Tennis: Chilean challenge ends in a whimper

Mario Ancic celebrates his win over Fernando Gonzalez in the quarter-final. Picture / Greg Bowker

The much-touted Chilean challenge ended in a whimper at the men's international tournament yesterday.

In a bizarre turn of events, Heineken Open top seed and defending champion Fernando Gonzalez was whupped in straight sets literally minutes after countryman Nicolas Massu had suffered the same fate.

Then, in a further blow to organisers, defending singles champion and top seed and World No 11 Gonzalez withdrew from the tournament dragging Massu out of doubles with him.

Gonzalez said he felt a pain in his shoulder while practising yesterday morning. It is understood he again felt it when returning the second ball of his quarter-final against fifth-seeded Croatian Mario Ancic.

That match quickly became an embarrassing one-sided rout with world No 21 Ancic, spurred by huge parochial support, blasting his way through the first set 6-0 in a quick-fire 17 minutes.

The shocked Chilean fans simply shook their heads in bewilderment.

They took some heart and a little hope when Gonzalez held serve for the first time in the second set and then got to 2-2. That, sadly, was about his, and their, lot as Ancic went on to close it out to love in the ninth game less than an hour after walking on to the ASB Tennis Centre's stadium court.

"I could not imagine he would win only eight points in the first set," said Ancic who will meet unseeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in this afternoon's semifinals. "It was important for me to keep the great run going and not let him back in.

"He is an unbelievable player and I knew he could come back."

Ancic, who reached three ATP finals last year - winning once - certainly has the game to be a serious threat.

"I just want to enjoy it."

He has form on his side - from an unexpected source.

His coach, Swede Fredrik Rosengren, in two earlier visits, coached Jonas Bjorkman (1997) and Magnus Norman (2000) when they won here. Ancic would like to complete a rare trifecta.

Gonzalez dismissed the injury as "it's a pain" and adding "it's just part of tennis".

But something the tournament hosts could have done without.

They were saved somewhat in being able to call in doubles pairings Robert Lindstedt and Jarkko Nieminen and Czech's Robin Vik and Tomas Zib off an outside court literally seconds before the start of their quarter-final and reschedule their match for the night session on stadium court.

Originally the Chileans were to have played the Rochus brothers in last night's late game. With that out of the question, organisers would have been left with an embarrassing gap and only one match for the crowd.

Not surprisingly, Nieminen, in particular, was not overjoyed at the last-minute switch as he has wanted as big a break as possible before returning for his singles semifinal.

The popular Finn booked his place with yet another straight sets win - only one main draw singles match in the first 27 here went to a third set - over Massu. Needing 19 serves to win the second game (after leading 40-0) and after Massu had won the first to love, Nieminen gave little hint of what was to follow.

Breaking Massu in the seventh and ninth games, Nieminen won 6-3 in 40 minutes.

Massu took the second to a tiebreak but quickly fell 1-4 behind and never recovered as the 24-year-old Finn coasted home to keep his hopes of reaching a second ATP final, and his first since 2003, alive.

"It was a good quality match," said left-hander Nieminen. "Being a leftie maybe was an advantage against him. I was happy to finish it in a tiebreaker.

"With so many baseliners in the draw, we get to play similar matches every day. I don't feel tired as I prepared well."

Unseeded doubles pairing Andrei Pavel and Rogier Wassen ended the South American challenge when they beat third-seeded Argentines Lose Acasuso and Sebastian Prieto in straight sets in the second quarter-final.