PARIS – Showing he's ready to defend his French Open title,
Gustavo Kuerten displayed his clay-court strength Monday in
defeating Guillermo Coria 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in his opening match.
The top-seeded Brazilian served 14 aces and broke his opponent
five times.
"I had to play a great game from beginning to end," Kuerten
said. "I really did everything I was planning to do."
Coria, a 19-year-old Argentine, went down surprisingly easily
against the two-time French Open champion. Coria is ranked 13th in
the ATP Champions Race and has the third best record on clay this
season behind Kuerten and Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero.
"He's already one of the best guys around," Kuerten said.
"Next year he will have more success."
No. 12 Arnaud Clement and No. 15 Jan-Michael Gambill were the
only two seeded men to fall Monday.
No. 7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov opened by defeating Federico Luzzi of
Italy 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 for his 500th career victory. Luzzi replaced
injured South Korean Hyung-Taik Lee, who withdrew Monday.
"Even though I won in three sets, it wasn't easy," Kafelnikov
said. "I was pushed almost to the limit."
Kafelnikov won the French in 1996 and is playing his ninth
consecutive French Open. The Russian has not won a title on clay
since his Roland Garros championship.
"If I can get going, it's going to be difficult to stop me,"
he said.
Lleyton Hewitt got off to a shaky beginning against French wild
card Paul-Henri Mathieu, winning 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Also advancing to the second round were No. 4
Ferrero, No. 11 Tim Henman, and No. 14 Thomas Enqvist.
Andy Roddick, an 18-year-old American, won his first match at
Roland Garros in straight sets. He'll play fellow American Michael Chang, who took the French
title in 1989 at 17, in the second round.
No. 3 Andre Agassi has a tough start Tuesday. The 1999 Roland
Garros champion will open against Sweden's Thomas Johansson and
could face Albert Costa of Spain in the second round.
Pete Sampras, chasing his first title at Roland Garros, has an
easier opener Tuesday against French qualifier Cedric Kauffmann.
Second-seeded Safin will be hoping to kick-start his season
against Austria's Markus Hipfl. Safin has not gotten past the
second round in this year's first five Masters Series tournaments,
which are second only to Grand Slams in importance. Three of those
were on clay. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
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