Dateline: 05/15/00

Magnus Norman had a good weekend.

On Saturday, Magnus beat Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-0 and thus advanced both to the Italian Open final and to number one in the ATP Champions Race, the new ranking system implemented for the year 2000. Andre Agassi, who lost early in the Italian, now drops to number two in the Champions Race, although most still regard him as the world's top player. The new Champions Race only counts results in the current calendar year, so Agassi's phenomenal 1999 is no longer a factor. Magnus summarized with appropriate modesty, saying that he's number one in the race for now, but still not on a par with Agassi or Sampras.

Norman may be rivaling Agassi and Sampras sooner than he expects. After his easy dismissal of Hewitt in the semifinal, he showed a potent mix of steadiness and aggressiveness against defending champ Gustavo Kuerten in the final. Kuerten was quite shaky in the first set, with a first-serve percentage in the single digits through the first six games. It looked like Gustavo might win only one game in the set, but he began to find the court toward the end, making Magnus work to pocket the set at 6-3. The remaining three sets were hard-fought. Gustavo won the second, then Magnus took the last two. The final result was 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

The most interesting part of the match was the contrast in stroking styles.

Gustavo takes enormous swings at the ball off both sides, and when he connects properly, he often produces spectacular shots. The flipside, of course, is that enormous swings can sometimes go enormously astray. Kuerten had 45 unforced errors, some of which can be attributed to a sore back, for which he had to receive help from the trainer. Back trouble, which has plagued Kuerten for three months, is particularly bothersome for a player who uses as much upper-body rotation as he does on both sides. On his forehand side, Kuerten's body coil is typical of his Western style, but his one-handed backhand uses much more rotation than most. His backhand went particularly wild in the fourth set, where he sprayed a number of shots twenty feet off the court. When it's on though, that backhand is one of the bigger weapons among one-handers.

Magnus Norman, in contrast, has very simple, relatively compact strokes. He uses a Semi-Western forehand, which requires a little less precision in timing than the Western, and unlike Kuerten, who has a quick lower-arm loop in his forehand preparation, Norman has no loop at all on his backswing, which further simplifies his timing. The primary advantage of a loop is to increase racquet-head speed, but the lack of a loop seemed to take nothing away from Magnus's power. He was able to hit clean winners off his forehand at virtually every appropriate opportunity. His backhand produced fewer winners, but with a compact and classic, two-handed style, he very rarely missed, and he was usually able to keep it deep.

The Italian Open was Magnus's biggest title thus far, his first of Masters Series status. Unlike players whose stroking style only works well on the slow clay, Magnus has a style that works well on faster surfaces, too, as indicated by his strong run at the Australian Open earlier this year. He made it to the semifinals there on courts that were playing unusually fast. His timing-simple strokes should fare well on the tricky Wimbledon grass this summer, then transport into the late summer hard-court season as well. I won't be at all surprised if he adds to his list of Masters Series titles this year, and I'd count him as a real contender for any one of the three remaining Grand Slams.

Do you think Magnus has a shot at the French Open this year? How about Gustavo, if his back holds up? Post your predictions in this forum discussion.

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