Corretja sustains spainish dominance

Corretja sustains spainish dominance

Gstaad (Switzerland), July 17: Top seed Alex Corretja continued the Spanish tennis Armada's domination on the high-altitude clay of the Alps, winning a second career title on Monday at the $<\!q>600,000 UBS Swiss Open.

Corretja can now travel home for this week-end's Davis Cup semi-final date with the United States confident of his form after posting a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Argentine Mariano Puerta.

The final was played one day late following a week of rain at this VIP village, where the clay on sunny days plays as fast as a hardcourt.

Corretja's victory made it nine titles here for Spaniards over the past 11 editions, including the fifth straight. Corretja got his own first title here in 1998 with a win over Boris Becker.

The delayed victory was worth the wait for Corretja, who had to get through two matches on Sunday, one over Chile's Marcelo Rios followed by a semi-final against Gaston Gaudio of Argentina.

The winners admitted he was tired: ``Fortunately I stayed alive.

``I felt great. I played perfect tennis and served great. I've now won it twice here, thank you Gastaad.''

The 26-year-old wasted little time on Monday in heading to Santander for the Friday-through-Monday clash against the US, who have trouble on European clay and will be competing without the injured pair of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.

Corretja, who won the Masters series in Indian Wells, California, in the spring, said he is feeling refreshed this season after taking a break late last year from the constant tennis grind.

``It's all in the mind. You work hard and practice all the time,'' he said, confessing the routine can sometimes become overwhelming.

``You have to eat Pasta the whole time. You get tired of that sometimes. But you have to make a lot of efforts. We are not machines, even though we play every week.''

The Spanish top seed ripped through the first set in 29 minutes with two breaks of the 20-year-old Puerta, a two-time career tournament winner.

In the second set, Corretja took a 3-1 lead on another break as his baseline attack continued to pay dividends. Puerta lost as he dropped serve in the final game after 67 minutes.

Corretja collected a prize of $<\!q>81,000 while Puerta, who had beaten the Spaniard in their only previous meeting two years ago, earned $<\!q>47,500.

Norman back atop points race
STUTTGART: Top seed Magnus Norman was heading to the 1-million-dollar Mercedes Open riding atop the tennis season points standings once again.

The 24-year-old Swede will be the man to beat at this week's clay event, where he won one of his five titles a year ago.

He is skipping Sweden's Davis Cup tie at Baastad this weekend against India, leaving duties to compatriot Andreas Vinciguerra.

Norman's campaign at the Weissenhof club begins against German wild card entry Bjorn Phau, who got his start several years ago as a member of Boris Becker's junior squad, along with Nicolas Kiefer and others.

The 2000 French Open finalist and Italian Open champion Norman Sunday triumphed over Vinciguerra to lift the trophy at the Swedish Open.

That title insured him the Number 1 spot in the week-to-week race over Gustavo Kuerten, the Roland Garros winner whose Brazil absorbed a 5-0 thrashing by Australia in the Davis Cup semi-finals on the weekend in Brisbane.

Norman will be returning to the Mercedes event with full confidence after a brief lack of success on the grass of Wimbledon with a second-round loss.

``My goal is to finish the year as No. 1,'' he said. ``I think I have a pretty good chance to do it.''

Norman, who now owns 10 career titles, is followed in the Mercedes Cup seedings by Yevgeny Kafelnikov, opening late Monday afternoon against Julian Boutter of France.

Third seed Marat Safin, the next generation of Russian tennis talent, has the opening day off, but starts with a match against Andrei Pavel of Romania.