Like a sore thumb

Verkerk finds himself among clay-court specialists

Verkerk on a mission PARIS, 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 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." FULL STORY

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) -- Martin Verkerk, the surprise package at the French Open, finds himself in the quarterfinals alongside six Latin clay-court specialists and the most successful active player in men's tennis.

The late-blossoming Dutchman, 41st in the world rankings, will be the only unseeded player in the last eight and the most surprised of the lot when he meets Carlos Moya on Tuesday.

"I have to be realistic. There are some guys now in the quarterfinals that I always thought were the big guys, the good guys, and I'm a little bit below that," he said after beating 11th seed Rainer Schuettler of Germany in the fourth round.

But Verkerk does not expect the surprise factor to work in his favor when he meets Moya, the 1998 French Open champion.

"When you make it to the quarterfinals, he knows who you are. He knows my game and I know his game," the Dutchman said.

Among those left in the men's tournament, four are Spaniards and four will be playing in their first quarterfinals at a Grand Slam.

Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, who meets third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero on Wednesday, is arguably the second surprise survivor in the men's draw.

The Chilean won Roland Garros as a junior and is, like Verkerk, only coming of age a little bit later than some.

Spaniard Tommy Robredo, seeded 28, is another unheralded player in the last eight. But his wins over world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt and three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten are ample proof of his clay-court talent.

The five other quarterfinalists read like a clay-court All-Star list.

Spaniards Moya and Albert Costa plus American Andre Agassi are past French Open champions. Ferrero and Argentine Guillermo Coria are simply the best clay-court players this year.

Ferrero beat Coria in the Monte Carlo Masters final this season while the Argentine won in Hamburg.

Coria meets Agassi, the 1999 champion at Roland Garros, who will be playing his ninth French Open quarterfinal and his third in succession, though he lost the last two.

Experience could also be decisive in the clash between Ferrero and Gonzalez, who met in the juniors final in Paris five years ago.

The Chilean won that match but was eclipsed in the senior ranks by the Spaniard, who has reached the last four at Roland Garros for the past three years in a row.

The match between Robredo and Costa will ensure the presence of a Spaniard in the semifinals after their country was represented by four men in the last eight for the first time.

Defending champion Costa has struggled a little on clay this season but seems to be improving as the tournament goes on.

After his fourth-round victory Verkerk said: "It's too far for me to say I can win this Grand Slam."

Given their past record, nobody would blame the other seven quarterfinalists for being more optimistic.

 

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