Comments on Women's SF -- Thoughts about Women's Final

Comments on Women's SF -- Thoughts about Women's Final

Post by Christopher Smi » Sat, 05 Jun 1993 09:50:13


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

 
 
 

Comments on Women's SF -- Thoughts about Women's Final

Post by c_t.. » Sat, 05 Jun 1993 13:11:10


Quote:
(Christopher Smith) writes:

|>Newsgroups: rec.sport.tennis
|>Path:
|
news.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!cc.gate
ech.edu!cc.gatech.edu!csmith

|>Subject: Comments on Women's SF -- Thoughts about Women's Final



|>Organization: Software Research Center, Georgia Tech
|>Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1993 00:50:13 GMT
|>Lines: 89
|>
|>
|>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
|>
Well I would like to say the French Open this year is much more
interesting than what I expected. I thought it would have been
unexciting without Seles' participation. This is proved to be incorrect.
First,  an almost-unknown youngester (sorry I can't spell her name)
intimidated top seed Graf. Finally Graf won by her superior experience.
And then, the longest match of Grand Slam ever between MJ and Sabatini.
An unbelievable battle. They just broaden and deepen the women's match.
And then MJ again defeated Sanchez, the clay court specialist, without
problems. Who would dream this black horse to come to final? I am
expecting a unforgetable match between Graf and MJ Fernandez. On the
men's side, it is more interesting. All top seeds were gone except
Courier. If Courier is defeated by KJ, that will be even more unusual,
resulting in lower ranking players fight in finals. Men's tennis is
surely unpredictable. However if more MJ-type girls come out, can you
predict the women's tennis? Only God knows.

John

 
 
 

Comments on Women's SF -- Thoughts about Women's Final

Post by shun.cheu » Sat, 05 Jun 1993 19:47:16

Quote:

>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...

ESPN only showed match point of the Graf-Huber match; they showed that
live at the very beginning of their broadcast and nothing else from
that match, same result as the match I watched at Delray Beach. I think
Huber just has a mental block and never plays well against Graf.

Quote:
>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.

No question that Mary Joe played really well again. However, just
"getting the ball back" defensive tennis is really Arantxa's main style.
She did try to hit some winners, but as she tried the same thing at
Hilton Head against Graf and in many other occasions, she missed a lot
of them. I was surprised how poorly Arantxa played in the semi though.

As I said before, I never considered Arantxa "the hottest player"
coming into the French Open. IMO, she won at Amelia Island and Barcelona
mainly because Graf and Seles, who beat her at those tournaments
last year, weren't there. And she took advantage of a distracted
Graf in Hamburg. If people had looked a little deeper than simply
counting titles, they would have noticed this too. Moreover, a lot
of people simply ignored that Sabatini beat Arantxa easily 6-1, 6-3
at the semi in Rome just two weeks prior to the French Open. Perhaps
Arantxa indeed peaked too soon. I hate to say this, but if Gaby had
converted one of those 5 match points in the QF, she probably would
have beaten Arantxa easily again in the semi and would be in her
first French Open final on Saturday. Oh well.

Of course, I have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, but another factor
that worked against Arantxa is that she put too much pressure on
herself. Saying that she was the most consistent player this year
and perhaps should be #1 and if she had $1M to bet on the French Open
winner, she would bet on herself really doesn't help. Recall that
she really wanted to win the Olympics gold medal in front of her home
crowd last year? She failed to reach the final despite being the #2
seed. I think Arantxa is a much better player being the underdog.

Quote:
>Comments on the upcoming Graf-Fernandez final:

>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.

>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.

I agree that we are watching a different Mary Joe in this stage. That
was why her 1-6 record against Arantxa didn't matter much. I wouldn't
pay too much attention to Graf's 10-0 record against Mary Joe either.
Graf is still a better player than Mary Joe and will win as long as
she plays reasonably well. Graf played really well in the last couple of
rounds. However, as we have seen many times before (French 90, US Open 90,
Olympics 92, Lipton 93 ...), Graf can play great tennis going into a major
final and, for some reason, doesn't play too well at the most important
stage. Well, did I just get all the Steffi fans really worried? :-)

If Mary Joe wins, it would be very sweet for her because the work she
put in during the past year or so finally pays off. Moreover, most of
the attention Capriati has been getting in the US would be quickly
shifted to Mary Joe. In nine tournaments so far in 1993, Capriati has
reached the semi only twice (winning one of those two tournaments: Sydnay).
Is Capriati about to win a Grand Slam event and going to be the next #1?

Looking forward to a great final on Saturday.
--

     AT&T, 480 Red Hill Road, Middletown, NJ,  07748  USA