Estoril Open 2005 News and Events

Gaston Gaudio
© João Lagos Sports

Roland Garros champion Gaston Gaudio will meet fourth seeded wild card Tommy Robredo in the final of the Estoril Open on Sunday.

Gaudio, the No. 2 seed who is looking for his third clay court title of the season following his back-to-back victories in Vina del Mar and Buenos Aires earlier this year, overcame rising Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the semifinals at the Estadio Nacional.

The Argentine, who saved a match point in his first round victory over Jan Hernych, is now 19-3 on clay this year, second on the ATP circuit behind Rafael Nadal's 23-1.

The 21-year-old Garcia-Lopez was appearing in his third career ATP semifinal and his second of the season (Chennai).

Meanwhile, Robredo recorded his first career victory over top seed Carlos Moya in the day's first semifinal when the 2000 Estoril Open champion retired in the second set with a right shoulder injury with Robredo leading 6-3, 3-0.

Moya came into the match having won all four of their previous meetings and had not dropped a set against his fellow Spaniard. However, Robredo broke Moya in the opening game of the match and quickly opened up a 5-2 lead.

At the change of ends, Moya took a medical timeout for treatment on his shoulder and then broke Robredo when they resumed. But Moya couldn't hold his own serve and was immediately broken as Robredo took the set and quickly soon went up an early break in the second, as Moya continued to struggle. With Robredo leading 3-0, Moya had more treatment but it was not enough, as he handed victory to his opponent.

Robredo goes into the final having won two of his three meetings against Gaudio, including a five-set thriller in the final in Barcelona last year. Robredo will be looking to claim his third career title (Sopot 2001, Barcelona 2004), while Gaudio will be seeking his sixth. The Argentine now moves above Andre Agassi into seventh position in the INDESIT ATP 2005 Race.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID:
Moya: "I'm worried right now about what my shoulder problem is. I go to Rome but I don't know if I will be able to play. It started at the end of the match against Ferrero. Yesterday it was bad but not too bad and it got a lot worse today.

"I felt in the warm up that it was going to be tough to finish the match but I wanted to try. I had the problem in my mind the whole match. It was bothering me on the serve, and right now I don't know what to say.

"It's a big issue. I've been having trouble with my shoulder for a long time, but not like it is right now. I'm going to get it checked by the doctor. I have to do something because if it's like this over the next days I won't be able to play. I think it's a tendon but you have to ask the trainer.

"I was playing very well this week, better than I have in any other week this year but I guess it's part of the sport and you have to accept it.

"Tommy is playing very well but I was not forcing him at all. I couldn't get any points on my serve. He's playing very well this week and he has a chance to win the title."

Gaudio: "Today it was tough because he played really good. I won the first set because I think I was a little bit lucky. In the second set, I couldn't do anything, everything was for him, he was going for every shot and it was really tough. In the third, I was 1-1 serving 15-40 and I don't know how I came back, but I did it."

On being in his third final in 2005: "I hope tomorrow I can win another title, especially being so close to Roland Garros. It would be great for the confidence. Against Tommy [Robredo], we have always played very tough matches. The last time he defeated me was in the final of Barcelona 2004, in five sets. He was playing really good at that time and then he got injured. I know that now he really wants to come back so I expect a difficult meeting tomorrow.

"Since the last time we've played things have changed and many good things have happened [referring to Roland Garros] and I think this could definitely help me tomorrow."

Garcia-Lopez: "I am really happy about this week and my tournament here in Estoril. Today, I played a great match, I was maybe a little bit nervous, but I didn't lose to just anybody. Gaston Gaudio is the Roland Garros champion and I think his experience helped him a lot on the key moments."

On his schedule for the coming weeks: "I couldn't enter the qualifying event in Rome as it is starting today and am still in Estoril but my next tournament will be playing the qualies at the ATP Masters Series in Hamburg."