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Where men are concerned French Open is wide open
Paris, May 26: Pete Sampras never won the French Open. Neither did John Mcenroe or Stefan Edberg. Jimmy Connors and Boris Becker didn`t reach a final at Roland Garros.
Paris, May 26: Pete Sampras never won the French Open. Neither did John Mcenroe or Stefan Edberg. Jimmy Connors and Boris Becker didn't reach a final at Roland Garros.
All had plenty of success elsewhere, of course: a total of 37 grand slam titles. On the other hand, the list of French Open champions does include such one-hit wonders as Michael Chang (1989), Andres Gomez (1990), and Thomas Muster (1995).
Albert Costa might be destined to join the group of men with one major triumph, but he made clear yesterday that is ok with him as he prepares to defend his French Open title.
"I'm not feeling the pressure," the Spaniard said. "Now, I don't care. If I play good, I'm going to have a good ranking. If I play bad, I'm not going to have a good ranking. Things are simple."
What's far from simple is predicting which man will win the year's second grand slam event. While it's hard to imagine someone other than a Williams or a Belgian taking the women's title, the men's field is wide open, as usual.
Costa put the number of contenders at about 20 and started rattling off a veritable "who's who" of tennis.
"A lot of players can win here. If I have to choose two, I will choose Ferrero and Moya," he said. "There are a lot of players that can do really good on clay. Argentines are very good. The Spanish are really good. There are some others, like Agassi, Kuerten."
Bureau Report
All had plenty of success elsewhere, of course: a total of 37 grand slam titles. On the other hand, the list of French Open champions does include such one-hit wonders as Michael Chang (1989), Andres Gomez (1990), and Thomas Muster (1995).
Albert Costa might be destined to join the group of men with one major triumph, but he made clear yesterday that is ok with him as he prepares to defend his French Open title.
"I'm not feeling the pressure," the Spaniard said. "Now, I don't care. If I play good, I'm going to have a good ranking. If I play bad, I'm not going to have a good ranking. Things are simple."
What's far from simple is predicting which man will win the year's second grand slam event. While it's hard to imagine someone other than a Williams or a Belgian taking the women's title, the men's field is wide open, as usual.
Costa put the number of contenders at about 20 and started rattling off a veritable "who's who" of tennis.
"A lot of players can win here. If I have to choose two, I will choose Ferrero and Moya," he said. "There are a lot of players that can do really good on clay. Argentines are very good. The Spanish are really good. There are some others, like Agassi, Kuerten."
Bureau Report