longisland98rafter_mantilla

Points won by each set: [ 40-34, 33-22 ]
Points won directly on serve:
52 % Rafter – 32 of 61
27 % Mantilla – 19 of 68

“I just hope that physically I’m still fresh,” Rafter [3] said about playing the final two days before the US Open first round. “I’ll take a good rest tonight and tomorrow.” Except the last game when made three relatively easy mistakes at the net, he played a perfect serve-and-volley match, his serve was actually phenomenal. Mantilla [19] withstood 15/40 in two service games in the opener, but after losing the tie-break he seemed discouraged and avoided a bagel applying his first S&V at 0:4 (30/40) in the 2nd set. Rafter finished the contest on his fourth match point with a beautiful FH-volley. Throughout the week he was broken just once, in the 2nd set vs Sanchez.

Rafter’s route to his 7th title:
1 Javier Sanchez 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
2 Martin Damm 6-4, 6-3
Q Nicolas Escude 6-3, 6-3
S Greg Rusedski 6-4, 7-5
W Felix Mantilla 7-6(3), 6-2

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