Physical strength rules French Open

Physical strength rules French Open

By Russell Barlow

JAKARTA (JP): The French Open, like all the Grand Slam tennis
tournaments, possess its own special qualities.

The huge crowds which throng to Rolland Garros every year and
the well-planned maze of outside courts in a huge park setting,
are conductive to a nonchalant, carnival atmosphere.

It is enthusiastic Parisian crowds and great tennis matches
that I recollect from my days as a player at Rolland Garros and
today as a visitor to Paris in my capacity as a Tournament
Director with the ATP Tour. The fans are very different from the
staid, polite ones you find at Wimbledon or the ebullient Native
New Yorkers at the U.S. Open.

The French crowds are very emotive and always intensely
involved in the matches, pulling for the underdogs and willing
French hopefuls to victory. Probably the most emotional moment in
recent years was when Frenchman Yannick Noah, a great personality
and talented player, fought brilliantly to defeat defending
champion Mats Wilander of Sweden for the title in 1983.

Spectators see chess on a tennis court at Rolland Garros. One
could almost see the tactical minds of the great claycourters --
Bjorn Bjorg, Guilermo Villas, Adriano Panatta, and, today, Sergei
Bruguera -- as they cat-and-mouse with their befuddled opponents
before pouncing for a kill.

Graveyard

Can a serve-and-volleyer win at the French Open? Sure, but it
requires someone who is patient, waits for the right
opportunities and is a good tactician.

People point to John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and
now Pete Sampras as examples of great all-court or serve-and-
volley players who couldn't win at the Rolland Garros
"graveyard". There are different reasons why each of these top
male players failed to win the French Open.

McEnroe and Becker never really learned the fundamentals of
playing the clay court game. Becker can go through to the final
rounds on clay, but comes up short when more patience is required
against the clay court experts like Bruguera and Thomas Muster.

The same is true of McEnroe, but I saw him play two of the
great sets of the clay court game against Ivan Lendl in the 1984
final. McEnroe was prudent and tactical with his shots, and
attacked only when Lendl hit a short ball. But McEnroe was not
fit enough to sustain the high standard of play over five sets
and Lendl, who had made physical fitness his greatness strength,
took the title.

Edberg is still one of the most stylish, elegant players on
the ATP Tour. His game is ideally suited for grass or hard
courts, but he lacks the weight of shot to win on slow clay. The
former world number one and a losing finalist in Paris in 1989,
lost to Michael Stich in Thursday's second round.

Sampras was sent packing in the first round and there was a
chorus of naysayers who said he cannot win on clay. Some
pertinent facts were overlooked; Gilbert Schaller is ranked 24 in
the world; he is coming off a great clay court season where he
beat world number nine Yevgeny Kafelnikov in Hamburg and Karel
Novacek in Munich; and Sampras lost 4-6 in the fifth set after a
nearly four-hour match.

Sampras is still young and has such immense talent that he can
learn the game required to win the French Open. He can rally from
the baseline with his flowing ground strokes and, most
importantly, has the self-confidence to shrug off any questions
about his clay court game.

I have read several articles over the past few days about
Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki and her "shocking" defeat in the first
round of the French Open to a Belgian qualifier ranked 100 places
below her.

Yayuk is a very talented player, with a pounding forehand and
a sliced backhand which is great for grass and hard courts, but I
can see how she would have problems at Rolland Garros.

The clay at Rolland Garros becomes fast when the weather is
hot and dry, but extremely slow after rain when the balls pick up
to the powder. It is not as slow as the clay courts at the
Italian Open, but it is nothing like the clay courts at the
Senayan tennis complex here.

The Senayan tennis courts are very fast and the balls skid,
especially when hit with a heavy slice. Yayuk developed her
sliced backhand because it is a weapon on these courts, but it
does not have the same effect at Roland Garros.

I am hedging on who will come through as the men's champion
this week.

Bruguera has the heavy topspin strokes which are so difficult
for opponents to handle at Rolland Garros, as well as the huge
mental advantage of having won two years in a row. Muster, of
course, has had and amazing year and has the stamina to win the
long five-set matches.

Agassi and Chang should not be forgotten and either of them
could make 1995 the year of the American in Paris.

Russell Barlow is the ATP Tour Consultant for the ATP Tour
World Doubles Championship in Jakarta this November.