Corretja, Kuerten in men's final

Kevin Fylan

Defending champion Gustavo Kuerten ripped apart Juan Carlos Ferrero's French Open challenge on Friday, seeing off the young pretender to his Roland Garros crown with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 semifinal victory.

Kuerten, French Open champion in 1997 and 2000, beat Ferrero on his way to last year's title in an epic five-set tussle and the 21-year-old Spaniard, seeded fourth and in the form of his life, had high hopes of taking revenge.

The 24-year-old Brazilian top seed was in imperious form, however, sweeping to victory in two hours and 10 minutes.

Kuerten will take on 13th-seeded Spaniard Alex Corretja in Sunday's final, when he will bid to become the first man to win back-to-back French Open titles since Sergi Bruguera in 1994.

Corretja ended Sebastien Grosjean's dreams of winning the French Open, beating the Frenchman 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the second semifinal.

Kuerten will also be seeking to become only the sixth man to win three French Open titles in his career, although he would still have some way to match the record of six-time champion Bjorn Borg.

"Every year, it's a different situation," Kuerten said. "Last year I was a little nervous. This year I had more confidence with my fitness.

"I think I'm ready to enjoy a great final."

Ferrero made the first break in game seven but Kuerten then reeled off five successive games to take the first set 6-4 and move 2-0 ahead in the second.

The Spaniard showed great resolve to break back immediately, but Kuerten was forcing his opponent deep all the time with his scorching groundstrokes.

PERFECT APPROACH

A withering crosscourt forehand wrong-footed Ferrero to set up two break points as the Spaniard served at 4-5, and Kuerten took the first of them with a perfectly placed approach shot that forced the error.

Ferrero fought hard in the third set but Kuerten's greater consistency proved too good, and the Brazilian clinched victory on his second match point.

Kuerten and Ferrero went into the match level at 1-1 in terms of head-to-heads, with the Spaniard gaining some revenge for his French Open defeat 12 months ago with a 3-6, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory in the Rome Masters final.

Friday's clash between the game's two outstanding claycourt players, each with three titles on the surface already this season, was perhaps too one-sided to be regarded as a classic.

But the standard of the tennis was extremely high as the two men traded booming groundstrokes from the back of the court.

The match turned in game eight of the first set when Ferrero, a break up and serving with new balls, failed to consolidate his advantage.

SERVICE STRUGGLE

Kuerten held serve confidently in the next game and as the crowd chanted "Guga! Guga!" Ferrero failed to hold his, the Brazilian coming up with a wrong-footing backhand on set point.

After the exchange of breaks early in the second set, Ferrero was again forced to serve to stay in the set at 4-5, with the same outcome.

Ferrero gave it everything in the third set, Kuerten struggling on his serve throughout as the Spaniard attacked every short ball.

Kuerten showed the resolve of a champion, however, saving two break points in the first game, three in the third and three more in the seventh to hold serve on each occasion.

With Ferrero serving at 3-4, Kuerten effectively won the match when he powered two successive backhands across to the Spaniard's backhand court, forcing him further and further into the corner before a third proved unreturnable.

The Brazilian then confirmed his place in the final with a second serve out wide that Ferrero could not keep in the court.

GROSJEAN'S DREAMS DASHED

Tenth seed Grosjean had been hoping to become only the second Frenchman to lift the Roland Garros title in the last 50 years after Yannick Noah's triumph over Sweden's Mats Wilander in 1983.

But Corretja's relentless, looping groundstrokes undid the Marseille baseliner's game on Centre Court.

The sizzling forehand which helped an inspired Grosjean stun Andre Agassi 1-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 in the quarter-finals deserted him in the first set tiebreak and a series of errors handed the Spaniard the set.

Corretja, who beat another Frenchman Cedric Pioline in the French Open semifinals three years ago, allowed Grosjean a 3-0 lead in the second set but then reeled off five straight games before sealing it 6-4 when a Grosjean backhand drifted wide.

Corretja made an early break in the third set as well, sealing victory in two hours and 40 minutes on his first match point following another forehand error by the Frenchman.

Corretja lost the 1998 final to compatriot Carlos Moya, but this year appears to be getting stronger with each match.

Since being taken to five sets by Argentine Mariano Zabaleta in the first round, the 27-year-old has not dropped a set.