Cash to face McEnroe or Leconte in Legends Final; Goran targets perfect Saturday

Added on: December 3, 2011

Pat Cash and John McEnroe are on course for a rematch in Sunday’s AEGON Masters Tennis Legends final after both former Wimbledon champions won their respective matches in London on Friday.

On Wightman Cup Night at the Royal Albert Hall, Cash maintained his 100% record in the group stages with a 6-7 (6) 7-6 (4) 10-8 win over Henri Leconte, and McEnroe saw off Richard Krajicek 6-3, 7-5.

McEnroe will now face Leconte on Saturday with the winner facing Cash in Sunday’s final.

“I’m going to do everything I can to keep it going because the fans are fantastic here,” said McEnroe. “It’s good to play well and get the victory but I still have a tough match tomorrow.”

Having lost both of his matches so far, Leconte is still upbeat he can make the final. He also revealed that Friday brought back special memories for him.

“It was a great match against Pat and I really enjoyed it. It’s funny because it’s been twenty years since I won the Davis Cup on the same Friday and I played a great match today. I haven’t played like that for a long time and hopefully I can do it against John. It was really intense to play two hours of tennis.”

Cash is looking to add to the Royal Albert Hall crown he won in 2000, and a more relaxed approach to the tournament has paid off for the Australian.

“It’s funny how it goes really. Sometimes, the less you try the better it goes,” said the serve and volleyer. “I’ve worked on a lot of stuff over the summer and I feel in pretty good nick. Each match I’ve played has been really close and each one could have gone either way. Henri is such an unpredictable player to face and it’s hard to know when he’s going to flash a few winners. He was on a hot streak and sometimes you’ve just got to hope he cools down and lets you back in. That was the case. The rest period for me tomorrow ahead of Sunday’s final will be key as I’ve had three long matches, haven’t played a lot of tennis this year and most of them have gone the distance.”

Friday night saw a special celebration of the Wightman Cup at the Royal Albert Hall. Played between 1923 and 1989, the annual event saw the United States take on Great Britain with many of the ties played at the Royal Albert Hall. To mark the occasion, ten of the Wightman Cup’s stars were invited, including Jo Durie, Virginia Wade and Christine Janes.

Elsewhere on day three, Fabrice Santoro made his debut on the ATP Champions Tour, defeating Younes El Aynaoui in another thrilling match. Santoro will meet Tim Henman on Saturday with the winner going through to face Thomas Enqvist in the Champions final.

Goran Targets Perfect Saturday

Goran Ivanisevic will be in a race against time on Saturday as he tries to beat Mark Philippoussis and then watch his favourite British football team West Bromwich Albion in action against Queen’s Park Rangers.

Ivanisevic, who has been a fan of the Premier League team since 2005, will be on court at 1pm in the AEGON Masters Tennis tournament at the Royal Albert Hall. He will have a car waiting outside as he makes a dash to watch his team in the flesh for the first time.

“I’m not going to believe that I am finally watching West Brom live until I am there and I actually see them come on to the pitch!” said Ivanisevic.

“It’s going to be a race against time, but it’s my first live game and I’ve been waiting for this for a long time and I hope I make it. I need to try to win my match first but for sure I want to ‘Boing’ (WBA’s signature, bouncing celebration). If there’s a lot of Boinging it means we will be scoring a lot of goals. We will show great spirit like always. We need this win.”

The Croatian, who won Wimbledon at the fourth attempt amidst emotional scenes in 2001, was given his first WBA shirt in the summer of 2005 after adopting them as his team.

He wore his shirt, signed by the team, during a final at the Royal Albert Hall in 2006 and follows their results every week.

For the full story of how Goran became a fan, and to watch him ‘Boing’ click here.

Live coverage of Ivanisevic vs. Philippoussis and John McEnroe vs. Henri Leconte will be shown on ITV4 from 1pm British time in the UK on Saturday.

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