ROLAND GARROS, DAY 10

The bull vs. the matador: Costa against Ferrero will be a death struggle

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

FROM ROLAND GARROS – Men's clay court tennis has evolved to the point that if a player's legs aren't good enough to run hard for 23 hours or so, he may has well count himself out of any serious Roland Garros title hopes unless he happens to zone the whole tournament.

Unlike grass, where a big server can ace and first volley his way to the Wimbledon title in 17 hours or so of straight ahead yellowball, red clay doesn't allow a player to go through the draw without a serious work out sprinting behind the baseline, to the sides of the doubles and alleys and straight ahead straining to pick up drop shots.

That's why Andre Agassi calls Roland Garros the toughest of physical tests and that's why Friday's semifinal between defending Albert "the bull" Costa and slick matador Juan Carlos Ferrero will be so fascinating. You know you are going to get a good two-and-a-half hours of physical drama, that both men will come off the court with red dirt caked all over them and that both will put every inch of their souls into the match.

Spain's Costa has averaged an incredible 3 hours and 43 minutes on court in his five matches, three of which he came back from two sets down to win, including his 2-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 quarterfinal victory over his slightly stunned younger countryman, Tommy Robredo on Wednesday.

Costa's legs are so strong that he could strap a commuter train on his back and drag it from Barcelona up to Paris and back. His leg keeps churning, his arms keep whipping heavy balls deep, and he keeps charging ahead, horns down and very dangerous. Costa has played 23 sets and 227 games totaling 18 hours, 32 minutes. He's the first player in the Open era to win four five-setters at Roland Garros. He's doing this despite the fact that he had a lousy spring coming in here and didn't' find his "A" game until the last three sets against the talented Robredo, who had taken out Lleyton Hewitt and Gustavo Kuerten.

There was the '02 Roland Garros champion was again, whacking crisp serves, rolling thunderous forehands and leaping one-handed backhands. Costa's the toughest looking player in tennis and now he believes that he can't be put down – especially if he's two sets behind.

"I don't know if I'm making history," Costa said. "I realize that I'm fighting all the time and I go two sets down and I still try to win the match. … I won here last year and I have great feelings in the court. I haven't lost my last 11 matches here. That helps you a lot."

Susan Mullane/ Camerawork USA, Inc.

JUAN CARLOS: QUICK AND DEADLY
Ferrero is a different sort all together, a light-footed, creative quiet type with a Van Gogh beard and a master fencer's killer instinct. He pricks you, slices a bit of your ear off and then finally just when his opponent thinks than can blow him over, he slashes him apart.

That's what he did to the muscular Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in their quarterfinal. The wild Gonzalez was launching nuclear forehand after nuclear forehand and kept coming back from near death. Ferrero finally prevailed 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, in three-and-a-half hours, but it took him six match points and a couple shakes of his head after Gonzalez blasted another improbable winner.

Ferrero was upset after the Gonzalez match because he felt he let his nerves get to his much of the day. But when a guy is bombing 110-mph forehands at you, all you can do is hang tough and try to trip him up when you can. That's what Ferrero did.

In the match's brilliantly played final game, Gonzalez slammed winners at him, including one laser shot down the line on match point off a huge Ferrero serve that Ferrero could only stare at. On his final match point, Ferrero changed tactics and threw kicked a wicked second serve into Gonzalez's backhand that the Chilean couldn't handle.

The normally reserved Ferrero then pumped his fists toward his family and walked around the court saluting the crowd, something you almost never see from the ice-like Spaniard. But it was his sister Ana's birthday and he had promised her a present. Most of the world would be stunned to know this, but Ferrero is only one of five men to reach the Roland Garros semifinals four years in a row. That heady group includes Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl and Jim Courier.

On Thursday, we will see if the matador has the nerve to slay the bull. In last year's final, Ferrero was troubled a sore ankle and was besotted with nerves for the first two sets, while Costa was rock solid and triumphed in four sets.

"This year I think I'm fit and capable of fighting throughout the match," the 23-year-old Ferrero said with a deadpan stare.

The 27-year-old Costa, a father of two twin toddlers, is a little more lighthearted, joking that if he happens to lose the first two sets again, maybe he'll go to the net and, acting like "now I've got you."

"Well, it could be nice, but it's little dangerous," he laughed.

What will be nice is the spectacle. What will be the dangerous is the man who smashes his way into the final.