Dominik Hrbaty continues to defy the pundits at Roland Garros, his latest victim one of the pre-tournament favourites and number eight seed Marcelo Rios. Having disposed of world number one, Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the second round, another Russian the promising Marat Safin in his last match, few anticipated that the 21-year-old Slovakian would ease aside volatile Chilean clay court specialist Rios.
Hrbaty, though, hadn't read the prepared script that demanded a semi-final clash between Rios and Andre Agassi. He approached his task with tremendous application, barely faltering in a marvellous 76 (4), 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 victory. The Slovakian played on the edge, hitting his groundstrokes with every ounce of strength his six-foot frame could muster and offering a performance on serve that arguably no one has equalled in the tournament.
It wasn't the velocity of his delivery but the angle and swing and an uncanny facility for hitting lines that prevented Rios from managing a single break. The magnitude of that achievement can not be over stressed for the Chilean is one of the great artists in the men's game and can conjure angles when none are apparent.
He by no means played badly, yet often finished second best in the exchanges from the baseline. Hrbaty kept wonderful length on his groundstrokes and was particularly effective in driving forehands and backhands crosscourt, the precursor of so many successful exchanges. Rios appeared slightly bemused by his experience. "Every time I missed he beat me.
"The thing he does is hit hard as hard as he can. If they're going in good, if not . . . He served very well, usually he doesn't serve that big. Today he put in a lot of first serves and it wasn't easy to return them. I don't know if I was surprised by how aggressive he was. That's the way he plays, hit the ball as hard as he can."
Hrbaty was remarkably nonplussed by his achievement. "To me all matches are the same whether you play on the Challenger circuit, the Satellite of the World Series. There are always tough matches. You have to beat everybody if you want to win tournaments. There is no difference between the matches here and other tournaments."
Hrbaty, who was selected by his fellow pros as Newcomer of the Year three seasons ago, is unfazed about his next assignment, a semi-final clash with Agassi. "I played him in Key Biscayne and beat him in three sets. I have nothing to lose and I can only beat him. I won't be thinking about losing when I go on court."
He will now face a man to whom the Parisian crowd freely offers adulation. The Las Vegan produced another superlative performance in blitzing Uruguayan qualifier Marcelo Filippini 6-2, 62, 6-0. Agassi was at his irrepressible best, a throwback to the vintage of a few years ago.
Wonderful movement, thundering groundstrokes taking the ball early in the process marauding presence on court. In mitigation Filippini was handicapped by a stomach injury which he would later outline. "My stomach has hurt for the last three matches. I couldn't serve, I almost retired at 2-0 in the second set. I just didn't because I never retire.
"I couldn't get power into my serve. But he played a great match, he was pretty accurate. He didn't move backwards at all and just hammered me as quickly as possible. Maybe in a 100 per cent conditions (stet), he still kick my ass."
