LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Albert Portas
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Albert Portas eliminated second-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero on Monday 7-6 (4) 6-7 (5), 7-5 on the opening day of the Croatia Open. Portas got in only 56 percent of his first serves, but had 15 aces and finally triumphed after 2 hours, 48 minutes against his fellow Spaniard.
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Carlos Moya et Albert Portas seront au rendez-vous des demi-finales du tournoi d’Estoril. Les deux Espagnols ont remporté leurs quarts de finales respectifs face à Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (7/6 6/4) et Justin Gimelstob (6/4 6/3). Dans le dernier carré, Moya affrontera Muller ou Davydenko alors que Portas se mesurera à Nalbandian ou Gil.
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Portas, one of the graybeards on the ATP Tour, is a player who can rightfully be saddled with the label "clay-court specialist," considering about 90 percent of the tournaments he has entered throughout his career have been on that surface. Known as the "drop shot dragon," the Spaniard's game consists of heavy-high bouncing forehands and backhands combined with soft touch shots for winners or to bring players into the net. At 6'2", he ... can hit big first serves for some easy points. His lack of mobility and inability to play adequate defense, however, have prevented him from being a consistent winner on the regular Tour and forced him to spend lots of time on the challenger circuit.
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Nieminen and Portas will be meeting for the first time. Nieminen has never advanced past the third round in Barcelona, falling in 2003 to Marat Safin in his furthest run, while Portas reached the final in his debut performance in 1997, where he lost to Albert Costa. Since then, he has reached the quarterfinals only once, a 2001 loss to Michel Kratochvil.
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Portas loses an extremely high percentage of the points when forced to play defense. A tall, rather stiff-legged player, he simply can't change directions fast enough and doesn't have a quick enough first step to be able to track balls down and transition back to offense. His relative lack of athleticism ... means he is less capable of making last-second adjustments with his feet and racquet to get that extra ball back in play. Stroke-wise, he also tends to hit his backhand with too little spin when forced out of position.
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German qualifier Tomas Behrend continued his ascend by beating former TMS Hamburg winner Albert Portas in straight sets 7-6(4) 6-1. This is the second straight the former TMS winner has scalped in the tournament, having beaten fifth-seed and 2001 TMS Montreal winner Andrei Pavel (ROM) in the first round. He will take on Juan Ignacio Chela in the quarterfinals.
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