Kuerten Stuns the World No. 1 Federer at French Open

Posted on May 30, 2004

Suffering from a hip problem, lowly No. 28 seed and three-time champ Gustavo Kuerten served a Saturday shocker at the French Open, defeating world No. 1 Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

"Right now I don't know really because I think -- all I can say is I think he served good today and he was better," said Federer, at a loss to explain the result. "That's all I can really say because I tried everything I could, but my game was just not good enough."

In the end Federer complimented his opponent for not letting him get his game in gear.

"I think my game today had a lot to do with his game," Federer said. "Obviously, usually, I can control these kind of matches, but today I couldn't. That's a credit to him. That's all I'm going to say. I'm not going to start saying that my backhand or my forehand or my footwork, you know, was bad. We all know it wasn't the best, but that's got something to do with my opponent."

Kuerten for his part had no problem with the crowd support, with the French fans chanting "Guga, Guga!"

"It's lovely," Kuerten said. "I mean, for me I think it helped to maintain my level of the game all the time in a good level. And for him I think was difficult, you know, to face playing against one guy that's playing really well, inspired. At the same time, all the crowd involved, going for the other guy. I think in both ways, I think it helped me a lot."

Other seeds into the fourth round were (8)David Nalbandian (d. Koubek in four), (12)Lleyton Hewitt (d. (19)Verkerk 6-1 in the fifth), (20)Marat Safin (d. (Q)Starace in five), and (23)Feliciano Lopez (d. H.-T. Lee in four). Unseeded winners were Argentina's Gaston Gaudio (d. Enqvist in four), and Russian Igor Andreev (d. Benneteau). Suspended due to darkness was (26)Al Costa leading Xavier Malisse 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 5-5.

On tap for Sunday are (22)Chela vs. Mutis, (3)Coria vs. Escude, (26)Costa vs. Malisse to finish, (9)Henman vs. Llodra, and (5)Moya vs. (17)Robredo.

On the women's side the American and Russian favorites moved into the fourth round Saturday at the French Open, with the Williams sisters looking ever-dominant once again.

(2)Serena (d. Talaja with a bagel in the first set) and (4)Venus (d. (30)Pierce) led the American charge, joined by a determined (7)Jennifer Capriati who edged Russian (25)Bovina 6-4 in the third.

"It was a good match," said Venus, likely because she was never in trouble. "Not necessarily a lot of long rallies, but there were some close games, I think about three or four of them went back and forth to deuce, that were really important games as far as possibly swings in momentum. But really felt like I found some form out there today, and that was good."

Two Russian seeds advanced in (6)Anastasia Myskina (d. Denisa "Hanging" Chlad-kova), and (11)Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Casanova 6-4 in the third, winning the last five games).

Other seeds into the fourth round were (17)Francesca Schiavone (d. Ruano Pascual), and (23)Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga (d. Srebotnik in three). There was one unseeded winner on Saturday, with Japan's Shinobu Asagoe outlasting Martina/Conchita-killer Gisela "Sgt." Dulko 6-4 in the third, winning the last five games).

On court Sunday are (3)Mauresmo vs. (23)Maleeva, (2)Serena vs. Asagoe, (18)Sharapova vs. Weingartner, (14)Suarez vs. Zheng, (6)Myskina vs. (11)Kuznetsova in an all-Russian, (7)Capriati vs. (17)Sciavone, (5)Davenport vs. (9)Dementieva, and (4)Venus vs. (23)Zuluaga.

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Venus Williams is now 18-0 on clay this year...Gustavo Kuerten has reached the French Open fourth round six straight times...Four Argentine men are in four different quarters setting up a possible all-Argy semifinal...Serena Williams has won 43 of her last 44 Slam matches. Serena has also reached 15 straight Slam fourth round matches...Francesca Schiavone won her match Saturday despite chucking in just 40% first serves. The Italian is also the last player to beat Amelie Mauresmo...Speaking of bad serves, Anastasia Myskina served 12 double faults Saturday...Jennifer Capriati is now 30-1 in third round Grand Slam matches...Hey ESPN, thanks for the weak Saturday coverage, guess you had all that auto racing to show...Italy's Davis Cup prospects are certainly looking up with the emergence of "You Say" Potito Starace, and the still-improving Filippo Volandri...Master of the obvious Jennifer Capriati on why the French is harder to win: "Well, I think being on the red clay, you definitely have to be fitter. You have to be fit anywhere to play any Grand Slam. But I think it's just the whole mindset is different here because you just -- you know, it slows things down...I mean, where it's just you can't just like make winners, the points are going to be faster, like on a hardcourt, let's say." It's uh, like, slow, you know? Capriati also says her training regime with new coach Heinz Gunthardt is one of the tougher ones in her career -- you know? "For right now it's really what I need because of, you know, the injuries that I've gotten. It's just a way to make sure that I can still train hard, but still, you know, stay healthy basically. You know, a couple other things I can't do, you know, maybe that I did before. But, I mean, there's so many different ways of training basically." Whatever happened to those WTA Media Training courses for players?...Gracious world No. 1 Roger Federer had no problems with the French crowd chanting "Guga, Guga!" throughout his loss to Gustavo Kuerten: "Well, he deserves it. He's a fair player. He won this tournament many times. So he deserves everything, you know, what the fans give him here. He's a great guy. Yeah, it was nice to play in this crowd because it was very fair from beginning to end, and that was the most important."...Marat Safin was booed for taking a medical time-out to treat blisters on his hand while Italian qualifier "You Say" Potito Starace was serving for the match, eventually beating the Italian: "It's really sad for me the people couldn't understand," Safin said. "They have their opinion, and I hope their opinion is a little bit wrong. At the end of the day, I hope they enjoyed the match."...Al-Jazeera has a new sports channel, which is beaming the French Open in Arabic for the first time across the Middle East and North Africa...Japan's Shinobu Asagoe is taking the intellectual approach with her coach upon facing Serena: "I have no tactics, I'll just play my game and just try to do my best. That's all." Wow, why are you not Top 10?...Roger Federer says he doesn't like playing on Court Centrale...Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale absolutely trashed ATP leader Mark Miles in a Sunday story in the Houston Chronicle. Mattress Whack"called Mark Miles "worthless" after learning the Masters Cup would be moving to Shanghai in 2005...Forecast for Sunday: Rain.