January 16, 2025
Official Auckland site

Second seed Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic was complimentary about the man who eliminated him in the semifinal of the Heineken Open in Auckland - Rafael Nadal of Spain.

The young left-handed Spaniard had spanked the former champion 6-1 6-3, and the list of players to humiliate the big Czech is a very short one, more or less a list of marquis players only.

Novak's praise concurred. "This is the first time that I have played him, but I think it is obvious that he will become one of the best players in the world."

Nadal expects a lot from himself, and was not claiming this as a big win. "I think I played better against Schalken (round one, 7-6 6-4), but I think Schalken played better than Novak."

"Novak didn't play well, but I played a very good match. Novak looked a bit tired to me. He didn't look so sharp," he said.

"I tried to be aggressive and dominate the rallies. I started a bit slow, a bit defensive in the first game. At the beginning, I was probably a little bit tired but I loosened up a bit.

Nadal's previous best result was on clay at Umag where he reached the semis.

"I'm very happy to be in my first final. It's a very good tournament, the best week of my career so far."

Novak is known as a tough man in three sets, never beaten just because he loses the first set. His intelligence often allows him to find vulnerabilities, but the teenager had none.

"He was playing today very well and he was dominating on the court form the beginning of the match. I didn't get my rhythm, it was pretty windy today. I wasn't playing that good like a few days ago against the other top opponents.

"I was trying to come to the net a couple of times, but he was everywhere, running very fast. He was playing very fast and I was pretty late on each ball. He was just better. He did surprise me, because I just saw him for the first time. He is the new future generation. He is about 12 years younger than me. I think he is going to be one of the best players in the world," said Novak.

Nadal will be a name to watch in Melbourne, irrespective of today's result, and retailers would be wise to stock up on muscle-shirts and silver shoes.

Before the other semifinal could be played, Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia had to clean up Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, eventually winning 6-1 3-6 6-3. The young qualifier had done well to take the match into a third set the night before, but Hrbaty had too much game in the end and booked his expected place in the semis against Gustavo Kuerten.

In that semifinal, he gained a sweet revenge on the Brazilian, the man who had beaten him in last year's final. Hrbaty, coming off a tournament win in Adelaide, is second in the 2004 race and one of the world's top players right now, at the very top of his game.

It showed as he took Kuerten down in straight sets, 6-3 6-2. The Brazilian could not deal with Hrbaty's urgency and depth, and ended up out looking out of sorts as the Slovak's domination increased.

"It was a very nice match for me, especially after I lost to him the last two times. I played well today, especially from the baseline. I hit a couple of good shots, I saved a couple of break points which was very important.

I worked very hard during the month off. I was doing a lot of tennis, about five hours a day and a lot of physical workout. It's probably paid off in the beginning of the year," said Hrbaty.

He will need to be at the top of his game to win the title he first took home in 2001. Nadal, 17 could equal Bjorn Borg as the youngest player to win the singles title in Auckland (Borg won in 1974).

For defending champ and third seed Gustavo Kuerten the loss was sad but gave him some heart for the Australian Open starting on Monday.

"I'd like to have had a different result of the match but I think he played a great game and is coming off with a lot of confidence. I think we played points which were very close. If I had made three of the 10-12 break points, the match would have been much different. I am not worrying about the way I played, because I still played well. I didn't win the points I needed to."

"I'm feeling very well. I think I'm hitting the ball great. This week has still been a big week for me to adapt from the off-season and I feel comfortable going to Australia. I'll do my best to do good preparation there and have a good Australian Open," said Kuerten.