Unseeded Argentine Ousts Roddick From French Open
nytimes.com
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
May 26, 2005
PARIS, May 26 - It was a steamy day at Roland Garros, one in which the fans hustled for available shade while some of the players found themselves unable to hustle all the way to the finish line.
Vince Spadea and Novak Djokovic both retired from second-round matches and when the Argentine outsider, José Acasuso, got a long, deep rub on his left thigh from a trainer early in the fifth set of his marathon match against Andy Roddick, it looked like he might be joining them.
But the victim turned out to be Roddick, the No. 2 seed and last remaining American man in the French Open draw. A reinvigorated Acasuso soon resumed galloping about the crushed red brick, hitting flashy passing shots and returns past Roddick, whose bold play did not always correspond with intelligent ploys down the stretch.
Final score: 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 8-6 for the underdog, although it is difficult to use that term for anyone playing an American man at Roland Garros these days. For the second consecutive year, neither Roddick nor any of his compatriots made it past the second round of the world's premier clay-court event.
The rest of the day was more intriguing for the third-round match-ups it generated - Juan Carlos Ferrero vs. Marat Safin; Amélie Mauresmo vs. the talented Serbian teenager, Ana Ivanovic - than for any landscape-shaping, second-round temblors.
The relatively tranquil mood suited Justine Henin-Hardenne just fine. She has had enough turbulence lately, enough weird twists and unexpected setbacks.
She is not 15 years old any more, as she reminded her sharp-tongued coach, Carlos Rodriguez, earlier this week during her first-round match at center court, after he had given her too much tough love for her taste.
"Arrete ton cinema!" - "Stop your show!" - Rodriguez yelled at Henin-Hardenne from the stands as she lost the plot and momentum after a brilliant first set against the Spanish veteran, Conchita Martinez.
Rodriguez has been telling the 10th-seeded Belgian things she did not want to hear for years. But he has been correct often enough to earn Henin-Hardenne's trust and - more unusually in the revolving door of tennis coaching - her loyalty.
It is quite a responsibility to be the tutor for the most complete women's tennis player in the world, and Rodriguez has been handling it with varying degrees of patience since Henin-Hardenne was 14.
"It's been nine years that we've worked together," she said. "We know each other so well and we work things through very quickly. We had a little exchange, but nothing violent. Carlos knows what he's doing, but I have to admit that I have less and less need of being motivated that way, especially when it's a Grand Slam tournament, because I know what I have to do."
Rodriguez began working with Henin-Hardenne shortly after her mother died of cancer. He has been with her through it all: the early doubts, the rise to dominance, the powerful cytomegalovirus that left her bedridden at various stages last year, as well as the unlikely Olympic gold medal in Athens, then the knee injury that knocked her out of the sport again earlier this year. That one forced her to fly home from Australia after a good, long cry.
But there was no need for tears today, at least not from Henin-Hardenne, and no need for Rodriguez to lose his temper for tactical reasons or otherwise, as she cruised into the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over another Spanish veteran, Virginia Ruano Pascual.
The play was not quite hiccup-free. Henin-Hardenne was treated for back pain after the first set, but it was still reassuring, and she has now won 19 matches in a row, all on clay. The surface has long been her favorite and the one that allows her the most freedom to exploit the tremendous variety in her game.
She might only be seeded 10th here but - body and energy level willing - she is the deserving favorite. It's not a role she is embracing with an easy smile, however, despite all the good news it implies.
"I don't know if I'm playing better," Henin-Hardenne said. "I hope one day I can play better than before my illness. But here at the French Open, it's different, a different kind of pressure and a lot of attention on myself. And I'm not used to it anymore."
Tennis is awash in comeback tales in these physically grueling, hypercompetitive days, yet Henin-Hardenne's revival is particularly poignant. After all, what knocked her off her perch at age 21 had nothing to do with the quality of the opposition or a brusque change of direction at the wrong time in the wrong place. It was the enemy within that dragged her down: an illness that she could neither control nor completely understand.
Henin-Hardenne still does not know whether it was caused by pushing her slight frame too hard in training, as Martina Navratilova has suggested, or by something else.
"It's true that I did not stop for years and that, because of my physique, I've got to give twice as much as the others," Henin-Hardenne said in an interview earlier this year. "But tennis has become so demanding physically, and almost all the women are having a problem at some time or another that puts them out for a few months."
Jennifer Capriati, who has not played all year because of a shoulder injury, is merely the latest example. Serena Williams, who begged off this tournament because of a sprained ankle, was another. It is enough to put a strained back in perspective.
"I don't think it's going to be a problem during this tournament," Henin-Hardenne said. "It's something I need to manage, but I can't go on with the pain for months. It's something that's not serious. The doctors have told me so, but it will take a few days rest at some point."
Sure, she's not 15 anymore, but there are some 15-year-olds skidding about the courts at Roland Garros this year. The Bulgarian with the Florida address, Sesil Karatantcheva, is into the third round and will play Venus Williams on Friday.
There is also Alizé Cornet, a 15-year-old from Nice, who had the chance to play her hero Mauresmo on the Suzanne Lenglen court in the second round today.
It ended predictably - although Mauresmo has been known to freeze - as the young wild card found the setting too grand to put up more than token resistance against her third-seeded countrywoman.
"When it's empty, it's quite a normal court," Cornet said. "But when it gets filled and people start clapping, it's very impressive. But what impressed me most was Amélie."
Mauresmo won 6-0, 6-2, but it should get much trickier from here. Ivanovic is only two years older than Cornet at 17, but she is already ranked 31st in the world. She has a champion's backhand, a convincing serve and a look of precocious determination on her olive-skinned face.
"She is more and more confident in her game," Mauresmo said. "I think this is going to be a real fight."
Safin vs. Ferrero looks much the same on paper or clay. Safin has not been nearly as ethereal since touching the clouds to win the year's first Grand Slam tournament in Australia, thus seeding the first doubts about Roger Federer's tight grip on the game by beating him in an epic match in the semifinals.
Safin has looked on task in Paris, his favorite city, despite some nagging knee pain, and he will need to be at his hard-serving, backhand-pounding, quick-shuffling best to get past Ferrero, who won here in 2003 and has been back in fine form this spring, after plummeting out of the top 50 in January.
"I have to play fast," Safin said. "Because if I start to make rallies with him, he is better than me." |
