KAFELNIKOV FINALLY FINDS HIS TRUE OLYMPIC FORM

Yevgueny Kafelnikov won his opening match against the Swede, Magnus Norman, in the Masters Cup, Lisbon, today in three sets, 4 – 6 ; 7 – 5 ; 6 – 1. Kafelnikov’s words after the match summed it up exactly: “I felt I was completely controlling the match, the problem was I was making a lot of mistakes”. At 3-3 in the first set, Kafelnikov was playing well but seemed to lose concentration in the always crucial seventh game, which Norman won with a break of serve. Kafelnikov broke back to level the set at 4 – 4 but the Swede again broke Kafelnikov’s serve (5 – 4) and finished the set on service at 6 – 4. Kafelnikov was a victim of his weak first service and numerous unenforced errors…20 in this set. In the second set, Kafelnikov started to set himself up well, until the final shot deserted him, again through unenforced errors. This time, however, the Russian started to impose himself on the Swede, which can be seen by the game series : 2 – 2, 3 – 3, 4 – 4, 5 – 5…then Kafelnikov won the last two games to take the set 7 – 5. In the third, it was Kafelnikov at his lethal best, the real player finally appearing above his multiple mistakes in the first two sets. Clinical, decisive, cold and controlling, he forced Norman into a state of nervous collapse, a shadow chasing a ball. Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.Ru, Lisbon