Other Archives - 2003, 2001, 2000/1999

10 November 2002 - A Round up of 2002 for Nico

Nico finishes the year in 29th place in the Champions Race and Entry System which was not quite up to his expectations at the start of the year.  However, with so much strength in depth in the Men's game at the moment, Nico's top 30 finish is positive.  Nico finished the year much like he did in 2001, beating Anthony Dupuis (in a repeat of the first round) in the TMS Paris Bercy and was defeated by Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the second round.   

25 October 2002 - Nico loses Davis Cup appetiser to Gonzalez

Nico fought hard and had chances to make progress against Chile's hard hitting power man, Fernando Gonzalez but in the end he failed to make a dent in the Gonzalez confidence, losing in straight sets 6-4, 7-6.  

22 October 2002 - Vicente on the losing side - again!

28 August 2002 - Nico's lack of luck continues in New York

Seeded 27 at the US Open for 2002,.Nico played Nicolas Massu from Chile in the first round.  After so many weeks on the road over the summer, Nico's luck seems to have run out for the moment.  Although Nico served more aces and less double faults than his opponent, he committed a large number of unforced errors and as a result the first two sets went to the Chilean.  Nico fought back in the third and saved match points at the very latter stages of the third set, and eventually won the set tie breaker.  For most of the fourth set Nico (the Ecuadorian one) looked to have things under control but at the very bitter end, Massu came back again, broke Nico's serve and won the match 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 7-5. 

Nico now has a short time to relax and recharge his batteries before his next scheduled ATP tournament in Hong Kong which starts at the end of September.

21 August 2002 - Nico loses to in form Srichaphan

20 August 2002 - Long Island News

Nico had a bye in the opening round at the TD Waterhouse Cup this week at Long Island and now plays Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan in the second round later today.  After a week's rest during the Indianapolis tournament, let's hope Nico has recharged his batteries for US Open which starts next week, where he has been seeded at 27 (his current entry system position).  [Let's not forget that the No.27 seed managed to reach the final at Wimbledon!]

5 August 2002 - Nico loses out to Costa

Nico played well for the majority of his match against Costa.  He served well and played his own style of aggressive tennis.  His hardcourt game is getting better by the week.  He won the first set 6-4 and held his game together throughout the second set, even though he took a tumble and grazed his hand, arm and leg.  As the match entered a tie break Costa seemed to move up a gear and he levelled up. 

1 August 2002 - Nico and Andy have a verbal battle

30 July 2002 - Nico beats Gaudio in Toronto

18 July 2002 - Nico has mixed success in Rainy Stuttgart

After three days of rain, Nico had to work really hard to complete his first and second round matches in the same day.  Originally scheduled to play on Monday, Nico finally got on the court yesterday but could only play one game before it rained again.  Today, Thursday, he was able to complete his first match, beating Gaudenzi in three sets and later in the afternoon he played Mikhail Youzhny (the up and coming Russian) for a place in the quarter finals.  Unfortunately, Nico ran out of steam, and lost in straight sets. 

He was set for a possible double match up on Friday in the doubles competition with Jeff Tarango.  The pair are set to start their doubles campaign at 11.30 Stuttgart time and if they win, they will play again in the afternoon - Its no rest for the wicked!!  

9 July 2002 - Nico fails to make progress in Gstaad

Nico lost his comeback on clay earlier today when took on Hungarian player Savolt in the Alpine altitude village of Gstaad.  Nico reached the final of this tournament in 1999 but since then he has not been able to recapture the same form there.  Today he lost in three sets and although he is still in the doubles event, I am sure his thoughts will be quickly turning to the next event in Stuttgart before he returns to Kitzbuhel to try to make a successful defence of his title, captured at the end of July 2001.

