Kafelnikov Takes Aussie Open

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 28, 1999 / 7:50 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, holding the Australian Open trophy high, smiled broadly and thanked Pete Sampras for staying home.

Kafelnikov, sidelined by strange accidents the past two years, only had to keep his body intact this time to capture a weakened men's tournament Sunday and gain a second Grand Slam title.

Kafelnikov's steady baseline play gave him a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) victory over an unusually error-prone Thomas Enqvist, who double faulted for the seventh time on match point and made 62 unforced errors.

In a men's draw diminished by the absence of the No. 1 Sampras, the apathetic play of Andre Agassi, and the early knockout of other top players, the No. 10 Kafelnikov emerged as champion almost by default.

Kafelnikov raised the silver trophy at the end, smiled to the crowd and the cameras, and sent his best wishes to Sampras.

"Pete, it's really a great wonderful feeling," Kafelnikov said. "Thanks for letting me do that."

The Russian played well, if unspectacularly, in the final, committing eight double faults himself, but limiting his unforced errors to 35 to add the Australian title to the French Open championship he won in 1996.

"When I won the first (major title) I wasn't really thinking about it," Kafelnikov said. "It was just a quick moment. Now I can really enjoy it."

Kafelnikov, 24, missed the Australian Open in 1998 after he hurt his left knee in a skiing accident a few weeks earlier. He had to skip the 1997 Australian Open because of a fractured finger suffered in a gym workout.

Enqvist came into the final riding a 12-match winning streak that included victories last week over Australians Patrick Rafter and Mark Philippoussis, the U.S. Open finalists. But despite 19 aces, Enqvist couldn't counter Kafelnikov's deeper, more reliable groundstroke game.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov thanked Pete Sampras for missing the tournament. (AP)

blue-and-yellow painted and garbed Swedes in the crowd, he might have had a chance. But there was never a sense of occasion in Enqvist's quiet game, never a spark that showed he was ready to take his first major title.

"He played too solid for me today," Enqvist said.

"I knew if I would hit the ball back every time, his game is shaky," Kafelnikov said. "I tried to play longer points. And Thomas' serve let him down in the second set. ... I broke Thomas mentally."

Enqvist won only 33 percent of the points on his first serve in the second set, after winning 89 percent in the first set.

Kafelnikov criticized the 24-ear-old Enqvist for playing so poorly, saying "it's stupid" to get to a major final and not play as hard as possible.

"I felt like Thomas had something in his body, that he still could try a little harder," Kafelnikov said.

"When I won my first Grand Slam, no one really noticed," Kafelnikov said. "But now I know what it takes. Now I feel I really deserve it."

Kafelnikov was especially happy to get past being called a "one-slam wonder." And making it sweeter, he said, was winning on a surface other than the French clay.

"To win a different (major) feels better," he said.

But Kafelnikov knows he owes a lot to Sampras, the two-time champion who said he was too tired to play this year.

"Whenever Pete is in the tournament, he is definitely the man to win," Kafelnikov said. "But when he's absent, it opens up the tournament for everybody, including myself."