Top seeds sail into ATP Doubles semifinals
JAKARTA (JP): The Netherlands' first seeds Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis survived a two-hour, nail biting, power play game against the Canadian/American team of Grant Connell and Patrick Galbraith to claim a berth to the ATP World Doubles tennis championship semifinals yesterday.
So close was the match that the winners were decided in the last minutes, with the world number one Dutch duo coming from behind for a 6-7 (2-7), 7-5, 6-4 victory.
The defending champions have now established a 2-0 win-loss record, and look set to seal the round-robin matches in the Red Group with another win when they play Sweden's Davis Cup heroes Jan Apell and Jonas Bjorkman who beat Spain's Sergio Casal and Emilio Sanchez 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).
Both world number one and the former number one displayed their best tennis, making their points with a masterful combination of nose-dive smashes, sharp crosscourts and deep volleys.
There were a number of unforced errors, however. Galbraith double faulted his serve to give the title holders a 2-1 first set lead. Eltingh squandered a winning chance in the 10th game as he tallied two double faults in a row which brought both teams into a tiebreak.
The left-handed team dropped their second serve in the crucial game which allow their Dutch arch rivals to level the tie at one set all, thanks to Haarhuis' lucky shot which bounced off Connell's racket frame.
"The lucky shot helped us to find the momentum," said Haarhuis after the match.
Haarhuis belted two aces to save three break points in the fifth game of the deciding set.
Despite holding the serve, Connell, who got off to a flying start, failed to escape from his mental pressure. He netted his returns three times before Eltingh's sharp stop ball sealed the match.
Woodies to semis
Earlier yesterday, Australian Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde took one and a half hours to become the first team to qualify for tournament's season ending semifinals.
The Woodies maintained their gritty serve-and-volley play, which earned them a comfortable opening win on Wednesday, to ease past teammate David Adams and Russian Andrei Olhovskiy 6-2, 6-4. The world number two now lead the White Group with a perfect 2-0 win record.
Last year's semifinalists Adams and Olhovskiy still find their path to another last-four round wide open and meet the hopeless Dutch-Czech tandem of Tom Nijssen and Cyril Suk in the last round-robin matches today.
South African Byron Black and American Jonathan Stark sent Nijssen and Suk to the sidelines during Saturday's semifinals with a 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) win in another White Group match earlier yesterday. Black and Stark obviously need to work extra hard to keep their championship fate alive as they play the Australian solid team.
The Woodies blasted their big serves as they kept their pace against the error-prone multinational squad. Olhovskiy dropped his game twice, in addition to Adams' broken serve in the third game of the second set.
"It was a relieving outcome, but tomorrow's match will be tougher," said Woodbridge. Playing before their home fans, the Woodies crashed to an upset defeat to French Open champions Black and Stark in the semifinals of the Australian Indoor.
Woodbridge joined the outcry over the championship's poor public turn-out. A paltry number of 200 spectators left the 3,000-seat Senayan indoor tennis stadium feeling a bit hollow.
"Where are the people?" Woodbridge asked, his question going unanswered. (amd)
Today's programs
2.00 p.m. Casal/Sanchez v Connell/Galbraith Eltingh/Haarhuis v Apell/Bjorkman
7.30 p.m. Woodbridge/Woodforde v Stark/Black Nijssen/Suk v Adams/Olhovskiy