Tennis: Young Spanish sensation is special

By TERRY MADDAFORD


Win or lose, Spanish sensation Rafael Nadal will wow the centre court crowd in today's international Open final.

His match this afternoon against the New Year's hottest player, 2001 Open winner Dominik Hrbaty, will confirm what many of the ASB Tennis Centre faithful already know. Nadal is something special.

And he has the chance of a first Heineken Open championship win for a Spanish player.

For Hrbaty, the prize for winning would be even bigger - the early lead in the year's Champions Race.

The final, a mouth-watering prospect even if both players are unseeded, will bring a contrast of styles.

Hrbaty, already a winner this year (in Australia last week) will need to bring his best game to centre court.

Anything less and he will come up short, just as second seed Jiri Novak did in yesterday's semifinal, and third seed and defending champion Gustavo Kuerten did in going out in straight sets to Hrbaty.

In a replay of last year's final, Kuerten, a straight sets winner, was unable to reproduce that form.

It was a busy day for Hrbaty.

He and German qualifier Philipp Kohlschreiber resumed their quarter-final, with Hrbaty 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 ahead. Hrbaty finished it in a hurry, 6-3 in the third.

That was just a warm-up for the first semifinal - the much-anticipated clash between Novak and Nadal.

Novak - who had a sometimes rocky ride to the semifinals with two three-setters and being taken to tiebreaks three times - against the flamboyant Nadal, who booked his place in the last four with two straight set wins and the quarter-final walkover against Frenchman Gregory Carraz.

Nadal to serve. Wham, bam 0-15, then 15-30, eventually deuce and two points for 1-0. Novak could not match that. He clawed back from 0-30 to also get to deuce. Ten more points, 10 minutes and Nadal 2-0. Four minutes later, again taken to deuce, and 3-0.

The die was cast.

Novak won to love for 3-1, but Nadal hit back for 4-1 and then, on the back of two double faults and left gasping as another forehand winner flashed by, Novak fell 1-5 behind. The set-winning seventh game included Nadal's only ace.

In just 29 minutes, Novak had been put to the sword by the headband-wearing, silver-shoed Spaniard.

If there was a way back, Novak is still looking for it.

The second set was more of the same with Nadal chasing everything down, producing shots which left the gob-smacked crowd shaking their collective heads in awe.

They traded serves to 3-3. But only handshakes after that as Nadal won 6-3 in 35 sublime minutes.

"This win gives me a lot of confidence," the 17-year-old left-hander said later. "Getting to the final here is something special."

Then came the so-called main attraction. The Brazilian fans strangely short of their Tuesday noisiest - their hero Guga too subdued.

Hrbaty set out with an ace - something he did not repeat until the last game 67 minutes later - and rarely gave Kuerten much of a sniff in between.

Kuerten was out of sorts and the tournament.

"To lose was tough for me," Kuerten said. "It would of course, have been easier if I had converted the break points."

He failed to win any of 11 break point opportunities. Hrbaty won three of seven.

Hrbaty meets Nadal for only the second time - the Slovak won their first clash 6-3, 7-5 in Lyon last year - but is wary. "He's playing fast and aggressive. When I beat him in Lyon I had to fight for every point."