Rosset serves up response to snub

Earlier this month he was unceremoniously dumped from Switzerland's Davis Cup team. Now Marc Rosset has responded in the best possible fashion.

Earlier this month he was unceremoniously dumped from Switzerland’s Davis Cup team. Now Marc Rosset has responded in the best possible fashion.

It seems that his omission from the Davis Cup team was the perfect way of bringing the best out of the Geneva player. His defeat of the new world number one, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, in the final of the ATP indoor event in London has lifted him to the heady heights of joint fifth in the world rankings.

Since winning the 1992 Olympic final, the temperamental Rosset has often flattered to deceive. For every defeat of a player of Kafelnikov’s calibre, there was a dismal, and sometimes petulant first round exit.

But he now seems to be able to stay focused for a whole tournament, and is using his 2.01 metre frame to its full potential. His win in London was preceded by victory at the Marseille Open, where he beat Switzerland’s most talented youngster and the top player in the Davis Cup team, Roger Federer, in the final. He also brushed aside the teenager in the London quarter-finals.

While there is no animosity between the two players – Federer had pleaded for Rosset to be kept in the team – the two defeats will not have been lost on the Davis Cup captain, Jakob Hlasek.

Hlasek had argued that Rosset had lost form, and that he wanted to prepare for the future. Rosset has shown that he still easily Switzerland’s best player.

The 29-year-old is, along with Andre Agassi, the only player to have won tournaments in the 1980s, 1990s and the current decade.

by Roy Probert