Last night at the Dubai Tennis Stadium, unseeded El Aynaoui even needed three minutes off court medical time out before ousting third seed Thomas Johansson 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and 21 minutes.
The uproar from the Irish Village, where fans were watching France edge out England 20-15 in rugby, overshadowed support that El Aynaoui drew from inside the tennis stadium at the beginning of his semifinal against Johansson, who lost in the semis last year to Marat Safin here.
"Yeah, the noise from outside, where rugby was being watched on television, did distrub," El aynaoui said later. Then there was Dubai Shopping Festival fireworks.
Johansson was, who was rattled by the DSF fireworks last year, double-faulted last night too when the sky lit up with the fireworks.
But it was the loudest thunder during the climax of fireworks that affected El Aynaoui when he was serving in the sixth game. He was broken as Swede Johansson, who is No 1 of the championship race, went ahead 4-2.
"It was disturbing," agreed El Aynaoui, who was relieved that the final match would be played today after the fireworks.
El Aynaoui said he played well, especially his forehands. But pointed out that "I won points with my backhand too."
Johansson served up two aces but was broken in the ninth game as El Aynaoui converted his second break point with a driving forehand down the line. Johansson had four aces and a double fault in the first set to El Aynaoui's two aces and a double fault.
With no further breaks, El Aynaoui won the tie-breaker when Johansson hit his backhand on the net while returning an inside out forehand by the Moroccan.
Johansson complains a line call. © Gulf News |
Johansson, getting his first serves well, played some superb serve and volley to win the second set 6-4 in 43 minutes. El Aynaoui, who has a suspect backhand, hit one over baseline for Johansson's break. Then Johansson also held three break points in the third game.
El Aynaoui also failed to square up when he held two break points in the sixth game, on the other hand he had to save one in the ninth game.
El Aynaoui was losing his cool and disputed line calls, thus losing his concentration. Johansson managed to keep the ball to El Aynaoui's backhand and served really well and conceded only seven points in his service game in the second set as he volleyed well too.
In the third set, Johansson lost his cool, was penalised and broken in the fourth and sixth games as El Aynaoui wrapped up the set (6-3) in 38 minutes.
"He has the best forehand on the tour, in the world," Johansson said paying tribute to El Aynaoui. "There were some soft calls," said Johansson at the post match press conference. He further added that there were some bad line calls, but they were both sides and evened out in the end.
Johansson incurred a point penalty for racquet abuse, allowing El Aynaoui 15-0 start in the seventh game of the third set.
Johansson broke his racquet after El Aynaoui broke for the second successive time in the sixth game. "I have never been penalised before," Johansson said later.
El Aynaoui also said that there were some bad line calls but praised the chair umpire Sune Alenkaer of Denmark. "He took the right decisions at the right time."
For El Aynaoui, reaching the final is a great achievement here after winning the Qatar open. Nothing like winning one of only three tournaments in the Arab world, but then he would loved some better quality dates by his side today.
