by Joe Checkler
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
It took him two hours and 35 minutes to unwrap it, but Carlos Moya's
27th birthday present to himself was a grueling four-set victory over
Australia's Scott Draper in front of a near-capacity crowd on the Grandstand
Wednesday.
In a match where service breaks were rare, the world's No. 7 player
found just enough shot-making ability to eliminate Draper and his upset-minded
agenda, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-6. He now moves on to round two, where he hopes to
avoid last year's result when he lost to Jan-Michael Gambill in the US Open's
second round.
The fourth-set tiebreak seemed inevitable, as both players held their
serve with ease throughout the set. In the tiebreak, Moya went down 5-4, but
rallied with a great backhand winner and then an ace to give himself a match
point chance at 6-5. Draper fought it off, but at 7-6, Spain's birthday boy
unleashed a 126 mph serve for his 25th and final ace, sealing the match and
touching off an already frenetic crowd into standing-and-clapping mode.
Draper took the first set by breaking Moya twice, but he couldn't fend
off his opponent's service game from that point on. In fact, Draper had only
five break opportunities in the final three sets, all of which Moya held off.
When Moya, up 6-5, was serving for the third set, he started with
consecutive aces at 125 mph and 122 mph and ended with a 127 mph rocket ball
that Draper could only deflect to the side.
Four fans behind Draper, two of which had Spanish flags, then held up the
flags and chanted their approval to Moya, though it was not clear whether
"Feliz cumpleanos" (which means "Happy birthday" in Spanish) was among their
phrase choices.
In the fourth, the two players had a total of four break opportunities,
with Moya going 0 for 1 and Draper going 0 for 3. Draper probably got more
break chances because of his unorthodox method of standing well behind the
baseline during rallies, something that squelched Moya's power at times.
By the end of the match, fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium began to stand and
turn toward the Grandstand, watching the match while another went on behind
them.
Going into the match, it seemed that Moya would be vulnerable against the
veteran Draper, considering the Australian took him to three sets in their
only other meeting (earlier this year on clay at Hamburg) and that Moya
himself had played poorly in tune-ups to the Open. Nonetheless, Moya survived,
and he will now play qualifier Wesley Moodie of Russia, who defeated Albert
Montanes of Spain in straight sets.
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不知道打完有沒有去慶祝:P
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