Australia to face Russia in tennis final  Dusseldorf May 25 2001

Australia was beaten 2-1 by Germany in the final series of round-robin matches at the World Team Cup today, but still advanced to the final against Russia.

Nicolas Kiefer rallied to defeat Pat Rafter 1-6 6-2 6-4 and Tommy Haas then outlasted Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 6-3 to give Germany a clean sweep of the singles.

But a 6-3 6-2 win by Rafter and Wayne Arthurs over Haas and David Prinosil allowed Australia to top its group.

Spain also had an opportunity to reach the final, but after Alex Corretja had overwhelmed Magnus Norman 6-0 6-4, Thomas Enqvist levelled the tie by edging Juan Balcells 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.

In the doubles, Corretja and Alex Lopez Moron combined to defeat Jonas Bjorkman and Nicklas Kulti 6-3 6-3 to deny Germany a place in the final.

Kiefer, who had lost his two previous matches this week, made a miserable start against Rafter, losing his serve in the opening game.

The Australian then consolidated his advantage by holding his first two service games with an ace, before breaking Kiefer again for 4-1 and the set.

Kiefer responded by attacking Rafter's serve more effectively in the second set, with two winning returns helping him break to lead 1-0.

He then broke for 3-0 with a backhand volley after stretching Rafter with another fine return, and although he was broken after holding a point for 4-0, a double-fault gave him a 5-2 lead and left him serving for the set.

The final set was decided by a single break of serve in the ninth game, achieved with a spectacular running forehand down the line.

"I wanted to fight today and give everything, and that unbelievable ball for 5-4 in the third set was the icing on the cake," said Kiefer.

"I didn't start well but found my rhythm in the second set, and suddenly I achieved one break after another."

Rafter was disappointed that he was unable to maintain his momentum of the first set, and admitted he had opened the door for his opponent.

"I was hitting the ball well but went walkabout a little bit and let him back into the match," Rafter said. "When you let someone in you give them confidence. When you've got someone down like that, you keep them down. You never want to go to a third set and give someone a good momentum."

The World Team Cup consists of two groups of four teams. The teams in each group play each other on a round-robin basis, with each tie consisting of two singles matches and a doubles. The winning team from each group advanced to Saturday's final to compete for the $US500,000 ($A972,000) first prize.


Germans upset Australia's Rafter, Hewitt at Team Cup
May 25, 2001

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) -- Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt, Australia's pair of top-10 players, lost Friday as Germany kept alive its hopes of reaching the final at the World Team Cup.

Nicolas Kiefer came back to beat two-time U.S. Open champion Rafter 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, and Tommy Haas outlasted Hewitt 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 with 8,400 partisan fans roaring on every shot by the Germans.

``If you got someone down, you keep them down, otherwise you just give them confidence,'' Rafter said.

``I'm not sure why I relaxed.''

The Team Cup -- a clay-court tuneup for the French Open, which begins Monday -- has lured 12 of the world's top 15 players, representing their countries.

The singles wins gave a Germany a 2-0 lead against Australia, with the doubles match remaining in the best-of-three encounter. The winner of the doubles would win the Blue Group in the round-robin tournament and advance to Saturday's final against Red Group winner Russia.

Kiefer has now beaten Rafter four times in five meetings.

Rafter admitted he can't harbor high hopes of winning the French Open because the slow red clay doesn't favor power servers such as himself and Pete Sampras.

``I'll go out there and give my best,'' Rafter said, ``but realistically I'm preparing for Wimbledon.''

Spain and Sweden, both already eliminated from reaching the World Team Cup final, split their singles matches Friday.

Spain's Alex Corretja beat 2000 French Open runner-up Magnus Norman 6-0, 6-4, before Sweden's Thomas Enqvist got past Juan Balcells 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

It was the second straight match that

Norman, who admits he lacks confidence after a rocky year, has lost consecutive one-sided matches at the $2.1 million event.

``I'll go into Paris as the underdog this year,'' the Swede said.
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