Ten: Hard day's night rewards Olympic heroes

AAP General News (Australia)
08-29-2004
Ten: Hard day's night rewards Olympic heroes

By Ron Wall

ATHENS, Aug 29 AFP - Nicolas Massu and Justine Henin-Hardenne carved their names with
Olympic pride by defying improbable odds to win magnificent tennis gold medals in Athens.

Massu, who had not won a hardcourt match this year, ran and ran and ran to win the
men's singles title when he incredibly beat American Mardy Fish in the final 16 hours
after winning the doubles with Fernando Gonzalez.

Two gold medals for Chile - their first since they began competing in the Olympics
80 years ago - had people dancing in the streets of the country's capital Santiago.

"I don't know how I did it. These are the best two days of my life," he said. "It's
unbelievable for my country."

Henin-Hardenne, who for most of the year wondered whether she would ever play again
as she battled a debilitating virus, completed a remarkable comeback to beat world No
2 Amelie Mauresmo of France in the women's final.

The previous night the 22-year-old Belgian had fought back from 1-5 down in the third
set to beat Anastasia Myskina, the Russian who had taken her French Open title while she
battled illness.

And Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian won what might prove to be a landmark women's doubles
crown for China's racquet players when they beat Spain's Conchita Martinez and Virginia
Ruano Pascual in the women's doubles final.

Paola Suarez and Patricia Tarabini of Argentina beat Japan's Shinobu Asagoe and Ai
Sugiyama for the women's doubles bronze medal.

A disconsolate Myskina was no match for unseeded Australian Alicia Molik in the singles
bronze medal match.

The men's tournament might not have gone to form -- world numbers one and two Roger
Federer and Andy Roddick failed to survive the early cull, but it was an astonishing performance
by Chile.

Gonzalez, who lost to Fish in the semi-finals after knocking out Roddick, beat another
American, Taylor Dent, for the bronze medal to give Chile three Olympic medals - two golds
and a bronze.

Their five-set doubles win finished at 2:40 on Sunday morning and after the medals
ceremony Massu had to go to doping control, for a massage and for something to eat.

But on Sunday night after only four hours sleep he fought back from two sets-to-one
down to win in exactly four hours of momentous tennis.

Massu started like it was a 100m sprint, racing away to take the first set 6-3 after
winning the first five games, only to hit the wall marathon runners so fear.

Fish won the next two sets and Massu looked like he was a dead man walking.

But he refused to go away and as he fought back errors crept into Fish's game to set
up a final set of emotional intensity.

The Chilean hung on to complete an amazing 24 hours on the Athens tennis courts.

Henin-Hardenne has spent most of the year unwell and had played just two matches in
four months before coming to Athens, where she played six matches in a week.

After winning the French Open and US Open in 2003 she lifted the Australian Open in
January this year.

Then sickness struck.

She didn't play for six weeks prior to this year's French Open because of the virus,
similar to glandular fever, which left the normally hyperactive Belgian wanting to sleep
all the time.

And at Roland Garros at the end of May she was surprisingly beaten in the second round
by Tathiana Garbin of Italy.

But against Mauresmo there was never any doubt who would be the winner.

Venus Williams had been seeded to meet her in the quarter-finals but the American,
the 2000-2001 US Open and Wimbledon champion, was knocked out in the third round by France's
Mary Pierce whom Henin-Hardenne went on to beat comfortably.

The only top players missing from this tournament to test the Belgian were Serena Williams
and Jennifer Capriati who pulled out with injuries and Maria Sharapova whom the International
Tennis Federation overlooked by setting their entry deadline before she won Wimbledon.

But it's hard to believe any of them would have knocked Henin-Hardenne off her Olympic mission.

AFP mo

KEYWORD: OLY TEN WRAP

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