The Hindu : Sport : Vliegen overcomes Yen-Hsun Lu

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Friday, Jan 07, 2005

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Sport

Vliegen overcomes Yen-Hsun Lu

By K. Keerthivasan

PAUL ON SONG: Paul-Henri Mathieu, who sent Kenneth Carlsen packing on Thursday. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI, JAN. 6. Belgium's Kristof Vliegen, with his gutsy performance against the sixth-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei in the second round of the Chennai Open tennis championship at the Nungambakkam Stadium here on Thursday, showed that he deserved to be remembered more than just a good friend and club-mate of Kim Clijsters.

Leading by a set and up 5-2 in the second Lu, the first player from his country to reach the top 100, even had two match points in the decider, only to fritter them away.

Twenty-two year old Maaseik-based Vliegen took those chances to score a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) win in a match that had some questionable line calls. Vliegen will meet Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand in the quarterfinals.

In another upset at the Centre court, Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, whose career has been hampered by anthroscopic surgeries on both knees in 1997 and 98 and a wrist injury later, displayed gumption to put it across the veteran Danish and fifth seed Kenneth Carlsen 6-3, 7-5.

When the two had met last year, the Frenchman pulled out citing an injury. Mathieu will now face the defending champion Carlos Moya in the next round.

Vliegen hardly put up any fight in the first set. The 21-year-old Lu was too good from the baseline, hitting winners with regularity. When the motley crowd, which was enjoying the massacre of the Belgian, decided to move out, Lu was up 5-2 in the second set. Then the turnaround happened. Vliegen held serve and came up with some superb backcourt play; of course he was helped by Lu, who made several unforced errors. Breaking Lu in the ninth and eleventh games (there were a couple of close line calls between the games) the Belgian pocketed the second set.

Playing aggressively from the baseline, Lu dangerously led 5-2, and had two match points in the eighth game on Vliegen's serve. By this time, Vliegen, ranked 114 in the world, got his serves right. The tiebreaker went neck and neck. Finally, Vliegen finished the match on his second match point with a Lu's forehand sailing long.

"You have to fight till the end and that's what I did. Yes, I had some luck during big points. I think he (Lu) put a lot of pressure on himself and I started to play the big points better than him," said Vliegen.

Mathieu shines

In the first round in 2004, Mathieu conceded the match against Carlsen. Today he came prepared.

Mathieu consolidated on the lone break in the sixth game to take the first set without too much ado. The left-handed Carlsen, with a ranking of 93, challenged Mathieu in the second set with daring shots from the baseline. However, the Frenchman held his own and got the vital break in the eleventh game to seal the match.

Mathieu, who missed the first half of 2004 because of a wrist injury, missed seventh months of competitive tennis. When asked about his next round match against Moya, whom he had beaten in the Davis Cup semifinals last year, Mathieu replied, "It's going to be tough."

The results: Singles (second round): Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) bt Kenneth Carlsen (Den) 6-3, 7-5; Kristof Vliegen (Bel) bt Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6); Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) bt Nicolas Devilder (Fra) 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Kevin Kim (US)/Jiri Vanek (Cze) bt Kenneth Carlsen (Den)/Jan-Michael Gambill (US) 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4; Jonas Bjorkman (Swe)/Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) bt Michal Tabara (Cze)/Santiago Ventura (Esp) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

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