Pioline makes French fries of Indian hopes

The small crowd at the Nungambakkam Stadium had little time to settle down as Pioline uncorked a variety of brilliant strokes while playing well within himself to chalk up a fluent 6-3, 6-4 win in 78 minutes. While the home crowd was left disappointed with the exit of the last Indian, it was treated to some truly brilliant tennis by the second-seeded Pioline.

The wily Frenchman is the highest seed left in the draw following the exit of World No 2 and top seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The No 13 ranked, 30-year old Frenchman, who resides in Geneva, Switzerland, was far too superior to Paes who, barring an occasional winning volley and returns, did little of note. One had a sneaking feeling that Pioline still had a great deal in reserve going by the clinical finish when he took the 10th game of the second set at love and closed the match.

Pioline, who has had running battles with the French establishment and even opted out of Davis Cup in a show of protest, hardly played a false stroke on the day. He moved about the court with the grace of a ballet artiste, volleyed firmly and came up with some unbelievable gets’ to repeatedly leave Paes standing.

Though there was so much going for him, Pioline, runner-up at Wimbledon (’97) and the US Open (’93), where he also reached the semi-finals last year, kept himself on a tight reign, much like a Derby winner for much of the match, but raised a gallop when required.

Paes, on the day, committed far too many errors, including a bagful at the net. Against a player of Pioline’s reach and power, the Paes did not have the ammunition to punch holes in the Frenchman’s defence with a degree of consistency. Under the circumstances, it was all that Paes could do to keep the ball in play.

In contrast, Pioline displayed a delightful range of shots, the best of which was a backhand crosscourt return, late in the second set. Equally spectacular were the volleys, especially the one in the penultimate game of the match when he stretched fully for a winner.

In the first set, Pioline took a while to warm up and was broken in the third game. But he came surging back and broke Paes for 2-2. Thereafter, it was virtually a one-way street as Pioline comfortably held serve and broke Paes again in the eighth before serving out the set.

Pioline raised his game a few notches in the second set to keep Paes under pressure. The Indian nearly cracked in the third game and was lucky to hold serve despite two double-faults. However, Paes dropped his next service game to fall behind 2-3. Pioline then cruised along before serving out the 10th game for the match which could have ended a bit earlier had not Paes saved a matchpoint on serve in the 9th.

VINCIGUERRA UPSET: On the outside court, Davide Sanguinetti of Italy knocked out eighth seeded Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, while qualifier Jamie Delgado of Great Britain continued his good run by defeating Orlin Stanoytchev of Bulgaria 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, to progress to the quarter-finals.

RESULTS

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): 2-Cedric Pioline (Frace) bt Leander Paes (India) 6-3, 6-4; Davide Sanguinetti (Italy) bt 8-Andreas Vincigurerra (Sweden) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2; Jamie Delgado (Great Britain) bt Orlin Stanoytchev (Bulgaria) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; 4-Jerome Golmard (France) bt Fredrik Jonsson (Sweden) 6-2, 6-3

Quarter-final line-up: Lorenzo Manta (Switzerland) vs Martin Damm (Czech Republic); Jamie Delgado (Great Britain) vs Jerome Golmard (France); Markus Hantschk (Germnay) vs Tuomas Ketola (Finland) and Cedric Pioline (France) vs Davide Sanguinetti (Italy)