Sport | Tennis
Gustafsson surprised Bruguera in 1994 final
Edition featured stars such as Lendl, Muster, Korda and the Woodies
- Staff Report
- Published: 00:00 February 2, 2012
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archives
- Sweden’s Magnus Gustafsson won the second edition of the Dubai Tennis Championship in 1994, when it was still played in a temporary stadium.
Dubai: The second year of the Dubai Tennis Championships — 1994 — was again hosted in the temporary stadium, and saw the appearance of Ivan Lendl, one of the greatest players of all time, along with the reigning French Open champion Sergi Bruguera.
The Spaniard, who would go on to repeat his Grand Slam success a few months later, was the top seed. But, as in the first year of the tournament, that counted for nothing as victory went instead to Sweden's number four seed Magnus Gustafsson who upset Bruguera 6-4, 6-2 in the final.
Lendl was seeded five, but was forced to retire against Gustafsson in the quarter-finals. But the legendary Czech was not the only famous name to add Dubai to his travel plans.
Pat Rafter was one of the greatest players that Australia had produced in 20 years, but he was unseeded in 1994 and became another of Gustafsson's victims, losing in the second round.
Petr Korda, who was once a ballboy for Lendl, was seeded three, but he fell to Wayne Ferreira in the quarters.
Defending champion Karel Novacek was seeded seven but lost in the second round to Marc-Kevin Goellner, and Thomas Muster, seeded two once again, also failed to get past the second round as he went down to Swede Henrik Holm.
The doubles attracted one of the greatest teams of all time in Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, and they triumphed 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 over fellow Australians Darren Cahill and John Fitzgerald.
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