Tennis: Two favourites and a thriller

By TERRY MADDAFORD

It will be remembered as one of the closest matches in Auckland's international tournaments.

Sadly, it also brought an early exit for one of the most popular players to play in the Heineken Open.

Riding the Brazilian wave, crowd favourite, defending champion and third seed Gustavo Kuerten yesterday beat long-time Spanish rival Alex Corretja in three testing sets.

The 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 win by the world's 19th-ranked player in the first round came after a 2h 46m centre-court battle.

Corretja is ranked 80 places below his 27-year-old rival.

But that made no difference to the 29-year-old, who served for the match but could not sustain the pressure.

The Spaniard also deserved better than having one of the yellow-shirted "Guga" army, call out "bye-bye Corretja" at 15-0 in the last game of the match.

In a replay of their epic four-set French Open final at Roland Garros in 2001, Corretja, in his third trip to Auckland but first for seven years, again won the first set in a tiebreaker.

That set, a mixture of service breaks, aces, double faults and some sublime shot making, stretched to 74 minutes before Corretja got home 9-7 when the Brazilian's attempted drop shot failed to clear the net.

Corretja had led 3-1 and blew set points at 6-5 and later 7-6 in the tiebreaker. Kuerten also had a chance at 6-5.

Memories stirred of a year ago when Kuerten was taken to a first set tiebreaker by Dutch qualifier Martin Verkerk before winning 6-4 in the second.

After yesterday's first-set horror, the faithful Brazilians settled, and Kuerten raced to 5-2 in the second. A formality, surely.

But Corretja did not reach No 2 in the world, play two Grand Slam finals or bank more than US$10 million without a fight or two.

He held for 5-3, broke for 5-4 despite two Kuerten aces, held for 5-5 and then broke again to lead 6-5.

But, inexplicably, serving for the match he won only one point as Kuerten broke to send it to a second tiebreaker.

Corretja led 2-0, but Kuerten ensured there would be a third set.

That went with serve to 5-5. Kuerten then won three of the next four points to hold two match points.

Corretja, with the advantage of serving with new balls, saved those for deuce, but that was his lot.

Kuerten began the last game, the maximum 36th of the match, with an ace and followed that with three big serves to win in a gallop.

It was super tennis at times from two players, a little rusty in their first outing of the year but still able to mix it up and produce tennis of a quality the capacity crowd wanted.

And a result organisers were pleased about, as it ensured another sellout today.

"The first match of the year still brings doubts, especially when you have to play a guy like Alex Corretja who runs down every shot," Kuerten said.

"He came from behind in the first set when I had a lot of opportunities. I did it to him in the second set.

"I was then happy to finish it the way I did. The last game was really perfect.

"For sure, he won't be at 99 for long."

Of his followers, Kuerten said: "There was good support for me. They stayed behind to give me hope."

Corretja, ever the gentleman, said it was hard to accept losing, but "I still believe I have something in my heart to do something in tennis."