Santoro Casts a Spell Over Youzhny on Day One
Dubai, UAE, March 3rd, 2008: Fabrice Santoro upset 2007 finalist Mikhail Youzhny 6-3 6-4 in the first round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships on Monday, continuing a long run of success in Dubai for the 35-year old Frenchman.
He reached the first final, in 1993, and then took the title in 2002 with a dramatic victory over Younes El Aynaoui after feeling so sick he almost defaulted the match.
“I like the place, you know. It’s the only tournament in the world I never miss, 16 years in a row. I was one of the first curious guys to come and play here in Dubai in 1993, and since that year I always came and always enjoy it.”
His memory fails him a little, because he was unable to play four times, but he is still the most consistent visitor to the event.
Youzhny struggled right from the start and made a succession of unforced errors that gave Santoro all the encouragement he needed. At the same time, the Frenchman tormented his opponent by slicing the ball to slow down the rallies, and by serving extremely well.
Two aces in his first service game were followed by two more in his second, and he gave up only four points on his serve in the first set.
Youzhny tried to pressure Santoro by coming more to the net in the second, and leveled at 3-3 after Santoro had broken for 3-2. But Youzhny netted a forehand on break point in the next game to give Santoro a 4-3 lead, and then failed to convert any of three break points as Santoro served for the match.
“It’s a great performance to beat Mikhail,” said Santoro. “He’s been a very consistent player in the last 12 months. He started pretty well this year again, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, winning Chennai. Obviously, beating him today is a great win for me.
“I worked a lot on my serve the last couple of days, and that was the key point of the match. I served very well so I was able to win many free points, which is very important against him. For the rest, I wanted to play many balls in the middle of the court. I didn’t want to give him any angle, so it was pretty tough on me physically because I had to run. I thought it was a good strategy.”
Youzhny was disappointed at his defeat, but said it was difficult to play well every week.
“The whole match I played not so good,” the Russian said. “I made many mistakes. It’s one of my worst matches this year. I played pretty good at the beginning of the year but I can’t play all the tournaments at the same level. Sometimes you go up and down, and for me this tournament was a little bit down.”
In another early match, Russian Igor Andreev defeated Czech qualifier Jan Minar 6-3 6-4.
