Federer Makes Comeback to Successfully Defend at ATP Dubai
Posted on March 9, 2004
World No. 1 Roger Federer had a difficult time figuring out the new-and-improved game of Spanish lefty Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez Sunday in the Dubai final, but charged back in the second and third sets for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win, becoming the first player ever to capture two titles at Dubai."He definitely played good tennis and it was difficult to come back against him, especially to give him the lead like I did after I got broken in the very first game," said Federer, who improved to 16-1 on the year. "I changed my return, because every time I had break chances on the ad court, and every time I thought I played a good point but I lost it. So I had to take more risk."
It was the second title of 2004 for Federer after the Australian Open, with the Swiss putting more ranking points between himself and No. 1 challengers Juan Carlos Ferrero and Andy Roddick.
Federer improved to 3-0 career against F-Lo, who was appearing in his career-first final. F-Lo took the first set off Federer with a surprisingly effective serve-and-volley game which the Swiss has problems immediately coming to terms with.
In the doubles final, top seeds Fabrice Santoro/Mahesh Bhupathi won their second title of the year (after Auckland) in only their second outing as a team, beat No. 2 seeds Leander Paes/Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. "I'm very happy to play with Mahesh," said the Frenchman. "Every time I have won a title it's because I have been happy next to my partner. I have never won a title with someone I'm not happy to be with. That's the key to the success."
In Scottsdale, American Vince Spadea overcame a bout of choking and torment from an angry Nicolas Kiefer to win his career-first title 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-3 Sunday, ending an 11-year title drought in his third career final.
"I'm quite excited" said a subdued Spadea. "I'm 29-years-old, I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks."
The 21st century version of Spadea is quite different from the rapping, sideways-hat-wearing, mall-crawling newspaper-journal-writing version of Spadea from 1999, when the American cracked the Top 20 for the first time on the ATP Rankings. At the Masters Series-Cincinnati that year, Spadea kept fans and players alike in stitches with a daily diary in a local Cincinnati newspaper, cracking wise about visiting local malls, dating women off the Internet, and getting into the heads of fellow top players. Soon after, Spadea embarked on an amazing 21-match losing streak, and has since toned down his character, hit the training regimen all the harder, and strove to surround himself with a support system of coaches and trainers to make the most of his remaining years on tour.
Spadea won the final Sunday in spite of himself, leading 7-5, 5-4, and failing to close out the match in a tentative game that included a doubles fault to give the German new life. When the second set went to a tiebreak, Spadea again was up a mini-break but failed to take the offensive, letting Kiefer sneak into the net on numerous occasions to end critical points.
In the third set, both players showed signs of fatigue after long three-setters the previous day, with Kiefer Saturday coming back from a set down to beat Victor Hanescu, and Spadea shocking former No. 1 Andy Roddick, who he held an 0-2 record against. Among Kiefer's psychological arsenal was showing Spadea he could wear him down, in one game hitting three drop shots early in the point three points in a row, and moving the scampering American from side to side.
Early in the match Spadea slammed a ball toward the net in anger, but the ball went over the net and narrowly missed Kiefer. While Spadea held up his racquet in apology, Kiefer took it as an affront, and for the remainder of the match unleashed a torrent of psychology across the net, including slowly walking to the sideline at critical times during games to change racquets, holding up his hand while Spadea was in his service motion, screaming obscenities in German, and screaming and glaring at Spadea after winning long critical points.
Spadea for his part kept his comatose composure, appearing to fight the internal battle of keeping the Choke Monster at bay. In the third set Spadea secured the critical break with Kiefer serving at 3-4, and in his second opportunity to serve for the match, made no mistake with a service winner and an ace, holding at love to bring his record to 1-3 in career finals.
"I was ranked in or near the Top 20, and you can't find many players who have reached that level without winning a title," said Spadea, whose impressive list of wins in Scottsdale included former Aussie Open winner Thomas Johansson, Aussie serving machine Wayne Arthurs, countryman James Blake, and the No. 3-ranked Roddick. "Winning was important to me."
Vincenzo last reached a final during his Top 20 run in 1999 at Indianapolis. Kiefer, a runner-up two weeks ago in Memphis, has not raised a trophy since Hong Kong in 2000.
"If my good tennis is coming back, it's going to be a great step again," Kiefer said. "I'm taking positive things out of here."
In the Scottsdale doubles final, No. 4-seeded Americans Rick Leach/Brian MacPhie beat South Africans Jeff Coetzee/Chris Haggard 6-3, 6-1, making the 39-year-old Leach the oldest doubles winner since 40-year-old Sherwood Stewart in 1987.
In the Acapulco final, top-seeded Carlos Moya worked unseeded countryman Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-0 for his second title of the year on the red dirt.
"It has been a great start of the year," Moya said. "It was a shame I could not play the Oz Open. Anything could have happened there. But in any case after the injury (twisted ankle in Sydney) I had my doubts but I managed to play well in Buenos Aires and hopefully the problems are over. Now it is time for the North American hardcourt swing. I am really looking forward to it and also for the Davis Cup back at home in Palma de Mallorca where hopefully we will manage to win."
Verdasco said the final was a learning experience: "This has been a dream come true since I played the final against a great player like Moya with a lot of experience. This result will give me a lot of confidence...I was a bit tired during the final and on top of that I found a great player like Carlos was hitting great shots from everywhere."
In the doubles final, world No. 1s Bob and Mike Bryan defeated the Argentine/Chilean team of Juan Ignacio Chela and Nicolas Massu 6-2, 6-3 for their third title on the year. "We love coming to Acapulco," said the brothers, speaking creepily in unison. "It is one of our favorite tournaments of the year. It is the third time we come to Acapulco. We love it so much we brought our mom, and by the way it is the first time she's seen us win."
WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Qualifier Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, ranked No. 99 entering the event, won her first WTA Tour title Sunday at Acapulco, beating Flavia "Of Yesteray" Pennetta of Italy 7-5(5), 6-4. The 21-year-old hottie became the first qualifier to win a WTA title since 2002 (Helsinki, Svetlana Kuznetsova). In the doubles final, the Aussie/Venezuela pairing of (4)McShea/Sequera beat blank Czechs Blahotova/G.Navratilova 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.
In the all-Russian Saturday final at Doha, No. 3 seed Anastasia Myskina successfully defended her Doha title from 2003 with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over unseeded Svetlana Kuznetsova for her first title of the year. In the doubles final, Russians (2)Kuznetsova/Likhovtseva beat the Slovak/Spanish pairing of (4)Husarova/C.Martinez 7-6(4), 6-2.
ESPN INDIAN WELLS TENTATIVE SCHEDULE (EST)
ESPN2 03/14/04 SUN 02:00P 04:00P LIVE EARLY ROUND COVERAGE DAY #1
ESPN2 03/15/04 MON 05:00P 07:00P LIVE EARLY ROUND COVERAGE DAY #2
ESPN2 03/15/04 MON 10:00P 12:00A LIVE EARLY ROUND COVERAGE DAY #2
ESPN2 03/16/04 TUE 05:00P 07:00P LIVE EARLY ROUND COVERAGE DAY #3
ESPN2 03/16/04 TUE 10:00P 12:00A LIVE EARLY ROUND COVERAGE DAY #3
ESPN 03/17/04 WED 03:00P 05:00P LIVE WOMEN'S QF OR MEN'S 4TH RD
ESPN2 03/17/04 WED 05:00P 07:00P LIVE WOMEN'S QF OR MEN'S 4TH RD
ESPN2 03/17/04 WED 10:00P 12:00A LIVE WOMEN'S QF OR MEN'S 4TH RD
ESPN 03/18/04 THU 03:00P 05:00P LIVE WOMEN'S QF OR MEN'S QF
ESPN2 03/18/04 THU 05:00P 07:00P LIVE WOMEN'S QF OR MEN'S QF
ESPN2 03/18/04 THU 10:00P 12:00A LIVE WOMEN'S QF OR MEN'S QF
ESPN 03/19/04 FRI 03:00P 05:00P LIVE WOMEN'S SF #1 OR MEN'S QF
ESPN2 03/19/04 FRI 05:00P 07:00P LIVE WOMEN'S SF#1 OR #2 OR MEN'S QF
ESPN2 03/20/04 SAT 01:00A 02:30A DELAY WOMEN'S SF#2 OR MEN'S QF
ESPN 03/20/04 SAT 03:00P 05:00P LIVE MEN'S SF #1
ESPN 03/20/04 SAT 05:00P 07:00P LIVE MEN'S SF #2
ESPN2 03/21/04 SUN 03:00P 05:00P LIVE WOMEN'S FINAL
ESPN2 03/21/04 SUN 05:00P 07:00P LIVE MEN'S FINAL
NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Indians Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, together one of the greatest teams in the history of the Open Era, are playing with different partners due to their mutual dislike of each other, but have agreed to participate in the Athens Olympics and will try and compete together a few times in the lead-up to the Olympics: "We have our respective partners," Bhupathi said. "But whenever we have a chance, we will play together." Bhupathi and Fabrice Santoro beat Paes and Jonas Bjorkman in the Dubai final Sunday...The Pacific Life Open/Indian Wells WTA singles main draw will be made on Monday, while the ATP singles draw will be made on Tuesday...Don't look now, but former No. 1 Carlos Moya could throw his hat in the ring for the race for No. 1 in 2004. The Spaniard has already collected two titles, and reached the final in four of the five tournaments he has played this year...The Bryan brothers continue to pull away from the field on the ATP Doubles Rankings, at Acapulco reaching their sixth final in a row, with a 4-2 record in those six. The Bryans are 17-10 in career finals...29-year-old Vince "Vincenzo" Spadea won his first singles title in his 223rd tournament, becoming the third first-time winner in 2003 after Antony Dupuis (Milan) and Joachim "I Date Lleyton's Sister" Johansson (Memphis)...Vince Spadea saved seven of nine break points in the Scottsdale final, including all four in the third set. While Spadea has never cracked the Top 10 on the rankings, last year he finished No. 1 ahead of all players in break points converted (50%), No. 9 in points won returning first serve (39%), and No. 6 in points won returning second serve (55%). Spadea entered Scottsdale with an 0-4 career record at the event...Nicolas Kiefer has reached back-to-back ATP finals in Memphis (l. to Joachim Johansson) and Scottsdale (l. to Spadea)...Vince Spadea came out of his coma a bit in the Scottsdale post-match, going into his 1999-era rappin'-Vincenzo-rollin'-in-the-'Benzo mode: "Yeah, it's cool (to win the title). I never realized and maybe my focus wasn't to do these kinds of things, but maybe it was. I'm going to have a different mentality from now on. I thought just being on the tour was fun. I didn't know there were so many rewards. I am very excited and it's a great win for me and a better-late-than-never thing...I didn't think there was that much of a monkey on my back. I didn't think there was that kind of pressure, like I had been to so many finals and it was getting ridiculous...To win a title, to beat Andy (Roddick) and James (Blake) along the way, and looking comfortable to close it out, and then having to dig as deep as I've ever had to dig and to finish it off is wonderful. I have to look in the thesaurus for a better word to say."...Jennifer Capriati has pulled from Indian Wells after re-aggravating her back injury.