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Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI, JANUARY 9: Fourth seeded Jerome Golmard of France played it smart and cool to wear down German journeyman Markus Hantschk 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in the final of the ATP Gold Flake Open tennis tournament on Sunday.
Golmard, who finished the 1999 season ranked 35, had that extra bit of reserve at the finish even as Hantschk appeared a spent force after dropping serve in the seventh game. All the running over two hours and slugging it out from the baseline seemed to have its effect on the German who, last night, had taken out the second seeded Frenchman, Cedric Pioline. The success was worth $ 54,000 and 35 points to Goldmard, while Hantschk picked up $ 31,500 and 24 points.
Indian dreams lay shattered when Saurav Panja and Prahlad Srinath were outplayed by the French-Belgian combination of Julien Boutter and Christophe Rochus 7-5, 6-1 in the doubles final.
Rochus-Boutter thus prevented another Indian pair from etching a new chapter here, as Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi had done three years ago.
Incidentally, both pairs were given a wild card into the main doubles draw. Rochus and Boutter had ousted top seeded Leander Paes-Byron Black in the quarter-finals. The winners secured $ 26,550 and 35 ATP race points while Panja-Srinath took $15,630 and 24 points.
In the singles final, the tide turned in Golmard’s favour in the seventh game of the third set. Hantschk played his worst tennis in this game, serving three double-faults. Golmard finally broke on his fourth breakpoint to go 4-3 up. He then held serve for 5-3. Hantschk appeared increasingly tired as he had two more double-faults in the ninth game to present the match on a platter to Golmard.
In all, Hantschk served four double-faults and had 14 breakpoints against him of which he saved nine. Golmard has just one double-fault, and saved two of the three breakpoints. Earlier, Hantschk had begun the match on the wrong foot when he dropped serve in the first game. But he drew level by breaking back in the fourth. But Golmard, playing percentagetennis, came up with two more service breaks in the seventh and ninth for the set.
The second set went with serve, forcing the tie-break. Hantschk served better to clinch the tie-break 8-6 and forcing the decider.
