I watched the Fernandez-Sanchez Vicario semifinal (which Fernandez
won 6-2 6-2) and offer some comments below. I did not see the Graf-
Huber semifinal. Did ESPN even broadcast that match (USA)? Anyway...
It was nice to see Fernandez pick up where she left off against Gaby.
No letdown at all. She played mostly clean, purposeful, and beautiful
tennis, and she was totally *** for almost the entire match.
Arantxa, on the other hand, was very tight and tentative. This was
not the same Arantxa who played aggressive tennis to beat Gaby at
Amelia Island.
I thought Arantxa made a terrible mistake early on. She was just
getting the ball back and hoping Mary Joe would miss, rather than
trying to establish control of the points. Once she allowed Mary
Joe to play her own game, there was little chance for Arantxa to
sink her teeth into the match.
The two opportunities for Arantxa to get back into the match occured
early in both sets. Early in the first set, after going up 3-0,
Mary Joe committed a cluster of unforced errors. Arantxa was still
not presenting a challenge, though, so all Mary Joe had to do was
clean up her errors and resume her ***. Early in the second
set, Arantxa finally put up a challenge and had brought the match
back on serve at 2-2.
The key point of the match occurred in game 6 of set 2 -- break
point for Mary Joe to go up a service break. The two women became
locked in an enthralling 43-stroke baseline rally involving all
sorts of spins, pace, you name it. Arantxa was trying to get control
of the point; but, try as she might, she was unable to prevent
Fernandez from finding an opening and then punishing a short reply
with a fiery crosscourt backhand. You knew then that the match was
Fernandez's.
Mary Joe once again demonstrated her all-court abilities, playing
and winning serve-and-volley points, attacking the short balls,
hitting the lines again(!) with her powerful flat groundstrokes,
and using that drop shot so effectively. Very, very smart tennis.
Comments on the upcoming Graf-Fernandez final:
Going into this French Open final, I find myself feeling similar to
the way I did prior to the final of Wimbledon, 1990 - Navratilova vs.
Garrison. You may remember that Garrison scored shocking upsets over
Graf and Seles by playing brilliant tennis, while Navratilova was
still in search of title #9 after being thrwarted the prior two years.
At this French open, Fernandez has captured the hearts of many by
unexpectedly playing the best tennis of her career to score victories
over Sanchez Vicario and Sabatini. If Mary Joe wins Saturday, she
will have beaten the top 3 seeds to win the title. I may be wrong,
but I don't believe that has ever happened in women's Grand Slam
history.
Meanwhile, Steffi Graf has had incredibly bad luck at Roland Garros
since she last won in 1988. The trophy slipped from her grasp in
1989, 1990, and 1992, and she played the worst match of her career
to lose to Sanchez Vicario in 1991.
IMO both players really deserve to win the championship.
On paper, Mary Joe has very little chance against Steffi. Mary Joe
has never won a match against Steffi in 10 tries. She has also never
won a clay court title. She has only won 1 title (Indian Wells, this
year) in about the last three years. Graf also seems to be playing
very good tennis right now, which means Fernandez will be hard
pressed to match Graf's level of play, even with a good dose of
inspiration.
On the bright side, Mary Joe played Steffi close the last time they
played, on red clay in Berlin a few weeks ago. In fact, Mary Joe not
only won the first set against Steffi, she was up breaks of service in
sets 2 and 3 before losing. Perhaps, as Mary Carillo said today, Mary
Joe probably didn't believe at that time she could win against Steffi.
Maybe she does now.
Also, I do not believe Mary Joe will be intimidated by the occasion.
She has been in this type of situation before and has nothing to lose
by going all out for it.
..Chris
--
College of Computing, Georgia Tech 404/853-0937