Rafter Sweeps Krajicek

Patrick Rafter became the first player in 10 years to win the du Maurier Open without losing a set when he beat Richard Krajicek, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, Sunday at Toronto.

The 25-year-old Australian had a clean slate in five matches, matching Ivan Lendl’s feat accomplished in 1988.

Krajicek, who had victories in six of seven matches against Rafter entering the final, had lived by the serve and volley in his previous matches against Rafter. Krajicek entered the final leading the entire du Maurier field with 64 aces but was limited to dealing 10 to Rafter, putting only 59% of first serves in play.

“I couldn’t punish him on my serve,” Krajicek said. “That’s a shame.”

Both players held serve their first six times in the first set, setting up the tiebreaker, where Krajicek began to struggle. Rafter scored minibreaks all three times Krajicek missed his first serve to take the tiebreaker at 7-3.

The Dutchman also struggled on his groundstrokes. His weak backhand seldom cleared the net and his forehand, usually a terror to opposing players, faded as well.

“He really destroys me a lot with that forehand and the times that I did go there I got lucky on them,” Rafter said. “I went there at the right times.”

Said Krajicek: “I count on my forehand more and it really let me down.”

Krajicek broke Rafter to go up 3-1 in the second set, but he lost his serve the very next game with two consecutive double faults that gave Rafter a break.

At Amsterdam, Netherlands, Sweden’s Magnus Norman beat Australia’s Richard Fromberg, 6-3, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, to win the Grolsch Open ATP clay-court tournament.

Only in the third set did Norman show signs of the heat exhaustion for which he received courtside treatment during Saturday’s semifinal win.

“Maybe I’m the only one here who wants bad weather,” Norman said, “but I was glad it wasn’t as hot today as yesterday.”

At Wellesley, Mass., Andres Gomez won his first senior tournament of the season by defeating Henri Leconte, 7-5, 4-6, 10-3, in the final of the Sprint PCS Champions.