A fortnight till the French :o)


Andrei Pavel (who had won his first career title a month ago in Japan and has so far had a most impressive run) 6-2 6-4. And what a final in the end! Really, it could have been anyone's title. The stakes so high, the competition so close, yet so far for Stoltenberg, who could not convert any of his three final appearances this year into trophy bearing victories, with such a close and competitive loss at 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 7-6 (7-4). A shame for Stoltenberg, who had just as much chance as the world #1, however a gracious victory for a player who has not had such a great run in the past five months or so.

And at the latest Super 9 tournament you ask?!?!?! Well, things went sort of as expected and also as not expected at the German Open. No one would have guessed former #1 Marcelo Rios bowing out of the tournament in the second round to Wayne Ferreira 3-6 6-4 6-3 (although Ferreira did defeat Sampras at Key Biscayne two months ago). In actual fact there were a lot of upsets, although these days, that is more like common occurrence. To name a few, losers in the first round included Boris Becker to Magnus Gustaffson 7-5 6-4, 10th seed Carlos Moya (after such an impressive run at Monte Carlo. See, you really can't tell who can survive based on recent performance:o)!) to hometown favourite and rising star Tommy Haas 6-2 7-5, another rising star and another hometown favourite Nicholas Kiefer to countryman Oliver Gross 3-6 6-2 6-1; losers in the second round, 11th seed Michael Chang to Francisco Clavet 6-3 6-7 (7-4) 6-2; losers of the third round 2nd seed Greg Rusedski to improving Goran Ivanisevic 6-4 6-2 and in a battle of Spaniards 8th seed Alberto Berasategui to 9th seed Felix Mantilla 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4). However, as somewhat expected, we saw Spaniards in the final - not surprising seeing as every European claycourt final this season has had a Spaniard showing. And this one was fought between Albert Costa and Alex Corretja. I must say - what an upset. And in more ways than one. Not only was Corretja defeated, he retired early on without winnning more than 2 out of 15 games played.

Somewhat accustomed to winning by default is Albert Costa who only played for a total of 14 minutes the previous day

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