Weather Adds an Element of Suspense

A wet, nasty day ended and one balding guy named Andrei landed in the French Open final.

That’s Andrei, not Andre.

Hours after a dizzy, cramping Andrei Medvedev had won, despite the wind and rain in his face, after he had survived 85 unforced errors and reached his first French Open final, Andre Agassi’s fate still hung in the balance on Friday.

Agassi’s semifinal match against Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia was suspended because of rain and will resume today at noon. Agassi and Hrbaty were dispatched to the locker room just before the fourth game of the fourth set.

By then, they had played for more than two hours, and Hrbaty was building momentum. The 13th-seeded Agassi won the first two sets, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), before Hrbaty took advantage of a slight letdown, winning the third, 6-3. They were on serve with Hrbaty leading, 2-1, when the rain picked up and play was stopped.

Agassi is getting used to this sort of thing in Grand Slam events. Last year at the U.S. Open, his fourth-round match against Karol Kucera--another Slovakian--was stopped because of bad weather and completed the next day. Then, Agassi had the early momentum but lost in five sets when play resumed.

This time, Agassi was faltering when the rains came. Hrbaty’s supporters were energized by the third set, waving the Slovakian flag in the friends’ box. But photographers were not pointing their cameras at them. Rather they were zeroing in on the new figure in Agassi’s entourage, a blond female, sitting behind his coach, Brad Gilbert, and fitness coach Gil Reyes.

It was one of those days for entourage watchers. Medvedev’s girlfriend, tennis player Anke Huber, arrived here just in time to provide support, reminding him that he had defeated his semifinal opponent, Fernando Meligeni of Brazil, twice before.

This time, though, it was more difficult. Medvedev prevailed, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). He fought off a set point in the tiebreaker, firing a forehand winner in the corner. Finally, he won it on his first match point, stunning Meligeni with a drop shot.

“All I thought was to fight like a dog,” said Medvedev, the lowest-ranked finalist ever at the French Open, at No. 100. “And that’s what I did. If I died on the court, I wouldn’t care, really. If my heart would stop on the court, then I would be proud that I’m dead this way.”

Meligeni, who bears a resemblance to actor Jamie Farr, Cpl. Klinger of “MASH” fame, made the error-filled semifinal entertaining. He frequently played the ball off his head after points, soccer-style, and he even took a quick rest in the chair of a line judge after an exhausting point.

“I know I lost a chance to play the final here,” he said. “But I know I’m playing good tennis. I’m enjoying it a lot. I think I show for everybody who doesn’t believe in me, and for me also, watch out with Fernando. Fernando’s coming.”

But Medvedev, a Ukrainian from Kiev, has no rival in the interview room. He’d needed treatment for cramping and dizziness from trainer Doug Spreen in the third and fourth sets and Medvedev turned that into a comedy routine.

“He gave me one [pill], it didn’t work,” he said. “I said, ‘You got to give me another one.’ He said, ‘That’s a double dose.’ I said, ‘But I’m a double guy. I’m bigger than Fernando. Give me one more.’ After that one, at least the cramps were gone.

” . . . He also brought me the towel, I don’t know what it is, with the smell where you get awake, even if you are dead.”

No matter the outcome in the final, Medvedev said he is still the happiest man on earth. He has Huber by his side again, and he gave her credit for the semifinal victory.

“Even if I had lost today, or if something goes bad for me in the final and I lose, nothing will happen,” he said. “I don’t think Anke will leave me because I lost.”