| 2002 French Open Wrapup and Analysis | |
Dateline: 06/10/02
Of the four singles finalists at this year's French Open, three played well below par, but Albert Costa played his best ever.
Losing 1-6, 0-6, 6-4, 3-6 to Costa, Juan Carlos Ferrero may have set a personal worst. Ferrero was simply awful in the first two sets, while Costa did everything well, and after Ferrero finally came to life to win the third set, Costa stayed tough in the fourth to let Ferrero again fade.
Ferrero seemed to lack effort in the first two sets. Just listening to the match, you could hear the difference in the third, because for the first time, Ferrero began regularly to grunt. With more aggressive groundstrokes and better serving, Ferrero looked in the third set more like himself, but Costa continued to hit deep and hard with sharp angles that made Ferrero run well beyond the sidelines on point after point. Costa's drop shots scored heavily, too, with seven clean winners and only a couple Ferrero could answer. Ferrero made Costa's day easier than it should have been, but Costa clearly deserved the championship, both for his performance in the final and for having defeated last year's finalists, Gustavo Kuerten and Alex Corretja, on the way there.
Serena and Venus Williams don't enjoy playing one another, and this was evident throughout their final. Serena garnered her second Grand Slam title by beating Venus 7-5, 6-3, but neither played nearly as well as she had in the previous rounds. They had 101 unforced errors between them.
Venus, one of the best servers in women's tennis, was broken eight times. She is also probably the best female player ever at converting defensive situations into offensive opportunities, but instead of responding to Serena's aggressive strokes with even harder ones, she often just blocked them back. Serena's victory is largely attributable to her having stayed aggressive more consistently through the match. Toward the end, particularly, she was hitting with great depth and creating tough angles.
Any discomfort about competing quickly evaporated as Venus congratulated Serena for the win then seemed to enjoy Serena's moment on the victory platform as much as did Serena. Both pleased the crowd by addressing them partly in French.
In women's doubles Sunday, defending champs Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez defeated Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs, 6-4, 6-2. Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Paul Haarhuis prevailed in the men's doubles Saturday over Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, 7-5, 6-4. Cara and Wayne Black won the mixed doubles final Sunday, beating Elena Bovina and Mark Knowles 6-3, 6-3.
The junior singles finals featured two players who have gained more than the usual attention.
Still only 15, Richard Gasquet is showing exceptional promise for the future of French tennis. In the first round of the main draw, he took the first set from Albert Costa before losing 6-3, 0-6, 4-6, 3-6. In the boys' final, he overwhelmed countryman Laurent Recourderc 6-0, 6-1.
Following up on her 2001 girls' Wimbledon title, Angelique Widjaja took her first French girls' title, defeating Ashley Harkleroad 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Often called "the American Anna," Harkleroad seems to be able to focus on her game despite the attention to her looks.
