Rusedski beaten by Boutter

Ap
Saturday 03 February 2001 01:00 GMT
Comments

Unseeded Frenchman Julien Boutter earned his first ATP career final defeating Britain's Greg Rusedski 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in today's semifinals of the Milan Indoors tournament in Italy.

Unseeded Frenchman Julien Boutter earned his first ATP career final defeating Britain's Greg Rusedski 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in today's semifinals of the Milan Indoors tournament in Italy.

Boutter capitalized on his powerful serve, good volley play and precise longline shots to overcome Rusedski in one hour and 30 minutes at Palalido sports Arena.

Being big servers, both players held their serve to 6-6 in both sets.

The Frenchman won the first set tie-breaker 7-5 after blowing two set points.

He wasted two match points in the second-set tie-breaker, on 1-6. Then he served an ace for a deserved victory against the player who had stunned No.1 world player Gustavo Kuerten at the Australian Open the No.2 Marat Safin, the top seed in Milan, in Friday's quarterfinals.

In Sunday's final Boutter takes on the winner of a late semifinal between No.2 seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov and seventh-seeded Swiss Roger Federer.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in