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Kuerten can't be stopped Top seed battles back from two-set deficit, beats Mirnyi
Updated: Monday September 03, 2001 8:54 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gustavo Kuerten dug a big hole, then worked his way out Sunday night at the U.S. Open. The top-seeded Brazilian rallied to beat big-serving Belarussian Max Mirnyi 6-7 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the final match of the third round. Kuerten played for 3 hours and 19 minutes before converting a break point on his 11th chance. His backhand passing shot clipped the net cord and skipped over Mirnyi's head for a 3-1 lead in the final set, and Kuerten quickly closed out the victory. "That was a great win," Kuerten said. "All the sets were decided by very little. We both played a great match and one had to win, so I was lucky it was me." Kuerten, a three-time French Open champion, remained on course for a potential semifinal showdown against 19-year-old American Andy Roddick, whose startling ascent has revived hope for the next generation of American men's tennis. Roddick made another breakthrough Sunday by advancing to the second week of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. In a rout worthy of his favorite team, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Roddick blew out French Open runner-up Alex Corretja 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. "Incredible -- best I've ever seen Roddick look," four-time Open champion John McEnroe said. Next up will be Tommy Robredo in the fourth round on Tuesday. It's another milestone match for Roddick, who made a big splash at the French Open and Wimbledon before losing in the third round. He said he can sense the stakes rise. "It's a blast," he said. "You definitely feel it a little bit more. I'm no longer the new guy. I'm not surprising anybody. I'm not sneaking up on anybody anymore. "Still, I'm definitely having fun. I'm playing tennis. That's a blast." The men's final 16 will also include beleaguered Lleyton Hewitt but not popular Goran Ivanisevic. The reigning Wimbledon champion, seeded 15th, lost to Albert Costa 6-4, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2). "This time, I didn't have so much luck," Ivanisevic said. "I had it at Wimbledon." Hewitt drew only scattered jeers while beating Albert Portas 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. But the fiery Australian then had to fend off another round of questions about his comments perceived by some as racial during a second-round match against a black player. "I've been through this three days straight now," said Hewitt, who denies that his comments were racial. "I apologized if it came out the wrong way. I said that right from the start." Monica Seles' fine summer ended abruptly with her earliest Open exit since 1990. She committed 51 unforced errors and lost to unseeded 18-year-old Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
Seles, seeded seventh, had five wins against top-10 players last month. "I didn't feel comfortable out there from the first ball hit," Seles said. "It's disappointing to lose after playing so well coming into here." Top-seeded Martina Hingis fell behind Jelena Dokic 3-0, then won 12 of the final 13 games for a 6-4, 6-0 victory. Hingis, seeking her first Grand Slam title in 2 1/2 years, plays Bedanova in the quarterfinals Tuesday. Former champions Lindsay Davenport and Serena Williams will meet in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year. The No. 3-seeded Davenport advanced, despite struggling past Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 0-6, 6-3, while No. 10 Williams swept the final eight games for a 7-5, 6-0 win over Wimbledon runner-up Justine Henin. Williams has won six of her eight matches against Davenport but lost to her at the 2000 Open. "I'm going to be ready this year," Williams said. "We know each other like our backhands." Williams and her sister Venus were upset in the third round of women's doubles by unseeded Chanda Rubin and Els Callens, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. The day's marathon winner was Robredo, an unseeded Spaniard who needed 3 1/2 hours to upset fifth-seeded countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (1). Kuerten's late-night match was the sort that makes the Open unique. Thousands of noisy fans -- a few waving Brazilian flags -- stayed until the finish at 12:17 a.m. EDT. They roared as a jubilant Kuerten climbed to the first row of seats to hug his mother. "Things were difficult for me," Kuerten said. "I just gave everything that I learned all these years in the match to win. The end was a great payback, having all these feelings on the court with the crowd." Mirnyi, an intimidating serve-and-volleyer at 6-foot-5, hit 22 aces and won 124 points at the net. But Kuerten hit 33 aces and lost serve only once, in the second set. The momentum switched during a dramatic sequence in the third set. Kuerten was unable to convert eight set points before closing out the tiebreaker with a return winner. "There's a reason he's No. 1," Mirnyi said. "He has won many matches of this type the past couple of years." On an afternoon pretty as a topspin lob, with sunshine and temperatures in the 70s, Roddick mixed some finesse with his overpowering serve and forehand. He boomed four aces in one game -- at 114, 123, 110 and 136 mph -- but against a Spaniard who's best from the baseline, Roddick also settled into some long rallies. And won most of them. "When I started grinding out a couple of points rather than just teeing off right away, I started getting into my groove," Roddick said. "I showed him I wasn't just going to give points away. That helped me a lot."
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