El Aynaoui stuns defending champ Paul Haarhuis
El Aynaoui stuns defending champ Paul Haarhuis
JAKARTA (JP): Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco upset defending champion Paul Haarhuis to prevent an all Netherlands final at the Indosiar Men's Open tennis championships yesterday.
El Aynaoui toppled Haarhuis 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 to reach his second successive final of the year. He will now take on another Dutchman, Sjeng Schalken, his conqueror in an ATP tournament in Casablanca last year.
Schalken needed three sets before downing unseeded Michael Joyce of the United States 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
In-form world number 67 El Aynaoui employed his ruthless serve and volley game as top seed Haarhuis played error-prone tennis yesterday. The spirited Morrocan double faulted twice but was still too much for world number 18 Haarhuis, who dropped a game to give away the first set.
Haarhuis sped up the pace to go 3-0 up in the second set, but El Aynaoui fought back with two straight love games to level the tie at 4-4. The two players produced another love game each to settle the set in a tie breaker.
El Aynaoui appeared to close the match when he raced to a 4-2 lead in the tie break. A hasty play however cost him the set, with Haarhuis sweeping five points in a row. El Aynaoui threw his racket away in disappointment at the end of the tie break, prompting the umpire to give him a point penalty in the deciding set.
"I got crazier during the tie break because last week I lost the very important tie breaker in the final," he told reporters at the post-match press conference.
El Aynaoui lost to Petr Korda of the Czech Republic in the Qatar Open in Doha after two close tie breakers.
Tight service games filled the final set, forcing some 1,000 tennis lovers, including chairman of the Indonesian Tennis Association, Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, to set all their eyes on where the ball flew.
The decider went off almost the same as the opening set, with a more patience El Aynaoui breaking Haarhuis' serve in the most crucial game. Serving for the match at 5-3, El Aynaoui saved a break point before scraping to two points in a row.
Better player
Haarhuis, who received most of the cheers from the spectators at the center court of the Senayan tennis complex, admitted that his rival played better.
"This guy played very well this time and his forehand is very dangerous," Haarhuis said of the opponent whom he beat in the early round here last year.
"It's very different then when I met him last year. He had beaten Muster last week so he's full of confidence," he said.
Speaking about his chances in the final, El Aynaoui said that he wants to control the match.
"Insya Allah (God willing), I hope I can win," he said. "I know Schalken can play well so I have to be very careful."
Schalken admitted that he preferred playing compatriot Haarhuis, whom he is familiar with, in the final.
Meanwhile, a solid partnership of Kent Kinnear and Dave Randall of the United States defeated the Spanish-Dutch pair of Emilio Sanchez and Schalken in rubber sets 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 to set up an all-American final against Rick Leach and Scott Melville. (05)