7 July 2002 - Nico returns to Gstaad

6 July 2002 - Nico misses his chances to make the Semi Finals

1 July 2002 - Nico surprises himself by winning through to a first Wimbledon Quarter Final

30 June 2002 - Nico reaches 4th Round at Wimbledon

The match had taken the best part of 4 hours and Nico looked completely exhausted afterwards - but extremely happy to have reached the second week of Wimbledon.  He is breaking through new barriers all the time, is feeling more settled on grass by every set he plays and is already talking about equalling his best ever Grand Slam by reach the semi finals (like he did in Australia in 1999).  His next opponent is Arnaud Clement and the players are 1-1 in their match ups.  It will be interesting to see who is up to the challenge of making their first Wimbledon quarter final.  With the exit of so many of the seeds, Nico is now the highest ranked Seeded player in the bottom half of the draw. 

Nico and Iva are yet to play their mixed doubles match and this is scheduled for later on Monday afternoon on Court 14 after both Nico and Daniella Hantuckova have completed their fourth round matches.

With all this good news for Nico, I am sorry to have to report that Giovanni has had to pull out of the Davis Cup team for Ecuador's match against Bahamas on 12-14 July.  He injured his ribs/chest (?) area recently whilst practicing for the Wimbledon qualifying event, and although he started his first match, he was forced to retire when leading 3-2 in the first set.  This means that Nico and Luis Morejon will be the main players in the tie and will probably have to play 3 matches each (teaming up together to play the all-important doubles rubber). 

Nico beat Barry Cowan in four sets 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2

Nico beat Jamie Delgado saving 4 match points before winning 6-3, 6-2, 6-7, 4-6, 7-5.

19 June 2002 - Boris gives Nico a grasscourt lesson

This means that Nico will complete his preparations for Wimbledon by playing 2 more matches, one on Thursday (vs Blake) and one on Friday.  This might have been planned on Nico's part because the weather is certainly likely to deteriorate by the weekend and he needs to be ready to play at Wimbledon on Monday.

Other than the tennis, Nico is certainly enjoying the surroundings of The Stoke Park Club because the clubhouse/hotel is "bang in the middle" of a superb golf course.  He has only been in England for two days and has already played golf at least twice.  He even started to play golf just 30 minutes after finishing his match against Boris today! 

Other results today were: Malisse bt Ljubicic; Gaudio bt Philippoussis (Mark looked very rusty indeed!); Mirnyi bt Blake. 

18 June 2002 - Wimbledon Draw News

With a seeding of 22, Nico has drawn Briton, Jamie Delgado in the first round. 

Apart from this, Nico is preparing for Wimbledon by playing in the Boodle & Dunthorne Champions Challenge.  In the draw, he is effectively the highest ranked player since Alex Corretja pulled out.  He does have a tough first match (of three) because he has been drawn against grass court supremo, ex-Wimbledon Champion, Boris Becker.  It will most certainly be a challenge!!!!

29 May 2002 - Nico draws a "Finn" blank in Paris

26 May 2002 - Nico wins title in St Polten

After four matches which went the distance, it looked like the final was just one match too far for Nico when he let the advantage slip during the first 7 games.   The balls seemed heavy and Nico went 2-5 down much like he had done in other sets during the week.  However with "new balls" game a "new Nico". He stormed back and took the next 5 games to take the set 7-5.  This was the key to the match.  Instead of being on top, Vicente was on the defensive and Nico seized his opportunity and got the decisive break to lead 5-4 and served out the match, taking his second match point.  Afterwards, he did the ultimate diplomatic act by stating that he "loved Austria".  He said "There must be a special connection between me and Austria as I have won my last two tournaments here." 

All I want to know is when is Nico going to do the clean sweep of Austrian tournaments and win the third Austrian title in Vienna!!!!??  With this victory, (his 5th career title) he gets 35 points for the Champions Race and went back inside the Top 20 at No.19 and raises to 25 in the Entry System.

