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Wild oats sown More serious Verkerk may be force to be reckoned withPosted: Monday June 02, 2003 1:06 AMPARIS, June 1 (Reuters) -- Late-blossoming Dutchman Martin Verkerk reached the French Open quarterfinals on Sunday with not a hint of remorse about his wild teenage years. "Now I'm actually really happy that I enjoyed my time from 18 to 21 because I've seen everything that a young guy should have seen," he said after humbling Australian Open finalist Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-3, 7-5. "You sometimes need to have some fun to be later more professional," he added after his win over the 11th-seeded German. Ranked 41st in the world, the Dutchman had never won a match in a Grand Slam tournament before but had signaled he was a player of some substance when he won his first tournament in Milan this season. Ranked 170th at the end of 2001, he reached 86th in the world the following year and is continuing his upward mobility. "When you're young, you sometimes don't make the good decisions about your sport. "When I started, in one year I was 280th in the world. I thought, 'Okay, I can do it with some fun and a little bit of practice and I will be top 100.' "That's because you're young and you don't know how tough it really is." Now 24 and finally serious about his tennis, Verkerk cannot predict how good he will eventually be. "The years before, I was not practicing the way I am now. I was actually being pretty lazy about my sport. "I'm just serious now. I want to be the best player I can be and what that is I don't know," he said. Asked if it meant going all the way at Roland Garros, the Dutchman remained cautious. "I beat Andy Roddick in Rome, now I have beaten Schuettler on a big occasion, on a big centre court. I'm ready to beat some good players. "But it's too far for me to say I can win this Grand Slam," he said. Verkerk reacted to his victory on Sunday like a Grand Slam winner in any case. "Of course, I fell down on court like I had won the tournament and I don't care what people thought about it. "I'm in the quarterfinals and I'm happy the way I did it," he said. Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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