By Chris Bowers-Tennis Radio Network
Taken from the Official TMS Monte Carlo website
21 April 2002

Carlos Moya had warned on Saturday night that when Juan Carlos Ferrero gets hot on clay he’s hard to beat, and Ferrero really turned on the heat to win the first all-Spanish final at the Tennis Masters Monte-Carlo and pick up his second Masters shield.

In a superb display of precision hitting, Ferrero beat Moya 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 to add Monte Carlo to the title he won in Rome last year. It’s his sixth ATP title in total, but more than that it denotes a powerful statement that the man from Valencia province is back in business.

Coming into this tournament Ferrero was desperately short of confidence. He’d had a poor hardcourt season and lost in the second round of his one claycourt tournament last week in Estoril.

But then he came back from match point down in the second round against his compatriot Felix Mantilla, won on a final set tiebreak, and he was back on track. He dropped just one more set after that, and while the outcome of the final was influenced in part by a worsening groin strain Moya had been carrying since his 6-1, 7-5 win over Alex Corretja, it’s hard to see who would have beaten Ferrero in this form.

The first set was very even, with Moya having the early break points. Ferrero’s first didn’t come until the 12th game, but then it was set point, and with Moya taking the pace off his hitherto dangerous groundstrokes, Ferrero seized his opportunity to take the first set.

As Moya threw down his racket in disgust, it seemed to signal the end of his chances, and when he was broken to love in the fourth game of the second set Ferrero was in the driving seat.

Moya needed treatment on his groin strain at the start of the third set, and although he went a break down, he went for broke and broke straight back. The strategy worked well until the ninth game, when Ferrero used every available angle to move Moya around the court, and broke to love. Moments later he served out the victory to love, finishing by hitting an unreturnable second serve.

“I think I played a perfect game,” said Ferrero. “I did everything that I wanted to do, so I’m really happy.”

Moya, who thanked the medical services for getting him fit to play, said he might not have won even if he had been fit. “Ferrero has beaten me the last five times, and four of them I was 100 per cent, but really I wanted to cry on court because I have been looking forward to playing in a big final and there I was with an injury. But I’m happy with my week, and I hope Monte Carlo will be the start of another good run for me.”

In the past nine years, four players have used success in Monte Carlo as a springboard to winning the French Open, including Moya in 1998. Ferrero has lost in the semi-finals at Roland Garros in the past two years, but with Gustavo Kuerten still not back on court after hip surgery (he’s due back in Mallorca in a week’s time), Ferrero looks well placed to become the fifth Monte Carlo champion in 10 years to triumph in Paris.

Fittingly, the first Masters Series doubles tournament to feature Match Tie-breaks was decided on one. Todd Woodbridge and Jonas Bjorkman defended their title by beating Paul Haarhuis and Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-3, 3-6, 10-7. Both Woodbridge and Bjorkman are outspoken critics of the Match Tiebreak system, but they picked up their fifth title together by winning three successive matches on the first-to-ten-points formula.