Martin who?
By Benjamin Waldbaum
Tuesday, June 3, 2003
Behind a monstrous 27 aces, Martin Verkerk muscled his way past '98 champ
Carlos Moya (6-3 6-4 5-7 4-6 8-6) and into the 2003 Roland-Garros semi finals
late Tuesday. He is only the fifth man in the Open Era to reach the last four
here on debut and the first Dutchman in the semis since Richard Krajicek in
1993.
And like he had done when he beat fourth round opponent No11 Rainer Schuettler,
the big Dutchman fell to the ground in sheer jubilation.
Verkerk was the last name on most tipsters' list when it came to predicting
the semi final line up. Dutch No1 Sjeng Schalken maybe, but Martin Verkerk?
Not likely 퀠he hadn't even won a match at the last US and Australian Opens!
Verkerk is currently ranked 46th in the world, and has only recently emerged
from the Challenger circuit at the relatively late age of 25. To be fair, he
is not a complete unknown - he made the quarter finals at Indianapolis last
year, but reaching the same stage in a Grand Slam was a big step up.
"I've been making a lot of progress. I've been training a lot. I used to be
pretty lazy. I used to say to myself that I could probably make the top 100
without trying too hard. But I've now decided to go as far as I can, to the
best of my ability."
He prefers clay!
In the same vein as Richard Krajicek, Verkerk has a boom-boom service (93 aces
already) and thundering groundstrokes. Despite his imposing physique (1.90m,
89kg), this admirer of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras is nimble around the
court, which goes some of the way to explain his all-court ability, and
personal preference for clay.
Nicknamed the "Leiderdorp leveller", after his home town, Verkerk won his
first title on the ATP tour in Milan at the expense of Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
Two weeks later though, in the decisive Davis Cup rubber against Swiss Michel
Kratochvil, he missed a set point to go 2-1 up, lost the match (and the tie)
and his confidence took a knock. He only won two of his next ten matches.
Coached by New Zealander Nick Carr, Verkerk got his season back on track in
the Masters Series in Rome. He emerged from the qualifiers to beat Vince
Spadea, Andy Roddick and Jarkko Nieminen before conceding defeat to Kafelnikov
in the quarter finals. A semi final spot in St-Polten last week set him up
nicely for Roland-Garros too.
Croat Zeljko Krajan, Peruvian Luis Horna, Spadea, Schuettler - and now Moya
have all fallen victim to Verkerk's power game. "I'm not surprised at how well
I'm playing. But I am surprised at winning... I don't want to look too far
ahead. In any case, anything can happen..."
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※ 編輯: esnique 來自: 61.230.118.124 (06/07 20:52)