The rise and rise of Marcelo Rios on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions recently resulted in the Chilean declaring his intention to go the entire 2006 season undefeated.
Until today, only Cedric Pioline had managed to take a set off him. But, until today, he had yet to face Goran Ivanisevic.
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The Croatian had promised to give Rios his stiffest test yet, and he was good to his word in the s Tennis Masters in Graz-Seiersberg on Friday, forcing the Chilean to the brink.
Rios won 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-5 (Champions' Tie-break) to set up a final meeting with defending champion and home favourite Thomas Muster.
Muster beat John McEnroe by a similar scoreline - 6-7(6), 6-2, 10-3 (Champions' Tie-break), and so the final on Saturday will be the fourth meeting between Rios and Muster in as many events on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions.
Muster is yet to win one of them. But, as he proved in beating Ivanisevic in the final last year, the Austrian is a different prospect in his home-town.
“Marcelo is unbeaten, but to be in my third final in Graz-Seiersberg is good for me and I’m really happy,” said Muster.
Does he stand a chance?
Ivanisevic thinks so.
”It’s possible, I think I can beat him as well if I practice more. I think there was very high quality of tennis in the first set between us. I got some bad calls in the Champion’s Tie-break but he [Rios] is beatable.”
Rios does not intend to lose his streak lightly.
”I have pressure in every final,” he said.“Last week it was McEnroe in Algarve, now it’s Muster. That is the good thing about this circuit - playing good guys and big names. Playing Thomas tomorrow in front of his home crowd, that is going to be nice!”
The third-fourth play-off will be between Magnus Larsson and Ivanisevic.
Larsson defeated Carl-Uwe Steeb 4-6, 6-1, 10-6 (Champions' Tie-break) in the other match on Friday.
After Graz, the Tour moves on to the Trophée Jean-Luc Lagardère in Paris in September. The Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions will then visit the Alex Tennis Classics in Eindhoven (October 12-15), the Champions Trophy in Frankfurt (November 16-19) before arriving in London for the season-ending BlackRock Masters (December 5-10).
The BlackRock Masters sees the top ten players in the South African Airways Champions Tour Rankings compete for a $100,000 winners’ prize. The field at the Royal Albert Hall in London will increase to 12 with the addition of two wild card invitations.
To be eligible to compete on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions, players must have been either a World No.1 during their competitive playing careers, a Grand Slam singles finalist or champion, or a singles player on a victorious Davis Cup team, and no longer active as a singles player on the ATP circuit. Each event can also invite two players of its choice to take wild cards.
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