In this city of extraordinary architectural and artistic marvels, the distinction of Greg Rusedski's straight-sets victory over Pete Sampras, the world number one, in the final of the Paris Indoor Open yesterday afternoon is unlikely to be considered for much longer than a few days. But a marvel it certainly was.
"Without a doubt this was the biggest and best match of my career," said Rusedski, who won 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 in an hour and 44 minutes of sustained excellence. It was no fluke. Sampras acknowledged as much: "Greg was hot and he outplayed me. Maybe all the tennis I have been playing recently took its toll but I am not making any excuse."
Understandably, given that this was his first and only victory over the American in seven meetings, Rusedski became a little carried away on French television and began to talk about challenging for the number one spot next year.
Sampras made it perfectly clear that this was "just one match", adding that "you need to be pretty complete all the time on all the different surfaces to be number one". Rusedski recognises this well enough. "But I feel like I am at least number one for a day after beating Pete," he said with infectious glee. And why not; he played wonderfully well.
This win means that Rusedski now enters a three-way battle with fellow Briton Tim Henman and Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov (beaten by Rusedski in the Paris semi-final) for the remaining two places at the ATP Tour Finals in Hanover later this month. The result stunned almost everybody. Sampras, the winner here last year, had been insisting all week that victory in Paris was an integral part of his crusade to keep the number spot for a record sixth successive year.
The fact that the American battled through a back injury here, and then opted for a wild card in Stockholm, underlined the implacable nature of his quest. For this reason alone it seemed unlikely that Rusedski, for all his excellent previous form, would be able to balk the great man.
But confound him he did, with a quality of play that as little as two years ago would have seemed impossible. The calibre of Rusedski's serve has never been in question - it is a world-class weapon - but a succession of coaches, including Brian Teacher and Britain's Tony Pickard, have struggled to improve his ground strokes, notably the backhand.
Holland's Sven Groeneveld, who took over from Pickard after Wimbledon, appears to have effected the transformation; there were many times yesterday when Rusedski's ground strokes, remarkably, were more secure than those of Sampras.
What is more, Rusedski now appears to have the confidence to mix up the velocity of his shots and to find angles and moments of deftness that had previously seemed beyond him. Whether he can produce such quality week in week out, and on all surfaces, only time will tell, but against Kafelnikov and Sampras he displayed rare composure and consistency.
Sampras suddenly hit trouble in the ninth game of the first set when a running forehand winner gave Rusedski a break point. Sampras immediately doublefaulted. Rusedski, who will rise to 11th in the rankings this morning, had three times previously taken the first set off Sampras and lost.
The British number two saved four break points on his serve at the opening of the second set but two huge forehands by the American paved the way to a 4-2 lead. Unaccountably, when serving for the set, Sampras played a shockingly loose game, including two double faults. Rusedski's eyes have never been brighter.
He needed no second offering of such gifts, won the tie-break with splendidly resolute play and polished off the third set in a rush for his first win in a Super 9 event, tournaments second only to the Grand Slams. It was an extraordinary performance, and who knows where it may propel him? He has the capacity for constant surprise.
