Evo pravog cara:
Despite at one stage losing 15 consecutive points, Goran Ivanisevic collected himself in time to defeat Guy Forget 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 10-8 (Match TB) on Day 1 of the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions stop in Paris. More
Marcelo Rios sent out a message to all of the players intent on denting his unbeaten record on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions when he thumped former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday in Paris.
The Chilean’s victory was in stark contrast to that of Goran Ivanisevic, who squeezed past GuyForget 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 10-8 (Champions’ Tie-Break) to register an opening day win at the 3rd Trophee Jean-Luc Lagardere.
For Rios, the event marks a first appearance on clay since he joined the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions at the start of this year.
He has won all of the four events he has entered – in Doha, Hong Kong, Algarve and Graz – and all were on hard courts.
“It’s really nice to play here on clay,” said Rios.
“Clay court tennis is real tennis! I was brought up on clay so it’s nice for me to be here in Paris again on clay.”
For Ivanisevic, the first day of an event is always the toughest, and Forget, who doubles as the event’s Tournament Director here in Paris, gave the Croatian all the trouble he could handle. At one point, Ivanisevic lost 15 points in a row, and looked like he could go down.
“I’m dead!” said Ivanisevic, after a tiring match that went back and forth.
“He (Forget) played like a 20-year-old kid! I couldn’t believe I lost 15 points in a row. Every match here is tough. The court is very fast. I play Cedric (Pioline) tomorrow and I’m looking forward to that.”
PIOLINE – SUBLIME TO RIDICULOUS, TO SUBLIME AGAIN
Pioline will hope to be more consistent than in his 6-2, 6-7(6),10-1 (Champions’ Tie-Break win over two-time French Open champion Sergi Bruguera.
The Frenchman played some sublime tennis to establish a 6-2, 5-3 lead, and he held match points while serving to win the match. But an inexplicable loss of form followed, consisting of double faults and one hopeless drop shot, and Bruguera broke back.
The Spaniard forced a Tie-Break, but again looked second favourite as Pioline established a 5-2 lead in front of his home fans. Again Bruguera rallied, reeling off six of the next seven points to win the Tie-Break 8-6 and force a deciding set Champions’ Tie-Break.
Pioline re-established order in the decider though, winning it 10-1.
In the first match of the day, Thomas Muster overcame a stiff neck to beat Pat Cash 6-4, 6-2. He meets Krajicek on Friday.
“It’s never easy to play the first match,” said Muster. “Physically I should be better tomorrow. I am a bit handicapped with my movement because I’ve got a sore neck at the moment. Krajicek has a big serve, the courts are fast and slippery, so there probably won’t be many long rallies.”
Matches are played over the best of three sets, with the top player in each round-robin group meeting in the final.
Next, the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions will visit the Alex Tennis Classics in Eindhoven (October 12-15). It will then journey to the Champions Trophy in Frankfurt (November 16-19) before arriving in London for the season-ending BlackRock Masters (December 5-10).
The BlackRock Masters sees the top ten players in the South African Airways Champions Tour Rankings compete for a $100,000 winners’ prize. The field at the Royal Albert Hall in London will increase to 12 with the addition of two wild card invitations.
To be eligible to compete on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions, players must have been either a World No.1 during their competitive playing careers, a Grand Slam singles finalist or champion, or a singles player on a victorious Davis Cup team, and no longer active as an singles player on the ATP circuit. Each event can also invite two players of its choice to take wild cards.
Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies with offices in 36 countries and territories and total client assets of approximately US$1.8 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global trader and underwriter of securities and derivatives across a broad range of asset classes and serves as a strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the company is one of the world's largest managers of financial assets. Firmwide, assets under management total US$589 billion as at 30th June 2006. For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit www.ml.com.
CURRENT STANDINGS
GROUP A
Matches won/lost (sets)
Goran Ivanisevic 1-0 (2-1)
Cedric Pioline 1-0 (2-1
Guy Forget 0-1 (1-2)
Sergi Bruguera 0-1 (1-2)
GROUP B
Marcelo Rios 1-0 (2-0)
Thomas Muster 1-0 (2-0)
Richard Krajicek 0-1 (0-2)
Pat Cash 0-1 (0-2)
Schedule for FRIDAY 15 September, 2006
At 14.00
Pat Cash vs. Marcelo Rios
Goran Ivanisevic vs. Cedric Pioline
Sergi Bruguera vs. Guy Forget
Richard Krajicek vs. Thomas Muster
MERRILL LYNCH Tour of Champions Points Allocation
Winner – 400 points
Finalist – 250 points
3rd place – 200 points
4th place – 125 points
5/6th place – 80 points
7/8th place – 60 points
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