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| 09 Jun 2001 | |
| Spain Versus South America - Twice at Roland Garros |
By Chris Bowers
It seems fitting that on a day when a Spaniard plays a South American in the men’s singles final, a Spaniard should play a South American in the boys’ final too. And that is what will happen following wins for Carlos Cuadrado and Argentine Brian Dabul in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Cuadrado won the more competitive match, having to be at his best to beat the Milan champion Alejandro Falla Ramirez 7-5 6-3 on Court 1. The Spaniard, who had to withdraw from the doubles with an abdominal complaint, used his nimble footwork to run round his backhand and dominate the match with his big forehand. That big weapon ultimately enabled him to overpower the fluent but less penetrating left-handed Colombian.
The match was won and lost at the end of the first set. Cuadrado stepped up his level to break to love for 6-5 as Falla played a loose game, and the Spaniard served out for the set.
By the time Falla found his form in the second, he was 2-5 and a double break adrift. He hauled one of the breaks back with possibly his best game of the match, but then lost his own serve as Cuadrado clinched his place in the final.
Dabul’s 6-4 6-1 win over the African champion Lamine Ouahab was more clear-cut. The Argentine led by an early break, and while Ouahab got it back, the Algerian lost his serve in the 10th game of the first set. His game then fell apart, and a run of errors allowed Dabul to race to a 3-0 lead. Though Ouahab hit some great shots, he couldn’t string enough points together after that, but he can still be happy with a good tournament which is bound to give a further boost to the development of tennis in northern Africa.
Two years ago Cuadrado was a room-mate of Tommy Robredo, the Spaniard who lost in last year’s boys’ singles final and reached the fourth round of the men’s singles at Roland Garros this year. He will be hoping to go one better than Robredo, who lost last year’s boys’ final to Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.
Though Falla lost in the singles, he and fellow-Colombian Carlos Salamanca picked up the first junior title at Roland Garros 2001. They defeated Markus Bayer and Philipp Petzschner 4-6 6-0 7-5 in the boys’ doubles final.
The last day of the championships will see the two singles finals, the boys between Cuadrado and Dabul, the girls’ between Kaia Kanepi and Svetlana Kuznetsova, and the girls’ doubles. That will be between the Czech top seeds Petra Cetkovska and Renata Voracova, and the Haitian-German combination of Neyssa Etienne and Annette Kolb. In the semi-finals Cetkovska and Voracova beat Melissa Torres and Angelique Widjaja 6-2 6-4, while Etienne and Kolb prevented it from being an all-Czech final when they beat Eva Birnerova and Barbora Strycova 6-2 6-0.Full results from the Roland Garros can be found on www.rolandgarros.com
Click here to view the 2001 Roland Garros picture gallery.
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