Norman seals quarter-final spot

Paris, June 5: Magnus Norman stayed on target to end a 12-year Swedish drought at Roland Garros when he raced to a quickfire but rain-inte...

Paris, June 5: Magnus Norman stayed on target to end a 12-year Swedish drought at Roland Garros when he raced to a quickfire but rain-interruped fourth-round men’s singles victory over Andrei Medvedev at the French Open on Monday.

Third-seeded Norman stayed on target for the first Grand Slam title of his career by downing Medvedev, last year’s beaten finalist, 6-0, 6-4, 6-2 on an unseasonally bleak and damp afternoon. The match was halted by rain after 1hr 23min with Norman leading 4-1, 15-15 in the third set. He wasted little time in completing the win when play resumed after a delay of over two-and-a-half hours. Mats Wilander, in 1988, was the last Swedish champion at Roland Garros.

Medvedev, beaten by Andre Agassi in last year’s final, had made good-natured fun of Norman in a press conference earlier in the week but the Swede had the last word. The 24-year-old Norman, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in January and winner of two tournaments already this year, was in sublime form as he swept through in a total court time of just 1hr 33min. He is the highest seed left in the tournament after the early departures of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras and reached the last eight without losing a set, or having even played a tiebreaker.

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The Swede took just 20 minutes to win the first set after the start of play had been delayed for over an hour by morning rain. Medvedev was able to win just six points. The Ukrainian had points for a 4-2 lead in the second set but Norman held on, broke for 5-4 and then served it out. When Norman broke in the opening game of the third set there was no way back for Medvedev. It was the first time the Ukrainian had lost to a Swede on the slow red clay here.

Norman, who first made the quarters here back in 1997, now plays either sixth-seeded Frenchman Cedric Pioline or 12th-seeded Russian Marat Safin, who were locked at one-set-all on Centre Court.

Two more men’s fourth-round matches were scheduled later Monday with ninth-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt playing Albert Costa of Spain and 15th-seeded Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui facing Franco Squillari of Argentina.

The other four men’s fourth-round matches were played on Sunday. Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, the fourth seed and 1996 champion here, rallied to record his third five-set victory of the tournament – winning 5-7, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 8-6 against Spaniard Fernando Vicente to earn a mouth-watering meeting with another former champion – Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil.

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Kuerten, the fifth seed who won here in 1997, stayed on track for a second crack at the title with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win over 11th-seeded Ecuadorian Nicolas Lapentti, with whom he once won the junior boys doubles title here.

Two Spaniards, Alex Corretja, the 10th seed, and Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 16th seed, also reached the last eight and will meet in the quarters. Corretja, a finalist in 1998 and a perennial contender here, beat 18-year-old Swiss prodigy Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6 (9/7), 6-2 after a hard-fought baseline battle while Ferrero outplayed power-serving Australian Mark Philippoussis 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. (AFP)