Verkerk's tall story heightens hope in the Low Countries

The Low Countries are flying high at Roland Garros, what with the all-Belgian women's final and a giant Dutchman who has blown a gust of fresh air into the men's game. This afternoon will be the realisation of what Martin Verkerk calls "a dream which is actually a little bit of a joke", a men's final against the favourite and last year's runner-up, Juan Carlos Ferrero.

The 6ft 3in Verkerk will stride into the Philippe Chatrier Stadium on a torrent of firsts - the first player from Holland to reach a French Open final, the first unseeded finalist here since Andrei Medvedev lost to Andre Agassi in 1999, and all of this in his first visit to Paris.

Ferrero is in deadly form on clay. This year he has won 27 and lost only two on the surface, picked up titles at Monte Carlo and Valencia, and been a semi-finalist in Barcelona and Rome. On three previous appearances at the French, Ferrero was twice a semi-finalist and a subdued runner-up last year, when he was accused of playing poorly but was in fact struggling on the quiet with a damaged ankle in which he had 45 injections during the fortnight.

Now, he says, he is fit and, like Verkerk, in pursuit of a dream. In Ferrero's case, it is more than a dream. "I first came to Roland Garros when I was 12 years old," he said on Friday after defeating Albert Costa, the compatriot who beat him in the 2002 final. "I've always wanted to win here. It's one of my dreams, my ambitions. It's not an obsession as such, but it is one of my goals and aspirations."

Whether that aspiration will see fulfilment depends less on whether Ferrero plays his normal, near-unbeatable game on clay than on whether Verkerk can once more lift himself into the tennis stratosphere and destroy the 23-year-old Spaniard with a searing serve which has thundered down 112 aces in six matches.

Such is not a tactic which normally guarantees success on clay, though it might produce some interesting results when Verkerk takes his first tilt at Wimbledon in a fortnight. "My problem will be in trying to return," Ferrero admitted. The philosophy of the big man from Leiderdorp is: "I prefer just to hit the ball and let the other guy run". This tactic has already seen off two clay kings, Carlos Moya and Guillermo Coria.

The prospect of beating Moya in the quarter-finals brought this comment: "I would have said, OK, let's take a lot of beers and then I'll probably believe you. One year ago, I had difficulty with volleys, I had difficulty running, I had a weak forehand. I had, actually, only a backhand and a serve."

But this amiable giant, who lays his extrovert personality on the line every time he goes on court, has become a favourite with the fickle Paris crowd and, should they opt to take his cause to their hearts today, Verkerk could become the Dutch hero who rivals his idol, Richard Krajicek, as a Grand Slam champion.