Love Helps in Tennis--if You’re in Paris

Andrei Medvedev posed a question for the questioners, and it had nothing to do with his amazing achievement, reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal, as the world’s 100th-ranked player.

He had been getting phone calls about reports of his upcoming wedding to tennis player Anke Huber of Germany. But there was one small problem. . . .

“I have a question for you guys,” he said, smiling. “It seems like everybody else is worried about my wedding except me and Anke. I just want to make it clear. When is it? We don’t know. We should be prepared, no?”

Almost everyone in the room laughed, and no one was asking about his 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over eighth-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil at the French Open on Wednesday. The 24-year-old from Ukraine had pulled off the first major upset here by taking out Pete Sampras in the second round, and now he had eliminated the best clay-court player this year, Kuerten.

Instead, the postmatch session turned into the Medvedev comedy hour. Which led to another question: Where has this guy been since he was No. 4 in the world in 1994?

The explanation is rather long: broken left wrist at the 1995 Australian Open against Michael Chang in the quarterfinals; back and shoulder injuries in 1996; laser eye surgery in November 1998 and again in March.

Now he’ll be playing unseeded Fernando Meligeni of Brazil in the semifinals. Meligeni upset sixth-seeded Alex Corretja of Spain, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0.

What turned it all around for Medvedev was getting back together with Huber--they’ve had a tumultuous relationship--and they watched tennis on TV together.

He told his friends he was ready for the French Open.

“It doesn’t matter that I have played a match in one month,” he said. “It doesn’t matter that I have not won two matches in a row since October last year. I know watching them [the other players] on TV, I could beat them. It’s not an arrogant answer, it’s just the reality.”

Medvedev is happy and doesn’t mind that the world knows it.

“I feel back in love twice, once with tennis, once with the girl,” he said. “I am so happy. I don’t think anyone in the world is as happy as me.”

And he knows the other side too.

“Imagine a miserable playing guy and a happy playing guy, who do you think is going to win?” he said. “Not to say I wasn’t happy before, but there is sort of a feeling of total happiness and part happiness. I’m sure you are all human, you know what I mean.

“When there is love, you’re inspired. You can write poems, you can write music, you can play good tennis. You write good articles.”

Part of Medvedev’s plan was to remain anonymous. The second-round victory over Sampras nearly blew his cover.

But Medvedev had a strategy: He decided to be boring in the postmatch news conference.

“I was trying to give all the headlines to somebody else,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to sound like a hero. I would like to play down the fact I beat him. Of course, I could give you the standard answers when somebody beats a great player. You would write them as usual the next day. But I’d rather give you something cold, so nobody would notice the defeat. I think I succeeded in that.

“When Pete lost, I saw maybe one article mentioning my name and that was fine with me.”

Now, he could cut loose and fire off one-liners at will.

“Beating Pete, doesn’t matter if it’s on clay or mud or water, it doesn’t matter,” he said. You beat him in backgammon, you feel good.”

Among the final four men, No. 13 Andre Agassi is the only seeded player. Meligeni defeated Corretja in 1 hour 25 minutes. The outcome, really, was no surprise because Corretja, a finalist last year, has been in a weakened state, suffering from an allergic reaction and virus.

Nevertheless, he was distraught.

“When you are here in the quarterfinals, and you cannot move at all, it’s a tough situation to handle and it’s difficult to swallow,” said Corretja, who did not have a single break point.

“But what can I do right now? I would say it’s one of the worst defeats of my career.”

*

Defending Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna departed Court Central in a wheelchair, the victim of a strange mishap in her quarterfinal doubles match against Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce.

In the sixth game of the first set, Novotna went chasing after an overhead from Pierce and crashed into her doubles partner, Natasha Zvereva, twisting her right ankle.

She retired from the match and was taken to a nearby hospital for X-rays, and there was no fracture, according to the tournament doctor. She will have a scan today to assess any ligament damage.

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Today’s Women’s Semifinals

* Martina Hingis (1) vs. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (7)

* Monica Seles (3) vs. Steffi Graf (6)