Chengdu Open 2010 - A look at the final 4
On Sunday 24th of October, the “Old Ones” battled it out for the last time in China as the second last event of the ATP championship tour for the season drew to a close. The final two matches were played on Sunday for
the first four positions.
The final of the event was played between the American legend Pete Sampras and British- Canadian superstar Gregory Rusedski. Even in this lineup of champions, Pete Sampras was still a favourite to win and it came as a shock to
many fans when Rusedski humiliated the former world number 1 in a 6-4, 6-2 win. Halfway into the second set with a 3-0 score in Rusedski’s favour, the players had to be pulled out of the court due to rain. They resumed play eventually and it seemed that the
break did Sampras no good. Rusedski eventually had an easy win over the American with a 6-2 score in the second set.
Sampras greatly appreciated Rusedski’s play and is reported to have said, “Greg beat me fair and square today. We both had to be a bit careful out there at the end because of the rain but Greg still managed a serve at 140 mph,
so all credit to him.”
Rusedski only joined the tournament last weekend after German professional, Michael Stich pulled out of the tournament due to an injury. Rusedski then played excellently on the court throughout the tournament to make his way into
the final, and finally win the title. He defeated the Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov earlier in the tournament on Saturday by 6-3, 6-4 to secure a spot for himself in the final. This was the Brit’s second title win in the ATP Championships tour.
Rusedski had this to say after winning the title, “I’m really happy to win against a great champion like Pete Sampras. I’m very pleased. I had not played a lot of tennis coming into the event. I played really well this week. I
surprised myself how well I played.”
This was Rusedski’s second win over Sampras overall on the court. His last win over Sampras was in the final of the ATP Masters Series in Paris in 1998. Rusedski defeated Sampras to win the title that year. Their last meeting on
the court was in the 2002 United States Open, where Sampras defeated Rusedski. Their head to head score is now 9-2, in Sampras’s favour.
The match for the third and fourth place was played between 2009 Chengdu Cup champion, Swede Thomas Enqvist and French professional Guy Forget. The 2009 champion failed to get a chance to defend his title when he lost his match
to Rusedski on Friday and in effect his spot in the final was captured by Rusedski. Enqvist however defeated Forget to secure a third place for himself in the event. Even though Enqvist lost the first set 3-6, he soon bounced back to win the next two sets
to make the final match score 3-6, 6-3, 10-8. Enqvist still holds the top position in the ATP Championships Tour rankings with 1700 points.
The two professionals had met only once before in 1992 at the ATP Masters Series Stockholm. Forget defeated Enqvist then to make their head to head score 1-0. Now after nearly two decades the Swede finally got the chance to level
that score.
Tags: