Who’s No. 1? Blame It on Rios

The French Open was supposed to be where Marcelo Rios of Chile put to rest the questions about his worthiness to be No. 1 in the world.

But instead of winning his first Grand Slam title and supplanting Pete Sampras at No. 1, Rios will leave Paris with all the other quarterfinal losers. And the questions as to whether he can win a major event remain.

After surviving a four-set match against one member of the formidable Spanish Armada in the fourth round, the third-seeded Rios went down Tuesday against another Spaniard, losing to 12th-seeded Carlos Moya, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Rios, who was No. 1 for four weeks earlier this year, never looked quite right in his four-set win over Albert Costa and he lost the first set to Moya in 22 minutes.

“With Costa, that was the first [tough] one,” said Rios, who lost to Petr Korda in the Australian Open final this year. “I think that one killed me a little bit for today.”

Rios also made something of a rookie mistake in the ninth game of the final set, not playing a shot because he thought Moya got the ball on the second bounce. It was ruled he got it on the first.

“My feeling was it was one bounce,” Moya said. “But he had the point very easy. He just had to put the racket out like this, and it was point for him.”

One game later, Moya pulled off the victory, though Rios made him squirm, fighting off three match points. On the fourth, Rios tried for a backhand passing shot but hit it into the net.

The 21-year-old Moya, who lost to Pete Sampras in the 1997 Australian final, will play his close friend and countryman Felix Mantilla in the semifinals. Mantilla, seeded 15th, defeated former champion Thomas Muster of Austria, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, in another quarterfinal.

Moya was ambivalent at the prospect of playing Mantilla.

“I just talked to him right now,” Moya said. “We’re going to be friends until Friday. Friday, when we get to the court, I will want to kill him.

“On the court, of course, not off the court.”

*

File this under men behaving badly.

Gustavo Kuerten, last year’s champion, was defaulted with partner Fernando Meligeni from his quarterfinal doubles match against Patrick Rafter and Jonas Bjorkman.

At the end of a first-set tiebreaker, which he and Meligeni lost, Kuerten threw his racket in the direction of chair umpire Bruno Rebeuh. The racket nearly hit Rebeuh and landed in the crowd, according to tournament referee Gilbert Ysern.

Kuerten, who lost in the third round of singles, will forfeit his tournament earnings, about $40,000.

“It was an obvious default situation,” Ysern said. “. . . It [the racket] traveled in the air quickly.

“I didn’t see it personally, but that’s what I was reported. It was very fast and very dangerous, obviously. That’s why I say it was a clear default situation.”

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