Consolation for Schlager

Sao Paolo 1 July 2001. Werner SCHLAGER (AUT) were seeded nr. 1 in men’s singles as well as men’s doubles at the Brazilian Open, but on Saturday he stumbled in the semi final in the men’s singles against Timo BOLL (GER).

On Sunday though SCHLAGER got his Brazilian title winning men’s doubles together with Karl JINDRAK. They beat Lucjan BLASZCZYK (POL)/Trinko KEEN (NED) 2-1. BLASZCZYK/KEEN was a pair created for the occasion but they played very well together and won the first game 21-19.

The Austrians evened to 1-1 and in the 3^rd game they went to 20-15 looking like champions. The last point though was difficult to get. SCHLAGER missed to service returns, then JINDRAK missed, and things started getting tight. On the fourth match point though the Austrians took it home.

“I was not happy with my game yesterday, and I did not play really well today either, but it is also a quality that you can win when you are not at your best”, says SCHLAGER who adds that  it would have been tough to go home without any titles.

“You can’t say though that we got nervous at 20-15. All match I had returned services well, so I was confident that we could get the last point.