| Kuerten Wins on Eleventh Match Point | |
Dateline: 06/11/00
Gustavo Kuerten claimed his second French Open singles title, 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), over Magnus Norman today.
If the French Open singles were best of three sets, this year's final would have been a major dud. Kuerten took the first two sets all too easily from a poorly playing, nervous Norman. Then Magnus shook off the nerves and used his power forehands and precise, down-the-line backhands to put Gustavo on the run. Winning the third set erased Magnus's fear of a completely embarrassing performance, and this paved the way for an especially dramatic and hard-fought fourth set.
In the fourth, Magnus may have set an all-time record for number of serves hit in one set. Whereas Kuerten's serving games generally went quickly, most of Norman's went to multiple deuces, and it was on break points that Kuerten had his first nine championship points. On the first of these, Norman, serving at 4-5, 15-40, hit an inside-out forehand that, if it was in, touched only the outermost edge of Kuerten's sideline. Kuerten thought it was out, but the chair umpire climbed down to call it good. This prompted a rare argument from Kuerten, and the call clearly bothered him for the rest of that game, as he kept looking back at the ball mark on subsequent points.
Magnus's next service game was another marathon. It went 24 points and over 20 minutes, but Magnus finally prevailed to force the set into a tie-break. Kuerten seemed to take command of the tie-break, winning the first point on his own serve, then getting two mini-breaks on Norman's. But, in true see-saw fashion, Kuerten dropped the next three points to 3-3, then Magnus the next three to give Kuerten 6-3, then Kuerten the next three to 6-6. At 6-6, Gustavo served a winner, then on the subsequent point, Magnus went for just a little too much on a forehand to give Gustavo the match.
Although the quality of Kuerten's play varied noticeably during the match, it was Norman's level of play that really drove the shifts in momentum. In comparing the stroking styles of the two players, this is not surprising, especially when nerves are a critical factor. Magnus is the flatter, harder hitter of the two, and the one who aims closer to the lines. Magnus has a smaller margin for error, so if he's thrown slightly off by nervousness, it will show. More importantly, perhaps, it's harder to hit your way through the nerves when you hit relatively flat. If you hit a lot of topspin, swinging faster and more freely will actually improve your consistency, because a faster swing creates heavier spin, and heavier spin makes the ball drop into the court sooner, giving you more room to hit over the net. If you hit relatively flat, hitting harder can be more, not less, risky, so you can't just tell yourself to swing out at the ball as confidently as you could with a heavy topspin. Swinging out more freely with a flatter hitting style might help you control your racquet angle and timing, but the price of those benefits will be an even smaller margin for error.
Magnus is capable of hitting a good amount of topspin, and he does seem at times to try to hit with more spin for greater safety. Clearly though, he goes through long stretches where he continues to attempt fairly flat shots that just miss. Very likely, when this happens, he feels that he's on the verge of finding the timing and accuracy to get those shots in, and he wants to stick with it until it clicks. This is always one of the tougher decisions in a match: when to keep trying Plan A and when to switch to Plan B. For some players, like Martina Hingis, Plans B, C, and D are all well-developed and viable. For Magnus, Plan A might be the only one with which he is really comfortable. Given his success recently, Plan A is a pretty good one, but a B might help him break through to win a few Grand Slams.
In the next Grand Slam, Wimbledon, Norman's stroking style will have one advantage over Kuerten's that was a much smaller factor at the French Open. Because he uses a more compact stroke that travels largely forward into the path of the ball, Magnus has an easier task of timing his shots and making them connect squarely off tricky bounces like those that come from a grass court. Gustavo's huge swings that brush sharply up the back of the ball require much greater precision in timing than do Magnus's. Once Gustavo makes the intended contact, his topspin is a safer shot, but on grass, where clean contact is more difficult, he is more likely to mis-hit. The ball will also bounce lower on grass, making it harder to start the racquet below the ball for topspin. I wouldn't count Gustavo out at Wimbledon, though. Bjorn Borg was one of the heavier topspin hitters of his time, and he won five Wimbledons. (He also won six French Opens.)
In the women's singles final, Mary Pierce defeated Conchita Martinez 6-2, 7-5. Like Magnus Norman, Pierce hits relatively flat, hard, and close to the lines. Unlike Norman, though, she suffered only brief patches of nervousness. She was able to maintain a high quality of very aggressive play throughout this French Open.
Pierce will take home the women's doubles title, too. She and Martina Hingis defeated Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez 6-2, 6-4. As usual, Hingis had a frank comment about their success: "I think we're a great team because she's got all the power and I've got more finesse and the placement."
In the men's doubles final, Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge beat Paul Haarhuis and Sandon Stolle 7-6, 6-4 and thus set an Open Era record with 58 doubles titles. On the verge of retirement, Woodforde and Woodbridge also completed their career Grand Slam.
The mixed doubles final saw David Adams and Mariaan de Swardt defeat Todd Woodbridge and Rennae Stubbs 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Would Gustavo have held up in a fifth set had he lost that eleventh championship point, then the fourth set? Post your opinion in this forum discussion.
