By TERRY MADDAFORD
Gustavo Kuerten may have disappointed his huge band of fans when he and Brazilian team-mate Andre Sa bowed out of the doubles last night, but he at least gave Heineken Open organisers some breathing space.
After blowing what should have been a winning break in the second semifinal played
indoors against South African second seeds David Adams and Robbie Koenig, Kuerten can concentrate on singles today.
As a concession for his late finish yesterday, he will have a later start time (11) for his singles quarter-final this morning. The other three quarters will start an hour earlier.
Had he remained in both events the finals of both might have had to be played tomorrow, thus disrupting travel plans for players heading for the Australian Open.
The South Africans, down and out at 4-6, 6-1, 1-4, fought back to win the third set 7-5 and set up a a clash with Czechs Tomas Cibulec and Leos Friedl - probably between the singles quarter-finals and semifinals.
The appalling weather restricted outdoors doubles action to just a couple of minutes yesterday.
In that time Adams and Koenig extended the 6-4, 3-2 lead they had enjoyed over New Zealand's Alistair Hunt and Mark Nielsen when rain ended play on Thursday by a game.
Sent indoors - the trip took much longer than the tennis - it was all over quickly, with Adams and Koenig winning that quarter-final 6-4, 6-3.
In the top half of the draw Cibulec and Friedl had a busier day. They saw off Ellis Ferreira and Brian MacPhie first off in a three-set quarter-final 6-4, 3-6 6-3 and were soon back on court at the More FM Tennis Centre to complete their day with a second victory.
After a close first set against Devin Bowen and Davide Sanguinetti - eventually decided in a tiebreaker - they made no race of it, finishing the semifinal clash 7-6, 6-2 to book their place in the final.
The singles quarter-finals will be followed later by the semifinals. The final will be played tomorrow, possibly as early as 10am.
