Houston 2010 : Review of Nico's epic match vs Sweeting

Nicolas Massu Edges Ryan Sweeting In Houston Marathon

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By Richard Pagliaro
Photo Credit: Mark Howard

(April 7, 2010) HOUSTON  — Veins bulging from his neck in visible intensity, his face as red as the clay he raced across for three sets, tennis marathon man Nicolas Massu made another comeback run in River Oaks today.

The 30-year-old Chilean rallied from a break down in the final set to subdue Ryan Sweeting, 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 6-4, in three hours, 25 minutes to advance to the US Men's Clay Court Championships quarterfinals.

It was the longest ATP three-set match of the season eclipsing the previous mark of three hours,  22 minutes set in Novak Djokovic's 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Mikhail Youzhny in the Dubai final.

The 94th-ranked Massu will have a day to recover before facing the winner of tonight's match between third-seeded Sam Querrey and Blaz Kavcic.

A decade after Massu fell to compatriot Fernando Gonzalez in the 2000 US Men's Clay Court Championships final, he is aiming to make another run here.

In contrast to the day's first stadium court match that saw seventh-seeded Eduardo SchwankJuan Ignacio Chela, an animated Massu pulled out virtually every ploy in the gamesmanship playbook to battle back against Sweeting.

Massu's antics included repeatedly going to the towel between points, turning his back to the court as Sweeting was preparing to serve, calling for the trainer twice in the final set for leg and calf massage and nearly grabbing a lineswoman by the hand in an effort to have her verify a ball mark he was certain landed beyond the baseline. tank the third set in belting balls out of the stadium and against the back wall in a 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-1 loss to

While Massu's methodical manner on court must make him a nightmare to play at times, his pure passion and commitment to the cause were keys to his comeback as Massu pounded his fist against his chest, exhorted himself in Spanish and carried on a running dialogue with his support box at times.

Ultimately, Massu's fighting spirit and sheer refusal to lose sparked his comeback.

"It is important for me to fight for every point," Massu said. "I've always been fighting. For Roddick the serve is the most important thing and for me it is fighting.. Always I am fighting."

It was a match of lost opportunities for Sweeting, who served for the first set at 5-4 and was up a break in both the second and third sets, but could not close either set.

"I had chances in every set," Sweeting said. "He returned really well and I didn't serve as well as I wanted to today. I was tentative on my first serve. I wasn't going for my spots, which allowed him to get into the points on my service games."

Sweeting, who played through qualifying to reach the main draw, upset 2009 semifinalist Evgeny Korolev in the first round. Sweeting was the aggressor throughout much of the match, but his backhand let him down at crucial stages of the second and third sets.

Massu gives up virtually the entire court running around his backhand to hit his favored forehand. For a set and half, Sweeting was effective hitting his backhand down the line into the open expanse of court vacated by Massu, but as the match wore on, day turned to night and court conditions slowed a bit, Sweeting began to miss the mark with his backhand down the line giving Massu the chance to club forehand after forehand.

"On my backhand side I wasn't aggressive as I wanted to and he was able to run around and hit his forehand  — that's his weapon," Sweeting said. "It was just too much for me today."

Sweeting broke to start the final set, but Massu immediately broke back to level. In the sixth game Sweeting sailed a running forehand beyond the baseline as Massu broke for 4-2.



Massu, who fought back for a five-set victory over Mardy Fish to capture the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, is a methodical player who frequently resorted to his ritualistic pre-point pattern of going to the towel, surveying four or five balls before picking one and wiping the area in front of the baseline with the sole of his adidas sneaker before serving.

Deliberately slowing the action, he forced the younger Sweeting to play at his pace. Sweeting said Massu's stall tactics were not surprising.

"It wasn't a shock to me to see that he would do that," Sweeting said. "It's tough at times, but I think when he does the little mind games like that he's trying to get into his opponent's head. And if I lose my composure then I'm just playing into his game so I try not to do that."

Still, Sweeting smashed his racket to the court in frustration after netting a backhand in the seventh game. Three more backhand errors helped Massu hold for 5-2.

At that point it appeared Massu was on track to finish off the match, but Sweeting smacked an inside-out forehand winner for break point. When Massu spun a double fault deep, Sweeting was back on serve at 4-5.

It was a temporary reprieve. Sweeting committed three consecutive errors as a pumped-up Massu closed with a clenched fist that preceded a tame handshake from both men.