Haarhuis moves into Indosiar semifinals
Haarhuis moves into Indosiar semifinals
JAKARTA (JP): Defending champion Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands held off a persistent challenge from Guillaume Raoux of France at the US$328,000 Indosiar Men's Open tennis championships yesterday, surviving the thriller for a semifinal berth.
World number 18 Haarhuis won 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) in his first real test after two easy games en route to yesterday's quarterfinals, leaving his title defense campaign on shaky footing as he is tipped to meet in-form Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco in today's semifinals.
El Aynaoui powered his way to a 6-0, 6-1 steamrolling of Emilio Sanchez of Spain in the earlier quarterfinal.
But Haarhuis refused to say that it was the most difficult match he has ever played, "Yes, today I could have lost. But Aynaoui is even tougher. It will be more difficult for me to beat him."
Haarhuis got off to a disastrous start in the match between two remaining seeds. He was left trailing throughout the power play, before making a brilliant last-ditch effort.
Throughout the match, however, it was confident Raoux who showed an exceptionally brilliant style with his artful slicing which ironically turned erratic near the set points in the first set and the match point in the decider.
The Dutch champion, on the other hand, gained points mostly because of Raoux's mistakes - and apparently by luck.
But Haarhuis flatly rejected this. "I had to struggle not because I played a bad match but because Raoux played very well to the point of winning," Haarhuis told The Jakarta Post. "I'm no Pete Sampras who can win easily," he added.
Sanchez had more than 250 people cheering him on, but it was not enough to match a power game performed by Aynaoui, who is seeking his first career title here.
The 1.93m Moroccan dominated the match from the start with his flawless strokes from the baseline and a number of approaches to the net. El Aynaoui was so strong that he broke Sanchez' serves six times in 11 attempts.
"I played and served very well, but he (Sanchez) was a little bit nervous," world number 67 El Aynaoui told reporters at the press conference after the match.
El Aynaoui, who upset world number three Thomas Muster in the Qatar Open semifinals last week, relied on his big serves and thundering forehands to tame the plucky Sanchez.
"My backhand is a little bit weak. I'd be in the world top ten if my backhand were as strong as my forehand," El Aynaoui said.
The towering Moroccan blasted seven aces en route to an easy first-set win which lasted only 16 minutes and 52 seconds.
The second set went off in the same way, with El Aynaoui frequently racing up to the net for a volley winner. Sanchez, who upset fourth seed Jacco Eltingh on Thursday, performed a brave effort to break the duck in the fifth game of the second set.
Earlier on the day, Dutch young gun Sjeng Schalken bounced back from a set down to defeat Swede Mikael Tillstrom 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in one hour 53 minutes.
Schalken will now take on Michael Joyce of the United States, a surprising 6-2, 6-3 winner over second seed Gilbert Schaller of Austria, for a place in Sunday's final. (05/arf)