Krajicek Can’t Counter Muster’s Punches

ROME — After his literary pursuits took him through Arthur Ashe’s “Days of Grace,” Mike Tyson said he agreed with the author. Tennis is the sport closest to boxing. Man on man. Take your foe apart until he collapses. No substitutions.

Thomas Muster, who has a pretty good left hand himself, is the Austrian Mike Tyson of tennis--a relentless, no-frills puncher.

Muster hammers away until the other guy crumbles, and he does it better than anybody else on the salmon-tinted dirt of Europe. On Sunday, with the Italian Open title at stake, he knocked out huge-serving Dutchman Richard Krajicek, 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, before a sellout crowd of 10,500.

Krajicek, a 6-foot-5 banger, towers over Muster. He had nine aces against him, 53 in the tournament. But he was merely Jess Willard to the swarming, swatting Jack Dempsey on Sunday, toppling in 2 hours 3 minutes.

This was Muster’s third title here, and second in a row.

His first, in 1990, was miraculous in that it came less than a year after he was seemingly crippled by a hit-and-run driver. Muster’s Italian Open record is now 25-6.

Former USC All-American Byron Black of Zimbabwe teamed with Canadian Grant Connell to win the doubles title with a 6-2, 6-3 victory Libor Pimek of Belgium and Byron Talbot of South Africa.

Krajicek, 24, seems to be recovered from back problems. The world’s No. 25-ranked player was sharp in victories over Sergi Bruguera, a two-time French Open champion, Stefan Edberg and Wayne Ferreira en route to the final.

But Muster, 28, was as grim and cool as the sky, delivering horrendously spinning shots from both sides that swirled as ominously as the difficult wind.

“Three things made it hard for me,” Krajicek said. “The wind, Thomas’ dipping shots that were so tough to volley, and the fact that I didn’t play as sharply as I had [earlier in the tournament].”

Krajicek presented a totally different picture from quick and patient base-lining Spaniard Alberto Costa, who barely lost his Saturday semifinal against Muster, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Krajicek pressed forward at every opportunity, made a lot of sensational points (45 winners to Muster’s 16), but didn’t have the mental stamina to cope with Muster’s ceaseless counter-punching, or the volleying continuity, making 52 errors to Muster’s 14.

Frequently, Krajicek’s deftly angled volleys were transformed from certain winners for himself to passing winners for Muster, who would sprint the width of the court to register a haymaker.

“I wouldn’t say he’s unbelievably quick, but he’s one of the quickest,” Krajicek said. “And Thomas never stops running for the ball, no matter what.”