PARIS, 2 June 2004 — Argentine third seed Guillermo Coria confirmed his status as favorite for the French Open title yesterday, beating former champion Carlos Moya of Spain 7-5, 7-6, 6-3 to reach the semifinals.
Moya served for the first two sets but Coria, beaten by Dutchman Martin Verkerk in the semifinals last year, fought back to set up a clash with ninth seed Tim Henman of Britain.
Coria, whose 31-match winning streak on clay was ended by Roger Federer in the final of the Hamburg Masters Series event earlier this month, broke Moya early in the opening set.
However, the Spaniard hit back with a break of his own in the seventh game. After leveling at 4-4, Moya then broke Coria for the second time with a forehand winner for the chance to serve for the first set.
Coria, who had won three of their previous five meetings, then stepped up a gear, breaking Moya twice in succession to seal the set after 50 minutes.
Moya continued to attack in the second set, his powerful forehand helping him break serve in the fifth game. But when he served for the set at 5-4, the Argentine again broke him before going on to take the tiebreak.
That took the wind out of the Spaniard’s sails and Coria broke in the first game of the third set before repeating the feat in the ninth game to clinch victory in two hours, 25 minutes.
Superb Henman Reaches Semis
Like land-locked Switzerland winning the America’s Cup, this was not meant to happen.
Yet against all the odds, on a dank and drizzly, Tim Henman became the first British man in more than 40 years to reach the semifinals.
Perhaps the 29-year-old suffered temporary color-blindness, mistaking the red hue of the Roland Garros clay for the green of his beloved Wimbledon. Whatever the reason, Henman scored what must surely rank as one of the most impressive wins of his career in beating 22nd-seeded claycourter Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
It was a victory that will make the claycourters stand up and take notice. It also allowed Henman to eclipse the record of his grandfather Henry Billington, who fell at the quarterfinal stage here in 1939.
