NO. 7 SEED RAISES HIS GAME

Kafelnikov kicks into gear … finally

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y., SEPT. 1 – The top men are always claiming that they have a better chance at the Grand Slams because they play best-of-five sets whereas at the smaller tournaments the matches are only best-of-three sets.

To some people’s minds that sounds like a rather incongruous statement – why do you have an advantage when you have to play longer and work harder? Isn’t it easy to go out there, show your superstar muscle and be done with it?

Well, in theory, quicker might seem best, but longer gives more chance for recovery if you suffer a hiccup along the way. A perfect example of how five sets works to the advantage of a champion took place on Friday afternoon at the U.S. Open with Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

The seventh seed at the Open, Kafelnikov was looking like an upset victim when he trailed George Bastl of Switzerland by two sets in their second round match. But the Russian, a former French and Australian Open champion, kept in the fight and ended up a 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 winner. And the deed took only three minutes shy of three hours for the Russian to construct.

Kafelnikov’s memory might be a little fuzzy when he says that “I’ve been in those situations before where I was two sets to love down and then been able to come back and win the match,” almost sounding like he’s done the return from the grave dozens of times. In actuality, he’s only comeback from a two-set deficit twice before in his career.

“All I was worried about was just to win, each point at a time and perhaps to give myself a chance to be able not to win the match, but to be able to come back an have a better performance than I was going through the first two sets.”

After the match, Kafelnikov played down the situation he faced against the 120th-ranked Bastl, a qualifier into the main draw. Maybe he knew that his chance would materialize since Bastl did not have the experience in big matches and if he was prepared to take advantage of an opening door and hang around, the match would eventually turn in his favor.

“For about two sets, he was going to make a big statement,” Kafelnikov said of his opponent. “But I guess in a Grand Slam, unfortunately, it’s not best-of-five. You know, the strongest and the best players will survive.”

BUCKLING DOWN
True to convention, the minute that Kafelnikov buckled down and decided to compete like a Grand Slam champion, Bastl started to fade away. The Swiss was not even half way through the third set in the hot, humid conditions and wilted point-by-point with each stroke of the ball. By the fourth set he was starting to cramp a bit and mentally he was destroyed by the fact that Kafelnikov was looking like the match had just started.

“I just proved to myself, no matter how big of a hole you in, you still have a small chance to come out of there,” Kafelnikov said.

Kafelnikov is something of an enigma on the tennis circuit – one minute he appears serious about his tennis and interested in winning, the next minute he seems to have a ‘I don’t care’ attitude. Someplace in the middle of the match against Bastl, Kafelnikov decided to be motivated by the possibility of trying to win the U.S. Open. Without a doubt, when Kafelnikov arrives on court with his “A” game, he can be a Grand Slam champion at any of the four majors. But many times he just doesn’t seem to have his mental fortitude in gear and dogs out of matches he should win. Hopefully, the Bastl win is indication that Kafelnikov is here to play and see just how far he can really go.