The Hindu : Sport : Sublime form sees Gonzalez through

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Saturday, Jan 27, 2007
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Sublime form sees Gonzalez through

Nirmal Shekar

The Chilean hit an incredible 42 winners and made just three unforced errors.

ON A ROLL: It was the kind of day where everything Fernando Gonzalez tried seemed to come off... like this one between his legs. — PHOTO: AFP

Melbourne: Where was he hiding all these days? That's the obvious question, now that Senor Fernando Gonzalez from that complexly exotic city of Santiago, Chile, has stretched his Latino dream run to the final of the Australian Open tennis championship.

As Australia Day fireworks lit up the sky above the Rod Laver Arena, Gonzalez, seeded 10, outplayed Tommy Haas of Germany 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 on Friday, to become the first Chilean to make a Grand Slam final in the Open Era since Marcelo Rios, who lost to Petr Korda in the final here in 1998.

Eight years after turning pro, and at the ripe old age of 26, Gonzalez is playing tennis like Sudoku with all the numbers written down on a napkin in his shirt pocket.

Ah, what a strange business sport is! A buffoon may be fatal to it, as Friedrich Nietzsche pointed out in the larger context of life itself.

Then again, competitive maturity — that elusive attribute every athlete seeks but few get to achieve — often arrives unannounced, although not unsolicited.

In the event, after long years of slogging it out in the outback, Gonzalez suddenly finds himself in Grand Slam spotlight, a worthy opponent to HRH Roger Federer, a man who is being universally hailed as the greatest talent to grace the sport.

"It was a really good day for me," said Gonzalez, talking to Jim Courier on court after the match. "Roger is No.1. But it is just one match. He has beaten me many times but I am not the player I was the last time we played."

Gonzalez's almost point-perfect tennis might have sent shivers down the spine of any other final opponent. But Federer was probably washing down his pasta with a glass of orange juice even as the Chilean was annihilating Haas.

"Usually dinner time, but we will see," Federer said on Thursday when asked if he would be watching the semifinal match between Gonzalez and Haas.

Whatever fate awaits the genial Chilean in the final, this much is certain: Gonzalez has played some of the most enjoyable tennis that any man has ever played at Melbourne Park.

The Chilean won the first 12 points of the match, yes, 12 in a row. He never faced a breakpoint on serve, winning 87 per cent of his first serve points.

Gonzalez also hit an incredible 42 winners and made just three unforced errors in three sets, lasting an hour and 31 minutes.

"It's not that tough. For many years I have been making 42 unforced errors and three winners," he said with a smile. "It is time that changed."

The change, looking back, came about when Gonzalez called the experienced Larry Stefanki and asked him if he'd be willing to work with him. Once Stefanki came on board, the journey to the top began.

It was one of those traditional guru-shishya relationships in quest of self-realisation and the work put in the second half of 2006 has earned dividends in the first Grand Slam championship of 2007.

Gonzalez has a blood-curdler of a forehand and a very useful backhand chip with which he builds up a position for himself to unleash that big weapon.

He can, of course, hit with great power and precision on the backhand.

The serve, too, is a rather useful weapon. It is not in the Roddick/Ivanisevic league. But Gonzalez places them well and he can be very inventive with the second delivery.

In fact, it was with a backhand winner, crosscourt, that Gonzalez closed out the match after a clearly frustrated Haas's forehand sailed wide.

Donald & Roy beaten

In the boys' doubles final, India's Rupesh Roy and Australia's Stephen Donald staged a commendable comeback after a poor start but were beaten 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 by Graeme Dyce of Britain and Harri Heliovaara of Finland.

The Indo-Australian pair fought off a matchpoint in the 12th game of the second set before running away with the tiebreak.

But, in the decider, at the Margaret Court Arena on a chilly, windy evening, Roy lost serve in the third game and Dyce and Heliovaara were on their way before they broke Donald's serve in the ninth game to close out the match.

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