Saturday, August 10, 2002
Czech mates advance to doubles semifinals
Damm and Suk stun No. 1 duo
By Michael Perry, mperry@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — Martin Damm was part of last year's runner-up doubles team in Cincinnati's Masters Series event. Cyril Suk was part of the runner-up team here in 1996.
Now, they are playing together. And after upsetting No.1 seeds Daniel Nestor and Mark Knowles 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 Friday, the natives of the Czech Republic have advanced to the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters.
“It's always a tough match against those guys,” Damm said. “They're the best team so far this year on the Tour. We beat them earlier this year in Rome, so we kind of knew some tactics. We just kept the same strategy and tried to do our thing, and it paid off.”
Suk played in Cincinnati with Sandon Stolle in '96; Damm played with David Prinosil last year (those two split in March; Prinosil lost in the second round this week with David Rikl).
Suk, 35, and Damm, 30, have partnered a couple times a year over the past decade, but they have been playing together weekly since April.
“It's not a rule that you have to play with a fellow countryman,” Damm said. “There are so many guys on the Tour. We know each other very well, but it also depends how your style fits with the other guy's style.“
Damm and Suk, seeded fifth this week, won the Tennis Masters Series Rome title and were quarterfinalists at the French Open. They say they will play together the rest of 2002, then decide whether to continue as a doubles team.
“We're having fun together, and we kind of can back up each other if someone is not doing well,” Suk said. “The other guy steps up his game and tries to encourage the other guy to play well. We keep a good spirit on the court, which means if you're not doing well, you know you're partner is trying to help you out.”
Damm and Suk play James Blake and Todd Martin in one of today's semifinals. The other semifinal is Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi, the No.3 seeds, against Jiri Novak and Radek Stepanek.
“We're playing at this high level with those top teams, so I think everyone has an equal chance,” Suk said.
PAGING PATRICK: Lleyton Hewitt is just like everyone else — he has no idea whether fellow Aussie Patrick Rafter will return to the ATP Tour.
Rafter has taken off the 2002 season, kind of a trial retirement. He and girlfriend Lara Feltham had a son (Joshua Patrick Rafter) Aug.1 in Australia.
“I think it's gonna just come down to if he wants to pick up a racket,” said Hewitt, the world's No.1-ranked player. “He hasn't picked up a racket since the Davis Cup final (Dec.2), so it's obviously going to take him a couple of months to get in shape and get on the court training. Your guess is as good as mine whether we're going to see him back or not.”
SPEAKING OF ABSENTEES: Brad Gilbert, Cincinnati's 1989 champion, turned 41 on Friday and for the first time since 1990, he didn't celebrate his birthday in Cincinnati. Gilbert came here the past eight years as Andre Agassi's coach; Agassi now works with Darren Cahill.
“It'll be weird,” Gilbert said from his home in California. “I'm usually working on my birthday, and I'm always in Cincinnati. It wasn't a bad thing. I usually had my kids with me, and we'd go to the (Beach) waterpark or the (Paramount's Kings Island) amusement park.”
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Czech mates advance to doubles semifinals
