Clement's French Open dreams evaporate
By Guillaume Baraise
Monday, June 2, 2003
Arnaud Clement saw his dreams of French Open glory evaporate like the
morning rain over Roland-Garros Monday morning. Holder Albert Costa (No9)
showed he had recovered from his three gruelling five-set wins in the
previous rounds and punished the No32 seed to win 6-2 7-5 7-5 in three
hours seven minutes. More authoritative and decisive than his opponent,
Costa now faces the winner of the Gustavo Kuerten-Tommy Robredo match in
the quarter finals.
And yet it had not meant to end like this – not for the partisan home
fans at least, who were packed into Philippe Chatrier Court in eager
anticipation of a Clement victory. Everything pointed to a home win too.
The man from Aix-en-Provence had been in stunning form up until this one,
dispatching his first three opponents in merciless fashion. Costa, in
comparison, had not done much more than hang on, performing veritable
escape acts to come back from two sets down against Sergio Roitmann and
Nicolas Lapentti in the first and third rounds.
Those who had predicted a weary, leaden-footed Costa falling prey to a
hungry Clement were soon eating their words though. Clement dropped
his first service game, and the tone had been set for the match.
Eleven break points come and go
Struggling with his serve, as he would do all match long (49 per cent
of first serves in, four aces and three double faults), 'La Cle' lost the
first set 6-2. Not that the set was one-sided – far from it. The
Frenchman had 11 break points in all – but did not convert one.
Those missed opportunities were synonymous with the match as a whole.
Clement blew a few, sure, but above all they served to show that Costa
is not the reigning champion for nothing. Every time the Catalan was
under pressure he countered, pushing the French into a fault, or pulling
off a clean winner of his own.
The second set was even more frustrating for the Frenchman. He managed
to break clear at 3-1, only to allow his opponent back into the set with
a poor service game. He led 5-4 but was unable to get a break point, only
to concede two of his own at 5-5, the second of which Costa converted
when his generous opponent missed an easy volley. The Spaniard served
out and was two sets up (6-2 7-5).
Set point to match point
Things went from bad to worse at the start of the third for the home
favorite. He lost his first service game and was 2-0 down. Then at 3-1 he
was forced into saving a break point, and another two at 4-2. Such
fighting qualities had the crowd believing in him again, and at 4-3 he
at last threw caution to the wind, pulling off two fantastic lobs to
break back. 4-4! And then at 5-4, came the turning point of the match
when Clement grabbed a set point with a stunning pass. Costa surprised
his younger opponent with a serve into the body, and his chance was gone.
5-5, and Clement inexplicably chose to come in behind weak approach shots
three times in a row. 6-5.
Costa served out it – and it was all over. The defending champion can
look back with great satisfaction on a solid display punctuated with heavy
serving and intelligent tactical play. For Clement the feeling must be of
intense frustration at an opportunity lost: "In each set, I was just
missing something. He took his chances. It's tough, but at this level,
it always comes down to the minute details…"
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