Michael Stich bamboozled Albert Costa with an array of spins, angles and net-rushes on Friday and then advised Roger Federer to do the same whenever he meets Rafael Nadal on clay.
Stich is seven years Costa’s junior, but he showed in his 6-3, 6-4 demolition of the former French Open champion that variety can be the key to unlocking the games of even the best players on clay.
It is a recipe that the German, himself a French Open finalist in 1996, believes could take Federer to title at Roland Garros.
“Players like Albert Costa and Nadal don’t like it if you don’t give them rhythm,” said Stich.
“It worked for me today against Costa and it could work for Roger against Nadal. It didn’t work out for him the last couple of times the way he played Nadal in the French Open finals because he always started well with a lot of variety but then after the first set he let it go and thought he could beat Nadal from the baseline. That, I think, he can not do, not over the best of five sets. But, if he keeps up the variety he has a real chance because he has all the shots. You have to be open-minded enough to try it and if Federer gets through to the Monte Carlo final and plays Nadal it would be a good chance for him to try it out. It would be nice for him to win Monte Carlo but it’s the French Open that he really wants.
“You need to serve well to get free points against your opponent, but also you have to stop them getting a rhythm. It is better to go for two big returns and make two errors than just chip the ball back and get into long rallies. That’s what a player like Albert Costa likes and after three of those points where I am moving side-to-side, I look silly. Thomas Muster was a little bit like Nadal and it was the same with him. You need to play the little backhand crosscourt, a slice down the line, hit fast balls and come into the net.”
Injury Dashes Bruguera's Rios Hopes
Sergi Bruguera has been forced to pull out of the BlackRock Tour of Champions event in Barcelona ahead of his much-anticipated final round-robin match against Marcelo Rios.
The Spaniard swept aside Carl Uwe Steeb 6-2, 6-1 but injured his knee in the process. It was bad enough for Bruguera, the champion in Barcelona for the past two years, to withdraw from the entire event.
The news will come as a disappointment to Rios, who was looking forward to locking horns with Bruguera for the first time on clay.
“It’s going to be fun,” he said after beating Cedric Pioline and before hearing the news of Bruguera’s withdrawal. “He (Bruguera) won everything on the BlackRock Tour of Champions last year and the one who wins this match will be in the final.”
Pioline gave Rios all the trouble he could handle before succumbing in three close sets, and the Chilean now goes through to the final.
Rios will now play an exhibition match against ATP player Alberto Martin on Saturday.
He is likely to face Magnus Larsson in the final after Larsson scraped past Henri Leconte 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 (Champions’ Tie-break) to maintain his 100% record in Group B.
After Barcelona, the BlackRock Tour of Champions will move onto the Foro Italico in Rome over the weekend of the 10th and 11th May, and then the BlackRock Tennis Classic at the Rothenbaum Club in Hamburg, 14-18 May.
After that, Pete Sampras will make his long awaited debut on the BlackRock Tour of Champions in Sao Paulo, 21-24 May, 2008.
The Tour opened in Belfast in February with Anders Jarryd successfully defending his title.