24 May 2002 - Nico into his 2nd Final of the Year

24 May 2002 - French Open News

23 May 2002 - Another struggle for Nico

Nico's quarter final in Austria was not a match without incident.  I think that Austrian wild card Melzer found Nico's "habits and routine" before serving a little taxing and it showed.  Nico raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set (for the second consecutive match) but this time Nico took his chances and won the set 6-2.   The second set seemed to be going in his favour until the very latter stages where Melzer suddenly won the second set and forced Nico into his third "final" set of the week.  Nico gained an early break in the final set and this was enough to clinch things for him.  Nico won 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 and now faces Olivier Rochus for a place in his second final of 2002. 

22 May 2002 - Nico returns from the brink of defeat!

Nico had to find his best form (as well as a lot of grit and determination) to beat his second round opponent in St Polten - Irakli Labadze.   Having raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set, Nico lost the advantage and the set and was forced to battle hard to level things in a second set tie break. 

In the final set he had a match point at 5-4 but shortly thereafter he had to face 4 consecutive match points in a final set tie break, before coming back to take the last 6 points and make the quarters.  Nico summed it up by saying "It was a strange match"  His next opponent is Austrian youngster Jurgen Melzer!

After reaching the quarter finals in Munich, Nico had a little blip when he lost his first round match against Albert Costa in Rome.  After taking the first set easily, Nico struggled to maintain his momentum and the Spaniard eventually won in three sets.  To begin with Nico hardly put a foot wrong and had Costa running to every corner of the court.  At the end of the opening set, Costa had to have the trainer on court to treat his foot (? for a blister) and when he got into his rhythm he never looked back.  Nico strugged with his groundstrokes in the second set which the Spaniard won fairly easily and when Nico went a break down in the very first game of the third set, Nico had an uphill task.  He gave it his all but it was not enough.   After 270 minutes of strategic clay court tennis Costa won and went on to reach the quarter finals where he lost to Agassi.

3 May 2002 - Nico's progress halted by Czech

Nico reached the quarter finals in Munich before his progress became unstuck by Czech qualifier Stepanek.  After taking revenge over Fernando Meligini in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in the second round, for his 'bad' Roland Garros defeat last year, Nico's confidence took a dent when he was defeated by Stepanek.  The first set was extremely hard fought and contained several breaks of serve apiece.   Eventually it went to a tie break and when Stepanek got his head in front he never looked back.  It took the breaker and then finished off the match 7-6, 6-2.   Next stop for Nico is the TMS event in Rome.

29 April 2002 - Nico beats German wildcard in Munich

Nico is in doubles action later this week with partner Mark Philippoussis.   Together they will play Aussie No.1 seeds Josh Eagle and Sandon Stolle.

25 April 2002 - Nico defeated by Corretja

Nico fought hard but after the two hard mark of the match, his game started to "unravel".  Having taken the first set 7-5, Nico just could not sustain his challenge from 3-2 up in the second set.  Alex won 8 consecutive games, and willed on by the partisan "Barcelonan" crowd, he won the contest 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.  Nico now has a chance to rest before the TMS event in Rome which starts in 10 days time.

It looks as if normal service might have been resumed; Nico won his first round singles match in fine style.  He produced good tennis to gain his first clay court win on the ATP Tour since all that effort of the Davis Cup tie in Venezuela.  His next match will be against Didac Perez, scheduled first on court tomorrow.

17 April 2002 - Monte Carlo - Nico in need of more clay court practice

Nico only had 10 days to recover from his efforts at Davis Cup before the start of the TMS event in Monte Carlo and it was probably a little too soon to think he would challenge for the title.  Drawn to play a French wild card, Michel Lodra, in the first round, Nico realised he had his work cut out early on.  In all there were 6 breaks of serve (3 apiece) during the first set and it had to be settled by a tie break which Nico lost.   I think Nico's ankle and his slight lack of mobility was still troubling him because his challenge faltered in the second set to leave the Frenchman celebrating his first big win on the ATP Tour.

