First shots in the first game he hits a double fault. He then hits three aces. Welcome to the mind of "Guga," the Brazilian still looking for all the world like he's stuffed with straw.
In a match that bubbled and boiled for three hours 38 minutes and in the fifth set travelled into the domain of courage and desire, Gustavo Kuerten came back from two sets to one down to Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero to go through to meet Magnus Norman in tomorrow's men's singles final.
It was Ferrero's first Roland Garros and only his third Grand Slam tournament. This time last year, the 20-year-old was playing a lower division Challenger event in the Czech Republic and completely unknown outside Spain. A natural clay court player and one who yesterday tried to intelligently shape his game to dominate the 1997 winner, Ferrero ultimately lost his way in the fifth set as pressure and mental fatigue set in.
Kuerten, who had his trainer on court three times for back and calf problems, won the first set 75 before dropping the next two 46, 2-6. It looked then like the Brazilian was flagging but picking up on a series of big points in the fourth as the younger player wavered. Ferrero lost his serve at 3-2 up in the fourth allowing Kuerten win the set before finishing out 6-3 in the fifth.
"I was hanging in today," said Kuerten afterwards. "I was waiting for my chance. My serve was good today and that was the key." FRAN-koh skoo-LAR-ee also made his exit. Just when you get around to the book which tells you how to pronounce a name the player leaves in straight sets. So Franco Squillari became Magnus Norman's sixth victim in Paris as the world number one made his way to face Kuerten in his first Grand Slam final. Norman's boyish looks were again at odds with his ruthless efficiency.
He relied once more on an all-round game that took on board a volleying dimension. Norman also hinted that grass may not be such an alien surface in three weeks' time at Wimbledon. Slide rule precision, stroke reliability and mettle under pressure, Norman's style may not possess the excitement of Andre Agassi but under the pressure of a Grand Slam semi-final it held strong. The Swede is more Volvo than Ferrari. It came then as a relief that Norman put his recent change of tennis fortune down to discovering the art of relaxation.
"In December I used to practise a whole lot of tennis, six or seven hours a day. This year I didn't. I went to the bar, you know, had a beer. All of a sudden I'm down in Australia playing the best tennis of my life," he said. Squillari, making his debut at Roland Garros, was in select company with only three players previously able to advance so far in their first effort.
One, Mats Wilander became the only player to go on to win it on his debut in 1982. But Squillari was nervous and at odds with the windy conditions going down in the first set 6-1 before falling 6-4, 6-3. Norman has now dropped only one set in his six-match run to the final. "Today I had confidence in myself," said the 24-year-old winner. "I said to myself I've been here before. This is my day."
