Racquet toss mars marathon

As if a deft drop shot is not enough to contend with, Sebastien Grosjean faces another airborne object - Nicolas Kiefer's racquet - yesterday.

Photo: Vince Caligiuri

By Dan Oakes
January 26, 2006

NICOLAS Kiefer yesterday booked an Australian Open semi-final spot after defeating Sebastien Grosjean in one of the longest matches in the tournament's history. But the victory will be remembered as much for a bizarre incident late in the match as for anything else.

In the 12th game of the final set of a titanic tussle lasting four hours, 48 minutes, Kiefer played an angled drop shot, and as Grosjean stretched for it the volcanic German tossed his racquet across the Frenchman's field of view.

Grosjean fluffed his stroke and as Kiefer feigned innocence, the Frenchman asked umpire Carlos Bernades to rule there had been a hindrance. When Bernades was unwilling to do this, Grosjean called for grand slam supervisor Mike Morrissey, who sided with the umpire. Grosjean then shouted at Morrissey, "Go away! Go over there!", gesturing with racquet in the direction of the tunnel.

The rules of the game state: "If a player is hindered in playing the point by a deliberate act of the opponent(s), the player shall win the point." On those grounds, Grosjean should have been awarded the point.

Replays of the incident are inconclusive on whether Grosjean saw the racquet before he failed to make his shot, and this, plus uncertainty from Bernades on whether Kiefer meant to throw his racquet, could have made the umpire reluctant to award the point to Grosjean.

Grosjean went on the win the game, averting further unpleasantness. But it is Kiefer who will play in the semis, the first time in 35 attempts he has reached this stage of a grand slam tournament.

Kiefer had also tangled with Bernades earlier in the match, earning a code violation for time wasting. At one stage he also swore loudly at the Brazilian umpire, but was not pulled up for it. The German has already been fined a total of $6650 during the tournament for using foul language.

Kiefer said later that he was surprised he was awarded the point and that he had apologised to Grosjean, who, he said, was a friend, but he also said the incident should not overshadow his win.

"Of course everybody wants to win, it's so tight … yeah, these things are happening," Kiefer said. "I know it's not nice, I know it's not good. There's so much tension, so much is happening on the court, we fight for 4½ hours, it's so hot out there, your body is gone. These are things that are happening."

Grosjean denied Kiefer had apologised and disputed the German's claim that they were friends, saying: "Friend is a big word."

The incident overshadowed what was a most entertaining match.

It was 23 minutes short of the record set when Boris Becker beat Omar Camporese 14-12 in the fifth set in 1991.

Kiefer, 28, and Grosjean, 27, were the oldest men left in the tournament and the contest started sedately in front of a relaxed crowd, with only polite applause and the occasional call of "Allez Seb!" disturbing the silence.

The combatants were playing a chess-style game, moving each other around the court, biding their time before administering the killer blow.

Kiefer broke Grosjean in the sixth game and went on to take the first set, but the Frenchman whitewashed him in the second.

It was that sort of match: no pattern or trend, just a sequence of seemingly unrelated games, with plenty of intelligent shot making and breathtaking rallies.

Kiefer came back in the third, but it was in the fourth-set tie-breaker, won by Grosjean, that bad feeling really entered the match, with Kiefer complaining bitterly about a number of line-calls.

The final set was another seesaw affair, with four service breaks, but the famously fit Kiefer capitalised as Grosjean began to tire, and the veteran notched his 301st, and most significant, tour victory.

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