Yachting: All square as Cayard serves up a ripper

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Deuce!

It seems no coincidence that one of the world's tennis greats was right there as AmericaOne levelled the scores with Prada yesterday - on three points a piece, with two more winning shots needed for victory.

By late this afternoon, one of the challengers will have Advantage, and match point in the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The guys on AmericaOne told their star 17th person Steffi Graf that yesterday's 9s stunner was not unlike the blistering Andre Agassi-Pete Sampras semifinal at the Australian Open last week.

Graf was centrecourt for that one too, and she backed the winner.

Yesterday's clash was one of the great exhibitions of yacht racing seen in this America's Cup.

"That was as intense as I've ever been in," AmericaOne skipper Paul Cayard said after defending for an eternity to keep Prada behind.

Three days ago, Cayard had to have a stern talk to his crew - even taking right-hand man, tactician John Kostecki, out to dinner for an earnest discussion.

Something was wrong - they were lacking the zip they had when they topped the semifinals. But the effervescence has returned to the A-1 camp.

"Every day we get a little bit better. Today the boat was sailing to its maximum potential. The crew did an awesome job handling the boat," he said.

"By going down (today), the bad news is you're down. The good news is if you come back, it's really scary for the other guys."

Prada are by no means on a downward slide here, even though AmericaOne have come back from being 1-3 down.

Neither boat led by more than 20s during yesterday's race, AmericaOne getting an edge on Luna Rossa after the Italians got caught in a nasty tangle with their "unbreakable" spinnaker.

Cayard reckons both boats have pretty even speed, the races will continue to be heart-stoppers, and this series could be broken by the guys who make the least mistakes from here on.

There was not a second between the two boats at the startline yesterday, but they went their separate ways from the gun - AmericaOne going left, Prada right.

And Prada got it right, building a 20s lead at the top mark. Cayard closed the gap on the run and there was a flurry of protest flags in a feisty little gybing battle.

As the boats got ready for a luffing duel, things went horribly wrong for Prada - they dropped their spinnaker too quickly, sailing over it as it enveloped the front half of the boat and the keel and rudder underneath.

The crew battled to free the shreds of sail, holding a man upside down over the side, and lost vital time.

Prada led around that bottom mark, but AmericaOne soon passed them on the second beat for a 16s advantage. The Italians caught up to within 7s on the next run, and held on to that upwind as AmericaOne had to cut the tangled genoa sheet to tack.

The last minutes of the final run turned into a true drag race, Cayard's fake gybe pushing Prada away so they could get clear air to the finish line.