Second Finals Slot Still Up In The Air by Steve Dorsey

from yellowtennisball.com

By STEVE DORSEY

One spot has been filled for the championship match of the ATP Champions Tour tournament at the Delray Beach Stadium and Tennis Center.

Australian Mark Philippoussis earned a berth in Tuesday night’s final when he defeated Mikael Pernfors of Sweden 6-2, 6-2 Sunday afternoon to clinch first place in his pool. His opponent from the other four-player pool will not be known until the final match of play in the other pool, which will be played Monday night between Aaron Krickstein and John McEnroe.

McEnroe rallied after losing the first set to defeat Todd Martin 3-6, 6-3 (12-10) in Sunday evening’s nightcap match, which took about 3 1/2 hours to finish because of two rain delays during the tiebreak.

“You don’t want to stop and start too much, especially at our age,” McEnroe said after the match. “But it was kind of a war of attrition in the end, and for the 10 people that waited two hours and stayed out to watch us, I want to say thank you, including my wife and kids.”

Like Krickstein, McEnroe is 2-0 in pool play going into Sunday’s match to determine Philippoussis’ opponent in the final.

“Aaron lives nearby, so obviously he’s going to have alot of support and he’s going to bring a bunch of people from his club to watch him play,” McEnroe said of Sunday’s showdown against Krickstein. “But I feel like if I play well, then I like my chances, but I just need to recover well now. I’d like to win the event. That’d be nice.But we’ll see. I feel like I played better today than yesterday, so the trend is going in the right direction.”

It’s the first time that Philippoussis, a two-time Grand Slam runner-up during his ATP career, will play in a Champions Tour final.

“It’s lucky how things work out, especially in the round-robin format, so I feel I’m a bit fortunate to go through,” Phillippoussis said. “But I’m excited to play on Tuesday. I’m looking forward to having a day off (Monday) and preparing to be in my best shape for Tuesday night, whoever I play.”

Phillippoussis earned a berth in the finals with back-to-back wins after losing his first match Friday night. He regrouped, however, and beat Mats Wilander on Saturday and dispatched of Pernfors on Sunday.

“The first match I played this week, I didn’t play the game I should have played. I was a little disappointed with myself and frustrated, but I really turned it around (Saturday) and I tried to be more aggressive and go for my serves and chip and charge when I have to.”

Phillippoussis, at 34 the youngest player in the eight-player event, credited his turnaround after Friday night’s loss to taking a more positive approach toward his game.

“I felt I played a little negative on Friday night, and (Saturday) I got my timing alot better. Once I got my feet going today, it was alot better, because I was a bit sluggish in getting my feet going at the start.”

Phillippoussis said the key for him is to keep his focus on his game’s strength, which is coming to the net and being aggressive.

“For me, I’ve always said that these matches are a steppingstone to try and get my body stronger and my game stronger,” he said. “So that’s why, win or lose, I just want to do the right thing and play the right way. I was happy with the way I played (Sunday).”

Krickstein defeated Jay Berger 7-5, 6-3 and can earn the other spot opposite Philippoussis in the final if he beats John McEnroe on Monday night. Krickstein never beat McEnroe when they played on the ATP World Tour but has been more successful against McEnroe in Champions Tour matches, but they have not played against each other since late 2009.
“I think we match up fairly evenly at this point,” Krickstein said.

Berger was a late replacement for Jimmy Arias, who sustained a thigh injury in his first match Friday and had to withdraw from the tournament on Saturday. Berger, who lives and teaches tennis in South Florida, accepted the invitation to replace Arias even though he has not played much competitive tennis for quite some time. He said the best part of about having the opportunity to play competitive tennis again was that his four children, one of whom had been born 20 years ago, had the chance to see him compete.
“It’s been 20 years since I played in front of people,” Berger said. “I absolutely could not have had a better time. It’s good to know I can still play. It’s an honor to play against these players on the Champions Tour. I got an absolute kick out of it.”

Wilander won the other Champions Tour match with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Pat Cash.

“I thought I played pretty clean,” said Wilander, who stopped by the South African Airways booth outside the stadium court to sign autographs for fans following his match. “I served pretty well today and hit my spots. I had very few unforced errors.”

The four remaining spots in the ITC’s main draw will be determined Monday after the final qualifying matches. Both of the top two seeds remain in contention as No. 1 seed Blaz Kavcic of Slovakia and No. 2 seed Igor Kunitsyn of Russia won their matches Saturday by nearly identical scores. Kavcic defeated American Rajeev Ram 6-4, 6-3, while Kunitsyn advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Matthew Ebden of Australia.

Americans Ryan Sweeting and Donald Young also need only one more victory to earn a spot in the main draw. Sweeting, the No. 5 seed in the qualifying draw, ousted fellow American and rising star Jack Sock rather handily, 6-4, 6-0. Young, the No. 8 qualifying seed, beat Dominican Victor Estrella 6-3, 6-4.

The final qualifying singles matches will begin Sunday at 11 a.m., and all will be contested on Court 1.

First-round ITC singles matches will begin Monday, with American Sam Querry, the No. 3 seed, facing Dustin Brown of Germany in the opening match, scheduled to begin not before 2:30 p.m.