Sport | Tennis
Ivanisevic broke jinx of the seeds in 1996
Dubai Tennis Stadium unveiled as venue
- Staff Report
- Published: 00:00 February 4, 2012
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archives
- Goran Ivanisevic knocked out defending champion Wayne Ferreira in the quarter-finals and went all the way in 1996.
Dubai: The competition in 1996 saw the inauguration of the new Dubai Tennis Stadium.
The curse of being the top seed continued, as Thomas Muster failed to advance beyond the first round when he fell in a third set tiebreak to Sandon Stolle, son of the Australian legend Fred. What made the upset all the more shocking was that Stolle had lost in the qualifying rounds and only received a place in the main draw when another player withdrew.
Thomas Enqvist was the number two seed but he also failed to make much of an impression, beating two fellow Swedes before going out in the quarter-finals to David Prinosil, and third seed and multi Grand Slam winner Jim Courier was a first round loser, to Alberto Berasategui.
In fact it was a strange year, as just two of the eight seeds reached the quarter-finals.
One was fifth seed and defending champion Wayne Ferreira, and he met the other for a place in the final four. That opponent was fourth seed Goran Ivanisevic, and the popular Croatian ended any hopes Ferreira had of retaining his title with a crushing 6-2, 6-1 victory. Ivanisevic then defeated Prinosil in the semis before overcoming Spaniard Albert Costa 6-4, 6-3.
Star appeal
The doubles draw was notable for the number of singles stars in the fray with Goran Ivanisevic, Stefan Edberg, Thomas Enqvist, Jim Courier and Petr Korda all taking part. But the title went to Grant Connell and Byron Black.
In a stunning climax to their week, they conceded only three games in the semis and then dropped just one game against Karel Novacek and Jiri Novak in the final.
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