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Tennis
Crowning glory for Guillermo Canas
By Nirmal Shekar
Argentine Guillermo Canas, who won the Tata open tennis tournament in Chennai on Sunday. - Photo: S. Mahinsha
CHENNAI, JAN. 6. He is no superstar. Even in downtown Buenos Aires, it is unlikely that his presence would create a traffic jam. Perhaps he may not even be mobbed on the pavements in the busiest parts of the Argentine capital where, right now, people are more concerned about the alarming dilution of their wealth with the economy in a shambles.
And then, maybe Guillermo Canas will never be a superstar, either at home, in a nation of football crazy sports fans, or anywhere else where tennis is played.
But this much is sure: the 24-year old from Buenos Aires is one of the most determined and talented champions we've seen in the Chennai ATP Tour event over six years. And superstar or not, he has done what many a much-hyped visiting megastar failed to in this city.
Playing each point as if his life depended on it, Canas outlasted a spirited and brilliant yet erratic Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand 6-4, 7-6(2) in an hour and 46 minutes to become the first Tata Open champion at the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium on Sunday.
Canas is the first top seed since Pat Rafter in 1998 to win the Chennai event and he did it in front of the biggest crowd of the championship on a lovely evening when there were hardly any seats in the stands that were not taken.
``This has been a good week for me and a very good start to the year. I fought well and things worked out well for me. I hope to come back and defend my title here next year,'' said Canas who was richer by $51,500.
That kind of money would go a long way in Buenos Aires these days. But, for Canas, this wasn't about money at all. Having finished 2001 ranked a career high No.14, his aim is to do well in the Grand Slams this year and this was as good a preparation as he might have wanted ahead of the Australian Open which begins on January 14 in Melbourne.
The amazing aspect of Canas' success this week has been the man's consistency and his attitude on court. He has been wonderfully focussed on the job and adapting his largely baseline-based game to suit different opponents with a tactical flexibility that eludes even men more gifted than he is.
From the moment he first stepped on the centre court here for his first round match against George Bastl of Switzerland, Canas left no one in any doubt as to what he was after - the title, nothing else.
Today, the handsome Argentine was stretched now and again but never really pushed back a long way as he was last night by Karol Kucera. Srichaphan, for all his instinctive shotmaking, mever really threatened to topple the top seed.
After a nervous start - something which was to be expected as he was playing his first Tour final - Srichaphan, who beat three seeds to get to the final, did mount a challenge to which the crowd warmed up.
Hitting the ball with tremendous power and going for the lines time and again, Srichaphan did present Canas with a few problems. But the Argentine responded with the courage and skills with which champions deal with such situations.
When Canas sprinted to a 5-1 first set lead, with Srichaphan making quite a few nervous errors, it appeared that a rout was on hand. But, backed by a passionate crowd that cheered him on, the Thai rebounded superbly to make a match of it.
The turnaround came in the seventh game where Srichaphan fought off two setpoints to hold to 2-5. In the next, he played a delightful drop volley to earn himself two breakpoints. Canas sent down a double fault on the first.
What is more, the Thai staved off three more setpoints in the ninth game before Canas served out the set in the next game, one in which he hit a breathtaking forehand top spin lob.
The second set was even closer. Canas broke Srichaphan's serve in the very first game but the Thai hit three superb winners in a row, two of them on the backhand, to break back to 3-3. In the seventh game, Srichaphan saved two breakpoints before confidently holding serve the rest of the way until the tiebreak.
Then again, any hopes of a Srichaphan comeback were stamped out early in the tiebreak as Canas won the first four points. The Thai came up with the shot of the match, a forehand crosscourt winner on the run to take back one mini break but that was too little too late.
``I dedicate this victory to my country,'' said Canas. ``It is good to beat a tough opponent like Srichaphan in the final. I feel at home in Chennai, both on and off the court.''
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