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Kuerten Loses In Straight Sets
N E W Y O R K, Aug. 30 -- Midnight madness struck again at the U.S. Open.
Early this morning two-time champion PatrickRafter succumbed in five sets to the inspired and uncannybrilliance of Galo Blanco, a 5-foot-8 Spaniard who had lost in thefirst round of every other Grand Slam event this year.
With several thousand wildly cheering fans still in Arthur AsheStadium, Blanco rallied back from a minibreak in the finaltiebreaker, winning five of the last six points, to beat Rafter 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (5). The 3-hour, 2-minute match ended at12:07 a.m.
“We both fought very hard out there,” Rafter said. “I’m happywith the way I fought, and I tried to win. Some days it justdoesn’t go your way. Tonight was one of those. He put in a goodperformance there. Just too good on the night.”
Rafter, the runner-up to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon last month,came into the U.S. Open unseeded because he had been out most ofthe year while recovering from shoulder surgery.
Tale of Two Players
But the 27-year-old Australian, the U.S. Open champion in 1997and 1998, had no problems with his shoulder lately and wasconsidered the most dangerous floater in the men’s draw, a playerwho was nearly as much of a favorite to win the title as Sampras orAndre Agassi.
Blanco was the exact opposite, a 23-year-old ranked No. 114 whohad lost in the first round of 13 of his 16 previous Grand Slamtournaments since 1996. His best performance in a major came at the1997 French Open, where he reached the quarterfinals before losingto Rafter in straight sets in their only other meeting.
“That was my most important match in my life,” Blanco said.“So I beat him here in this tournament, and he beat me there in mytournament. That’s life.”
Rafter drilled 24 aces past him and kept charging the net asalways, but Blanco stood his ground on the baseline and pummeledRafter with passing shots. Blanco’s particular splendor on thiscool and breezy night was his ability to limit his unforced errors,committing only two in the first set and 38 overall, while the moreaggressive Rafter made 52.
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