Verkerk Still a Dutch Threat

On Tuesday, Martin Verkerk will be back home in the Netherlands, playing tennis for his club team, hoping to help it advance to the league finals. But first Verkerk has something else to do.

Win the French Open.

Verkerk, playing in wide-eyed amazement while serving aces on the red clay and making volleys he couldn’t dream of a year ago, upset seventh-seeded Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (0), in a semifinal Friday at Roland Garros.

In the final on Sunday, Verkerk will get one more chance at a higher-ranked, more natural clay-court player when he meets third-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain. Ferrero ended the marathon tournament of defending champion and countryman Albert Costa with a workmanlike 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-4 win.

Costa, seeded ninth, had played four five-set matches in the tournament and was sluggish from the outset of his match against Ferrero.

“It’s the end of the marathon,” Costa said. “Sometimes you have to be realistic. Juan Carlos played a fabulous match, but I fought on every point until the end.”

Coming into the semifinals, Costa had played 227 games and spent 18 hours 32 minutes on the court. Playing in a three-set, 2-hour 44-minute match seemed almost like a day off. “During the match I was feeling good,” Costa said. “Maybe at the end I was a little tired.”

Most of the day’s drama was in the first match.

Verkerk, 24, who said he has twice come close to quitting tennis, served 19 aces in the three sets and kept the speedy Coria off balance and out of sorts.

On the final point of the first-set tiebreak, Coria, 21, threw his racket in a vain and angry attempt to touch Verkerk’s set-winning shot. Instead, the racket grazed the arm of a ball girl who was standing more than 20 feet away.

Though rules allow for disqualification from the tournament for such behavior, a repentant Coria was allowed to finish the match because the young girl said she was not hurt. Coria was fined $2,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“If you throw a racket in a ball kid’s face,” Verkerk said, “normally it’s over. But on this occasion, a semifinal, he’s a nice guy, he said sorry, I don’t think he should be disqualified.”

Coria appeared horrified when he saw where his racket landed. He put his hands together in apology, then took off his shirt and gave it to the ball girl.

“It just flew out of my hands,” Coria said afterward. “The fact is, I never intended to do any harm. I apologized. I didn’t really try to kill her. I didn’t intend to do any harm when I threw the racquet. I felt very badly for the next few points. Perhaps that is why I lost the second set.”

Or perhaps it is because Verkerk is riding the wave of his great serving. In his quarterfinal upset of Carlos Moya, Verkerk knocked in 27 aces.

“This is actually a little bit of a joke,” said the disbelieving Verkerk, who is playing in only his third Grand Slam tournament. Until 12 days ago, he had never won a match at a major championship.

Ferrero, who has a 27-2 record on clay this year, will be playing in his second consecutive French Open final. When he was 12, Ferrero said, he came to Roland Garros as a fan.

“From then,” he said, “I’ve always wanted to win here. It’s one of my dreams, my ambition.”

In the 2002 final against Costa, Ferrero was bothered by a bad ankle. Friday he was healthy and determined. “I know,” he said, “that I played better from a mental standpoint.”

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Head-to-Head

*--* Juan Carlos Ferrero (3) vs. Martin Verkerk Ferrero leads, 1-0 French Open final Sunday, 6 a.m., Ch. 4 2002 Kitzbuhel event, R16, Ferrero, 7-5, 6-2

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