from Tennis Week by Ronald Green
28 May 2004

The silhouette’s sagging shoulders told the story of the one-sided scoreline: an injured Juan Carlos Ferrero was a slumping shadow of himself today. The red clay of Roland Garros served as a burial ground for the defending champion Ferrero who fell 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 in the second round to 77th-ranked Russian Igor Andreev.

It was just the fourth time in the Open Era a defending Roland Garros champion succumbed in the second round. The last time a defending champion bowed out in the second round was in 2000 when Andre Agassi was upset by Karol Kucera, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-0.
Struggling with wrist and rib injuries that came after he contracted a case of the chicken pox that sidelined him for more than a month, Ferrero’s injuries and inactivity caught up with him in this match. His 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 opening-round victory over Tommy Haas was Ferrero’s first match since suffering a 6-2, 6-3 setback to compatriot Alex Corretja in the opening round of the Tennis Masters Series-Monte Carlo on April 19th. He stepped on Chatrier Court today to play just his seventh ATP clay-court match of the season and clearly lacked the sharpness that made him the world’s premier clay-court player last year.

Given his lack of preparation and ailing and aching body, it’s hardly shocking Ferrero failed to defend his title, but it is surprising his Roland Garros run ended at the hands of Andreev, a man who had never won a Grand Slam match prior to his 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 opening-round victory over Jan Vacek and who entered this encounter with exactly three career clay-court victories.

The fourth-seeded Spaniard, who had advanced to at least the final four in all four of his prior Paris appearances, could not summon the form he sustained in registering a 24-3 Roland Garros record prior to today.

Persistently pouncing on shallow serves, Andreev converted seven of his 13 break-point opportunities and supplied the sort of pressure that saw Ferrero win less than half of both his first-serve (49 percent) and second-serve (47 percent) points. In his run to the 2003 tournament title, Ferrero patiently painted the corners with skillful strokes, but today he struggled to stay inside the lines with his shots, committing 41 unforced errors and producing just 14 winners.

A year ago, Andreev was toiling in tennis’ minor leagues, playing the Turin Challenger, where he went down in the opening round, 6-3, 6-4, to Daniele Bracciali. Since that loss, Andreev rocketed up the rankings, rising from a year-end rank of No. 286 in 2002 to No. 90 by the end of 2003. The only players to have made bigger leaps into the top 100 during that period were Frenchman Thierry Ascione, who leapt 455 places from No. 544 to No. 89, and Dmitry Tursunov, who rose 233 places from No. 331 to No. 98. Andreev is the only one of these three players who won in the first round at 2004 Roland Garros.

The 20-year-old Moscow native’s Grand Slam history was hardly memorable until today’s unforgettable upset.