow American Jim Courier was euphoric, hailing it as the turning point of
the Roddick career that, less than nine months later, celebrated a breakthrough
grand slam victory at the United States Open, and finished the year at No. 1.
Roddick, said Courier, had come to life and come of age on that January night.
"This is it," said the two-time Australian Open winner. "This is his time; his
turning point."
Indeed, if Roddick wins his first Australian Open next month, it will take
little calculating to work out when and where it all began. For the record, the
score was 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-4, 21-19, even if, in this case, records told
just a fraction of the story.
---
Andy明年澳洲公開賽加油!!!
就快到囉
--
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