Claycourt kings set for battle royal

Steve Keating

Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain will battle for a crown on Friday before one of them goes on to fight for a title.

Such has been the pair's dominance on clay this season that the winner of their French Open semifinal will be recognised as the King of Clay and installed as hot favourite for Sunday's final against Alex Corretja or Sebastien Grosjean.

Even before the doors swung open at Roland Garros nearly a fortnight ago, defending champion Kuerten and the in-form Ferrero appeared on a collision course.

"In the first round everyone was talking about a semifinal between Kuerten and Ferrero and they were right," said the fourth-seeded Spaniard.

The two players arrived in Paris with three claycourt titles each this season, their prowess on the surface demonstrated further by their records. Kuerten has secured 29 wins from 32 matches on clay this year, Ferrero 27 from 29.

Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 1996 French Open champion, compared the flamboyant south American to Picasso after receiving a lesson in the art of tennis in their four-set quarter-final.

But if the top seed can be compared to Picasso then Ferrero could well be the Rembrandt of Roland Garros, having dropped just one set in the tournament.

The two men have met only twice before, both matches resulting in epic five-set struggles.

THUNDERING GROUNDSTROKES

Trailing two sets to one and 3-1 down in the fourth, Kuerten displayed fierce determination to back up his thundering groundstrokes when he overcame the Spaniard at the same stage of last year's French Open on the way to his second title.

Ferrero avenged that defeat three weeks ago in the final of the Masters Series event in Rome, a contest described by many observers as a classic.

"You know it will be a tough match, probably the same as the final in Rome," the 24-year-old Kuerten said. "A tough match with many baseline rallies and maybe a physically tiring match and maybe emotional because a semifinal can make you extra nervous.

"I think it's going to be a big battle. We are both playing excellently and I will have to play close to perfection to win."

Ferrero, like most Spanish claycourters, is a man of few words who prefers to let his tennis do the talking.

And the message after nearly two weeks of consistently outstanding performances is coming through loud and clear - the willowy Spaniard is more than capable of winning his first Grand Slam title in Paris.

"This year I came as the favourite with Kuerten and last year I was not the favourite, that's the difference," said the 21-year-old, who crushed sixth seed Lleyton Hewitt in the quarter-finals for the loss of only seven games.

"This is the biggest tournament in the world for me.

"I started playing good tennis in Barcelona and then Rome and Hamburg, but here, maybe, it's my best tennis."

While it's hardly a surprise to find a consummate claycourter like Corretja in the last four, the 13th-seeded Spaniard has reached the French Open semifinals for the second time almost unnoticed.

His opponent, though, is more of a shock, the 10th-seeded Grosjean having become the first Frenchman since Cedric Pioline in 1998 to make the semifinals at Roland Garros.

SNUFFED OUT

Coincidentally, it was Corretja who snuffed out French hopes that year, the Spaniard going on to lose the final to his compatriot Carlos Moya.

Grosjean, 23, and the 27-year-old Corretja have never played each other but the Australian Open semifinalist will be well aware of the damage the Spaniard has inflicted on his compatriots.

The affable Corretja goes into the semifinal riding an eight-match winning streak against players from France, improving his overall record against Frenchman to 35 victories and only six defeats.

"It's going to be a tough match because Alex is a claycourt specialist," said Grosjean, who reached the last four with an inspired performance to overcome third seed and former champion Andre Agassi.

"The semifinals are very important, just the fact that you're able to play in the semifinals in a Grand Slam tournament is of major importance," he added.

"And when you confirm this here in Paris, in the French Open, at home, it's extremely important."