by Araz Gulekjian
25 May 2004

Embattled defending champion Juan-Carlos Ferrero (No4) needed the help of painkillers to withstand a stiff challenge from Germany’s Tommy Haas and move into the second round.

The courageous Spaniard, who has been nursing a rib injury for weeks, recovered from a set down to oust Haas 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-2.

“A half an hour before the match, I took some painkillers. I’m just starting to feel the pain again now,” said Ferrero, who has never fared worse than the semi finals in four previous trips here.

The 24-year-old was clearly hampered by the injury though, uncommonly inconsistent and never able to deploy his explosive clay-court game.
Haas, who was competing in his first Roland Garros after being sidelined throughout the 2003 season with a right shoulder injury, broke once in the seventh game to earn the first set.

But Ferrero began to find his range in the second and began to claw his way back into the match.

The titleholder then grew in confidence and broke down the resistance of his opponent in the next two sets to secure victory.

“I started to feel better and better in the second set. Physically, I felt tired in the third set but I was trying not to think about it.”

Ferrero said his injury had no impact on his ground strokes and that it only affected his delivery.

“The backhand and forehand were perfect. It’s only during the serve I felt the pain,” said Ferrero, who only took the decision to participate after practice on Monday.

“There was no risk,” the Spaniard admitted. “Two years ago, I took some risk with my ankle, but this time there was no risk. That’s why I took a decision to play.”

The former world number one has missed a month of the season with chickenpox, and lost in the first round as defending champion at Monte Carlo, before bruising his ribs in a fall on 8 May while practising in Spain.

With only five wins on clay – and two losses – his 2004 record pales in comparison to his 21-2 win-loss ratio last year.

Asked about his chances to repeat, Ferrero responded cautiously: “I have to go day by day. We will see how I feel in two days.”

The fourth seed is now slated to face Russian Igor Andreev, an easy victor over Czech Jan Vacek 6-3 6-1 6-4.