9 April 2002 - Davis Cup Report (Ecuador vs Venezuela)

This DC tie was one of those events where Nico (and Co) did not have too much to gain, but an awful lot to lose.  Playing away from home in Davis Cup can be very hard and it proved to be in this case.  Although the team and particularly Nico went into the tie with fighting talk and feeling confident, it just goes to show that even if Nico is by far the highest ranked player, that anything can happen when the opposition players become inspired.

27 February 2002 - Acapulco Defeat and Nico's weariness

In the doubles event, Nico teamed up with his fellow Davis Cup teammate, Luis Morejon. Together they won their first match against the Mexican/Brazilian partnership of Hernandez and Meligini but then came up against the Bryan twins and lost in straight sets.  This meant that Nico could return to his American base of Miami for a few days to rest, catch up with friends and family and get ready for the spring hardcourt season and the first two Tennis Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Key Biscayne.

Afterwards Nico and Andrea Gaudenzi pulled out of their doubles match but above all, Nico was of the opinion that the organisers would try anything to get "their" players through.  As the number 3 seed, Nico was the highest remaining player after Gustavo Kuerten and Guillermo Canas had succumbed in the first round but the organisers still organised the schedule to mean that Nico had to play his second round match less than 24 hours after he finished his first match.  Interestingly enough Fernando Gonzalez who was Nico's conqueror in Chile also lost yesterday as well.

Nico now has a few days to recover and recharge the batteries ahead of the ATP event in Acapulco, Mexico which starts next week.

It was a tough week but a satisfying one for Nico who has now moved on to Buenos Aires for the next stage of this mini clay court tour!

Earlier today, Nico beat Chilean home lad, Nicolas Massu to reach the final and live up to his seeding position.  In a change from previous rounds, Nico won the first set 6-3 but I think he was probably thinking during the second set that it might have been better to lose the first set - thus following tradition - because he went 1-4 down.  However, Nico held his nerve, held his serve in the tough 6th game and then started to show his superiority by starting a run of games which finally broke Massu's resolve.  With the score at 3-4 in the Chilean's favour, he had a short injury timeout (I think because there was a long delay on the TVN coverage), and Nico charged back.  He broke again in the 9th game and served out the match on his second match point much to the disappointment of the home fans.  Nico's 6-3, 6-4 victory means he is now in another final - his first since Kitzbuhel last year and you know what happened in Austria!  Nico will play either another Chilean Fernando Gonzales or Frenchman Nicolas Coutelot in the final tomorrow and should be favourite for victory as he is the last seed left in the draw.

Nico was supposed to be playing in a charity tennis event in Buenos Aires but now he will be stuck in Chile and I hope celebrating another victory!

Having won so many long 5 set matches already in his Melbourne career, things were certainly not over for Nico once he was two sets down but it would take a super-human effort on his part to come back.  Gaudio was on the verge of victory when he went another break up in the third set but Nico started to get a run of the ball and somehow managed to get back on level terms and eventually take the set.  This loss of control meant that Gaudio was more despondent in the fourth set and balls went everywhere except in the court and Nico levelled up at two sets all with the possibility of a fascinating climax in store. 

Having come back from two sets down, it looked as though Nico had things sown up when he got an immediate break of serve in the final set, but Gaudio broke back again and it wasn't until 7th game that Nico got his neck in front again.  He broke serve and eventually held serve to leave Gaudio serving to stay in the match at 3-5, having been within 1 game and 2 points of victory in the third set.  The Argentinian held serve and Nico was forced to play a nerve jangling final service game to win.  This final game went on for about 12 minutes in which Nico let 5 match points slip away from him and saved several break back points before he was able to convert on his 6th attempt. 

It must have been fate - Nico has NEVER LOST a five set match in Melbourne so history was certainly on side once the match entered the final set.

The match took a mammoth 4 hours and 11 minutes (seemed more like 24 hours to me) and when Nico won it was such a relief.  For the record, Nico won 4-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 and now plays Rios in the fourth round with a place in the quarter finals against either Federer or Haas at stake.