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Marathon man Kafelnikov beats Haas in marathon to win goldLatest: Thursday October 12, 2000 02:35 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) - After 3 1/2 half hours, Yevgeny Kafelnikov emerged with the gold medal. The Russian defeated unseeded German Tommy Haas 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Kafelnikov, seeded fifth, improved to 5-1 this year in five-setters, including three victories at the French Open and one at the U.S. Open. The tournament title was the first this year for the Russian, a two-time Grand Slam champion. He had talked of skipping the Olympics because he was discouraged by the way he was playing. On a mild, sunny day, both players held up well physically despite the many long points and long games. The match came down to the only break point of the final set, and Haas hit an easy backhand into the net. That gave Kafelnikov a 5-3 lead, and he served out the match at love. The jubilant Russian heaved his racket 15 rows into the stands and threw a ball into the upper deck. He then waved a Russian flag to cheers from the crowd, which included International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch. There were four service breaks in the opening set before Kafelnikov won the tiebreaker. He landed a crosscourt backhand on the sideline to reach set point, and Haas then dumped a backhand into the bottom of the net. But the hustling Haas kept coming back and wowed the sellout crowd with several scrambling saves, once blocking a Kafelnikov overhead back for a winner. Kafelnikov seemed to have the momentum after dominating the third set, but Haas broke to start the fourth set and easily held serve five consecutive times to force a fifth set. Venus Williams, bidding for her second gold medal, played later Thursday with sister Serena in the final of women's doubles against Miriam Oremans and Kristie Boogert of the Netherlands. Arnaud Di Pasquale of France won the bronze in men's singles Wednesday, beating Roger Federer of Switzerland 7-6 (5), 6-7 (7), 6-3.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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