Tennis: Rivals enjoy sweet success

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Dominik Hrbaty shrugged off any disappointment of early exits in previous trips to the Auckland tennis open to book his place in this afternoon's singles final against veteran Spaniard Francisco Clavet.

The 23-year-old Hrbaty, the second seed from the Slovak Republic, beat crowd favourite Juan Balcells 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 in the first of last night's Heineken Open semifinals, while unseeded Clavet dumped highly-fancied big-serving Briton Greg Rusedski 6-3, 6-2 in just 64 minutes.

In his earlier visits, in 1998 and 1999, Hrbaty was eliminated in the last round of qualifying. Clavet last played here in 1996. In three previous visits he has never gone beyond the second round.

For Balcells it was his second semifinal outing at Stanley St - and his second loss.

After trading service games through the first set, Balcells grabbed the first break in the ninth game, but promptly handed that advantage back as the set headed inevitably to the tiebreak.

Balcells again drew first blood by breaking Hrbaty's first serve, but his hopes were short-lived as he conceded the tiebreak 2-7.

With some superb ground strokes and well-angled passing shots, Hrbaty held sway for much of the second set, which was punctuated by six service breaks.

At 5-2 he served for the match against a tiring Balcells, but the Spaniard somehow found the energy to take it and close to 3-5.

That effort told and Balcells won only two points in his next service game as Hrbaty wrapped up the 1h 21m battle.

"It was just another day at the office," said Hrbaty later. "I'm tired but not too tired. That's why I have done a lot of training lately."

A lethargic Balcells said: "I got tired out there. It was too much for my body. Two matches in one day was too hard. He hit the ball so hard."

The 32-year-old Clavet never let Rusedski into their Vodafone singles semifinal. Clavet showed plenty of patience and a fair degree of skill with his game built from his baseline ability.

Rusedski managed just three aces, and in keeping the ball in play, Clavet forced many errors from Rusedski, who appeared in a hurry to get someplace else.

After a 2 1/2-hour delay the quarter-finals finally hit the courts mid-afternoon. The Spanish challenge quickly hit top gear.

Balcells, with eight aces - including his first three serves - and no double faults, needed just 66 minutes to beat American qualifier Glenn Weiner 6-3, 6-4 with a break in each set.

Clavet, who followed Balcells on to the outer court, was almost as quick in upsetting third seed Jan-Michael Gambill (US) - again with a break in each set - 6-4, 6-4.

Gambill, who showed his displeasure with a one-fingered salute and some well-chosen words after umpire Rudi Berger over-ruled a line call on match point, faces a fine from ATP officials.

There were more errors and more breaks before Hrbaty beat seventh-seeded Swede Thomas Johansson 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-2 in the first of two almost two-hour centre court battles.

They were followed by Rusedski, who had a 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 win over Austrian Stefan Koubek (Austria), who had knocked out top seed Franco Squillari (Argentina) in the first round.

Squillari's Heineken Open ended yesterday when he and Agustin Calleri were knocked out in the doubles quarter-finals 5-7, 6-7 (6-8).