BY DAVE SCHUTTE
Enquirer contributor
Olivier Delaitre and Fabrice Santoro await a return from Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
(Ernest Coleman photo)
| ZOOM |
|
MASON -- If Olivier Delaitre and Fabrice Santoro win the Great American Insurance ATP doubles championship today, it will be a notable and unexpected accomplishment.
Less than 15 minutes before the start of Saturday's semifinal doubles match against Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Daniel Vacek, Santoro was in the trainer's room, ready to default.
"Fabrice woke up with this morning with a stiff and sore neck," ATP Tour Trainer Doug Spreen said. "We worked on him for several hours and about 10 minutes before the match, he was comfortable enough to play."
Santoro and Delaitre went on to pull off another upset, knocking off the last remaining seeded team (No. 5) of Kafelnikov-Vacek, 6-2, 6-2, in a match that took only 54 minutes to complete.
They will face Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, who defeated David Roditi-Michael Tebbutt 6-3, 7-5 in the other semifinal match. If Santoro had defaulted, Vince Spadea and ESPN announcer Patrick McEnroe were set to play an exhibition singles match to entertain the fans.
Besides taking medication, Santoro was also assisted by a chiropractor (Dr. Michael Rohlfs) and physician Dr. Steve Daly, who administered medication to relax the body.
Santoro and Delaitre will play the winner of the match between David Roditi - Michael Tebbutt and Mark Knowles - Daniel Nestor for the title today, immediately following the championship singles match between Patrick Rafter and Pete Sampras or Magnus Larsson.
Coming into the tournament, Santoro and Delaitre were 29-17 in doubles since 1991. Two weeks ago, they won the championship in Stuttgart, Germany.
"I'm only playing doubles to improve at singles," said the No. 29 ranked Santoro, who lost in a first round singles match to Todd Martin.
En route to today's championship match, Santoro and Delaitre knocked off three seeded teams, including the defending champions, Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, (6-7, 6-1, 7-5) on Friday.
"We played poorly together early in the year," the 31-year-old Delaitre said. "It started to come together about a month ago, and we then won at Stuttgart, which was a confidence builder."
Neither Delaitre or Santoro have overpowering strokes. Instead, they rely on keeping the ball in play along with finesse shots.
ATP PAGE
