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Love-all, play

The love bug was out in the city of love in one way or another.

Andrei Medvedev is in love with Anke Huber, Andre Agassi is in love with his tennis, Steffi Graf is in love with the French fans and Martina Hingis is in love with herself.

Medvedev, at number 100 the lowest-ranked finalist ever at the French Open, repeated tirelessly how much it meant for him and his game that he was back together with Huber.

"Imagine a miserable guy playing and a happy guy playing, who do you think is going to win? When there is love, you are inspired, you can write poems, you can write music, you can play good tennis, you can write good articles, whatever,'' the 24-year-old insisted.

"It looks like I just have to stick to Anke and make sure she doesn't leave, and then I will be fine,'' he said.

Agassi, 29, said he could concentrate on his game again after being divorced from actress Brooke Shields. ''I am definitely really focussed on my tennis,'' said Agassi, but quickly added that he and Shields shared some ''beautiful years''.

Agassi was awarded with the biggest prize on offer, as with his epic five-set win in Sunday's final he became only the fifth player overall and first since Rod Laver (who gave him the trophy) in 1969 to win all Grand Slam tournaments.

Graf, 29, was so overwhelmed with the crowd support en route to her sixth women's title that she vowed she will never come back again so that the precious memory will stay.

''If you hear 16,000 people chanting 'Steffi, Steffi,' then that is amazing. I have been around the world, but I have not had a crowd like that before,'' she said.

Graf defeated Hingis although the Swiss had a chance to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set.

World number 1 Hingis, whose antics earned her loathing from fans during the match, admitted later she had never thought she would lose the match and fail to collect the only Grand Slam title eluding her.

''My dress was already ready for the picture with the trophy. I believed I would win. I was three points away from it. I wanted to win it so much,'' said Hingis, who also claimed the fans didn't understand her game because it looked so easy.

Almost as much in love with themselves were the Williams sisters - Venus and Serena, who claimed throughout the first week it was only a matter of time until they topped the rankings and won a Grand Slam.

However, they were both toppled early and eventually had to settle for a women's doubles title against Hingis and Anna Kournikova, the teenage Russian whose looks everyone loves.

The French public is expected to love centre court when it is completely renovated (the reconstruction starts next week), but there is no love lost for the Suzanne Lenglen court as far as Pete Sampras, Patrick Rafter, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski are concerned.

The quartet stands for attacking serve and volley tennis and all went out on Suzanne Lenglen, Sampras in the second, Rafter and Henman in the third and Rusedski in the fourth.

The slow clay does not suit their game in the first place, but things are even worse on that specific court because it is considered the slowest of them all at Roland Garros.

Even more, they all lost to true clay-courters, Medvedev, Fernando Meligeni, Alberto Berasategui and Marcelo Filippini respectively.

Henman came closest, wasting a 3-1 lead in the third set after winning the first two and two break points for a double break 4-1 in the fifth against the 1994 runner-up Berasategui.

''Clay is a struggle for me,'' said Sampras, who has been an early round loser for three straight years now on Suzanne Lenglen, in his tenth failed attempt to win the only Grand Slam eluding him.

The last serve and volley player to win at Roland Garros was Yannick Noah, back in 1983, and the last to reach the final was Stefan Edberg in 1989.

There was also no love lost between Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo in a hyped second-round rematch of the Australian Open final after Hingis had claimed the muscular Mauresmo played like a man.

That also applied to French diva Mary Pierce and the local public and media, as Pierce went out early amid jeers and a biting headline from L'Equipe, which listed as ''Best of Mary Pierce'' three medical time-outs, two walks off court, a warning and 64 unforced errors.

The fact that Pierce admitted she loved and used the controversial substance creatine also did not go down well.

Carlos Moya will not have fond memories of Paris because he bowed out as defending champion in the fourth round to agassi. Marcelo Rios was awarded the Prix Citron by the French media for the most un-loved player a fourth year running and also again failed to finally win the tournament.

While the established forces in the women's game once again stopped the youngsters, the men's game has now seen 12 different finalists and six different winners in the past six Grand Slam tournaments.

This fact is not loved by everyone because fans on site or via television rather want to see some familiar faces. In that respect, Agassi was the man everyone loved to be the winner, as the ''Agassi, Agassi'' chants confirmed.

AP