Points won by each set: [ 28-18, 33-40, 30-40, 30-24, 33-23 ]
Points won directly on serve:
27 % Ivanisevic – 45 of 161
23 % Santoro – 32 of 138

Two years after their dramatic 5-setter at the Olympics in Barcelona, they played a 5-setter again, and the Croat prevailed again, but that time after much shorter & easier encounter. In the capital of Catalonia they fought for 4 hours 25 minutes, and the Croat saved two match points trailing *2:5 in the decider; in Austria, he needed just 3 hours 3 minutes. The most important was the 2nd game of the decider, Ivanisevic [2] needed five deuces to hold; he trailed 0/40, then he saved another break point (2 of those 4 crucial break points with aces) to win five straight games. He converted his first match point with a forehand winner. Santoro [115] was in bad form at the time, he dropped outside the Top 100, began playing Challengers week after week actually for the first time in his career, so his advancement to the final was totally unexpected, especially that he ousted the local favourite Muster in the semifinal from a match point down.

Ivanisevic’s route to his 9th title:
2 Herbert Wiltschnig 6-4, 6-4
3 Francisco Clavet 6-2, 6-4
Q Fernando Meligeni 6-3, 6-4
S Tomas Carbonell 7-6(4), 6-0
W Fabrice Santoro 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2