Forget wins place in Swiss final: Tennis

Guy Forget continued his remarkable comeback from injury yesterday by beating Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the Russian sixth seed, 7-5 6-3, in the semi-final of the Swiss Open, in Gstaad. In today's final, Forget, the Frenchman who beat Britain's Jeremy Bates on his way to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon, will meet Sergi Bruguera who beat Andrea Gaudenzi, 6-4 6-1, in the other semi-final. Since his return after a lengthy recovery from knee surgery, Forget has seen his world ranking improve from 1,130 to 213 in two months. Despite his success, however, he stressed that he will still skip France's Davis Cup match next week against Sweden in Cannes. 'If it had been on clay, I would have been calling to ask for a place on the team,' he said. 'But I cannot risk it on a hard court. One slip and that would be it for my knee.' The impressive progress of Mark Petchey, the British number two, in the ATP International Hall of Fame Classic in Newport, Rhode Island came to an end yesterday when he was knocked out in a semi-final by David Wheaton 4-6 6-3 6-4. Back in Bristol in the Mercury Communication Challenge yesterday, a Briton was assured of a final place, but it was Ross Matheson, the big-serving Glaswegian, who took it, upsetting the form book to defeat defending champion Chris Bailey 6-3 7-6. In his first ever final, Matheson will face Arne Thoms, the German, who had earlier beaten Mark Knowles of the Bahamas 3-6 6-1 6-4. Matheson and Thoms have met once before, at last month's Wimbledon qualifiers, when Matheson lost in two tie-breaks.

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