|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Ferrero wins one for the little guy
Posted: Sunday June 04, 2000 06:51 PM By Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated
Though he's just 20, Ferrero's game couples wonderfully clean strokes with precisely the sort of tactical approach that Philippoussis so lacks. Of course it also doesn't hurt that everything Ferrero whacked Sunday, mis-hits included, landed inside the lines. "It felt like he couldn't miss," Scud lamented afterward. "The guy has confidence and he just kept on hitting." This conquest is just the latest big win by the best player you've probably never heard of. Though Ferrero entered the tournament as the 16th seed, no small accomplishment given that he wasn't a top-40 player to start the year, he was banished to the back courts, lost among the other storylines. His name was even mispronounced -- Ferraro -- by the public-address announcer last week. So here's a thumbnail sketch: He's a rabid Real Madrid fan from Valencia who moves with celerity, knows his way around the court and sees the ball earlier than a rooster rousts. This came in particularly handy against Philippoussis, the player armed with the hardest serve in the draw. "It is essential that I have good reflexes," says Ferrero. "I use intuition and guesswork and that's very helpful." Ferrero's success is in keeping with a heartening trend in men's tennis. The game might currently be hostage to unadulterated power and runaway technology. But the best young players, while hardly powder puffs, are little guys who aren't going to win many raw slugfests. Lleyton Hewitt, who faces Albert Costa Monday, is dwarfed when he stands alongside his girlfriend, Belgian prospect Kim Clijsters. Andreas Vinciguerra, who nearly took out Pete Sampras in Key Biscayne, is shaped like a 5' 10" netpost. Marat Safin, the heaviest hitter in Generation Next, is primarily a baseliner, weaned on Spanish clay. Then comes Ferrero, who looks like your average ballboy and is nicknamed "Chavalito [Small Kid]" by the other Spanish players. Instead of brute force, the New Small Kids on the Block are exceptionally quick, play well on a variety of surfaces, hit the ball with varying spin and return well. Philippoussis, for instance, should have saved himself the exertion and simply poised his racket near his feet whenever he attempted to serve-and-volley. Ferrero is also imbued with a certain mental toughness. When he broke Philippoussis's serve, he played as though he was home free for the rest of the set -- a Mosquito Coast, as it were. Confident? Yes. But Ferrero veers to the right side of cocky. He has already dismissed the possibility of winning here. "I'm still too young," says Ferrero, who next faces countryman Alex Corretja. Perhaps so. But in the few next years, the rest of the ATP Tour would do well to invest in some bug repellent.
Half volleysYevgeny Kafelnikov pulled out a five-setter over Fernando Vicente Sunday. But you have to wonder about his stamina. He's played 19 sets of tennis in four matches. ... The Kurt Warner, er, Rossana De Los Rios story came to an end. The only mother in the main draw lost to another qualifier, Spanish teenager Marta Marrero. ... Andy Roddick, the great American hope, won his first match in boys' singles. ... Three main-draw male players have siblings in the juniors. Giovanni Lapentti, Jaslyn Hewitt and Dinara Safina are trying to follow in the footsteps of brothers Nicolas, Lleyton and Marat, respectively.
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim is covering the French Open for the magazine. Check back each day for a new report from Paris.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
