Friday, January 30, 1998
Rios ends Escude's run of great escapes
http://www.news-star.com/stories/013098/spo_tennis.html
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Ninth seed Marcelo Rios raced
into his first Grand Slam final today, ending a record run
of great escapes by a Frenchman ranked 415th just a year ago.
Pressuring Nicolas Escude into frequent errors, Rios won
6-1, 6-3, 6-2, advancing into an Australian Open championship
showdown with No. 6 Petr Korda on Sunday.
"I think I have a lot of chances," Rios said.
It will be the first Grand Slam final between left-handers
since John McEnroe beat Jimmy Connors at Wimbledon in 1984.
With supporters raising a large Chilean flag in the stadium's
last row, Rios also became the first man from his nation to
reach a Grand Slam final in the Open era, which started in
1968. Chile's Luis Ayala was a losing finalist in the French
Open in 1958 and 1960.
Despite his loss, Escude came out with one Grand Slam record:
most comebacks from two sets down. He did it three times --
against Sweden's Magnus Larsson in the first round, American
Richey Reneberg in the fourth round and German Nicolas Kiefer
in the quarterfinals.
After losing the first two sets and falling behind 2-0 in the
third against Rios, the 21-year-old Frenchman made a brief stab
at a comeback, forcing Rios into errors and breaking him at 15.
But Escude won only one more game. In all, he was broken eight
times in 12 service games.
Rios' best previous Grand Slam performances were reaching two
quarterfinals last year, in the Australian and U.S. Opens.
One area where he has improved, he said, is "even if I'm losing
badly, I try to fight to win a match."
Along with a reputation for surliness, the 22-year-old Rios
formerly was known as a player who tanked matches once he got
behind.
He didn't consider himself a tanker, he said, but he was lazy,
and "I didn't care if I lose the match."
Larry Stefanki, his coach, said a key moment came when Rios
rebounded from two sets down against Michael Chang in the U.S.
Open last year to tie it at two sets all.
Chang won in the fifth set, but Stefanski praised the turnaround
from 0-2 as "what great tennis players do."
"When you see Michael Chang can be No. 2 in the world, and for
quite a long time, why not Marcelo? In my mind, right now, he is
no. 2," Stefanki said.
Rios never had to play a seed on his march to the final. His
quarterfinal victim, Spain's Alberto Berasategui, eliminated
two of the toughest threats in his quarter of the draw -- U.S.
Open champion Patrick Rafter and a resurgent Andre Agassi, a
former No. 1 and Australian Open champion.
His championship opponent, the 30-year-old Korda, reached the
final with a 6-1, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 victory Thursday over Slovakia's
Karol Kucera, conqueror of defending champion Pete Sampras in the
quarterfinals. He also beat No. 4 Jonas Bjorkman along the way.
In their two matches last year, Korda lost to Rios in the first
round of the Australian Open, but beat him in the quarterfinals in
Stuttgart in October. The Czech has played one previous Grand Slam
final, losing the 1992 French Open title to Jim Courier.
Winning on Sunday would help Rios offset his losses in casino
blackjack in Melbourne.
But asked whether the $412,000 first prize would cover them all,
he replied: "I don't think so."
Rios goes into the final with a match record this year of 11-0.
In a warmup event in Auckland earlier this month, he won his sixth
career title.
Escude, who hadn't gone beyond the third round in his three previous
Grand Slams, said, "I was no more nervous than usual even though it
was a semifinal on Center Court.
"Although I had a thigh muscle tear, what was more important was all
the accumulated fatigue from my earlier matches," said Escude, who
added that the leg troubled him on his serve.
He said Rios "gets so far into the court, he almost hits the ball
on the half-volley, and the direction of his shots is very difficult
to predict."
Still, Escude was pleased with his latest jump up the rankings, from
81st now into the 30s, as a result of his run to the semifinals here.