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by Prip As their mixed doubles semifinal got underway, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Todd Woodbridge looked like they were in a class of their own against Kristie Boogert and David Adams, and were having their way on the court. As the guy usually has a tendency to do, David was doing more than his share, or trying to, anyway. Shorts that he clearly should have left to Kristie, some where she was already in position to play, he went for, and either got a weak shot back or left the court open. He ended up making a lot more errors than Kristie. Sure enough, they found themselves down 1-4 in the first set. Kristie soon exerted her position on the court, though, when she smacked him square on the back with a hard flat service return. That seemed to do the trick, as he immediately started sharing responsibilities on the court in a more reasonable proportion in the next game. Playing more like the team that took out the second seeds (Leander Paes and often-discounted reigning doubles champion Lisa Raymond), David and Kristie got one break back. Two pathetic overheads, one by David and the other by Kristie, let Arantxa (displaying amazingly quick hands despite her age) and Todd get the break back, Arantxa showing her opponents how to hit an overhead on the last point of the game. Arantxa and Todd took the first set 6-3, and immediately broke David’s serve to open the second set. Arantxa had a bit of difficulty on her service game, but held serve anyway. The level of play picked up a bit, and the crowd which had been falling asleep started to get a little livelier, with the better tennis on the court and the anticipation of the ladies’ singles championship final. Despite a better effort from Kristie and David, Arantxa and Todd were by far the better players, and they closed out the match in 6-3 6-3 fashion. Between Todd and Arantxa’s efforts, there was a 1 ½ hours between the conclusion of the Mixed Doubles semifinals and the official starting time for the Women’s final. Of course, the actual match would start a lot later than the time scheduled. The crowd was subjected to the same few songs that had been playing between matches for the whole 2 weeks, and most of them left to catch some lunch or to stretch their legs while the grounds crew prepared the court for singles play. It was a nice moment, though, when it was announced that a young girl would be tossing the coin before the match instead of the umpire. An anonymous businessman had won the honour during an auction, but had donated it to a children’s hospital instead. It looked rather windy out on court as the girl stood nervously by the umpire, waiting for Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport to make their appearances. Meanwhile, among the familiar faces in the players’ box were the newly crowned doubles champions, Rennae Stubbs and Lisa Raymond. Not surprising, since they’re among Lindsay’s best friends on the tour. The two top seeds soon came out, amid ample applause from the impatient crowd. The received their complimentary flowers, and settled their bags down at their respective chairs. Lindsay took a little longer than Martina, and the Swiss took the opportunity to shake hands and talk with the girl. Lindsay soon got her act together and had a few words with the girl. Martina ended up winning the toss, and the warmup started as the girl walked off the court, getting some warm applause from the crowd. Lindsay started out playing a little cautiously, limiting her movement around court. It looked like she was making an extra effort to guard her hamstring injury, and despite a slow start from Martina, the top seed moved to a 40-15 lead in the opening game, and went on to hold serve. Lindsay soon started to move around a little better, perhaps finding her hamstring a little looser after the long warmup (and a long pre-match massage session I’m sure), and the match started to look more like the battle people had walked in expecting. Lindsay’s returns were pretty much paralyzing Martina’s game, and she powered her way out of a 30-0 deficit to give herself a narrow opportunity to break, and got it on a close line call. The favour was returned, though, when a shot that looked long from Martina was called in, and what looked like a service return winner from Lindsay was called out. As both players started hitting their shots deeper and deeper, it looked like the linespeople were going to have a tough day at work. Lindsay’s power was just too much for Martina, though, and it became obvious why Lindsay had the track record that she had against Martina Hingis in 1999. Anyone playing Lindsay starts every point at a disadvantage. With Lindsay’s dramatically improved serve, she gets free points or easy sitters on the first shot. And her service returns are well known enough. The only chance Martina had was when she managed to get Lindsay into a rally. And even then, the points were nearly evenly split between the two. While Lindsay was playing great, it also didn’t help that Martina was instigating a battle of egos. Not only did she want to win this match, she wanted to beat Lindsay at her own game. Martina didn’t make enough effort to play her own game, and let Lindsay draw her into slugfests, which naturally, went Lindsay’s way. The crowd couldn’t believe their eyes, as Lindsay systematically took Martina apart, taking game after game. Frustration grew as Martina lost the first set 6-1 in exactly 20 minutes, and Lindsay held serve to open the second set. A sudden string of errors off Lindsay’s racquet let Martina hold serve for only the second time in the match, though, and Martina was glad to snap Lindsay’s 7 game streak. The break didn’t last very long, though, as Lindsay picked up her play again. The crowd was even more shellshocked than Martina was as Lindsay jumped to a 5-1 lead in the second set, and would serve for the title. Ironically, at 30-15, 3-1, someone had shouted between points, "Come on, Martina! It’s your court!". No one, I’m sure, in their wildest dreams, would expect the top seed and #1 player in the world to fall so meekly in the final of a Grand Slam event after breezing through the first 6 rounds. There were murmurs in the crowd, and the press members were already packing up and ready to go, eager to compare this final against the 1988 French Open final where Natasha Zvereva was killed 6-0 6-0 by Steffi Graf in 38 minutes, and never recovered from that. This section of the match was particularly entertaining for the members of the press sitting near the top few rows of the media section. One of the spectators sitting just behind the section was most definitely a Lindsay fan, and every shot was punctuated by nervous commentary. For example, if Martina threw a drop shot, she would excitedly say, "ohh, come one, go go go go go!". Everyone sitting in the area was entertained by the fan, and while it lent a tinge of humour to the situation, it also added to the drama and suspense. Lindsay relaxed a little too soon, though, and Martina actually got some good deep service returns in to start the points for her well. Between Lindsay playing more tentatively and less aggressively, and Martina’s renewed confidence seeing a small window of hope, Martina looked more like the player we’re used to seeing on court, hitting the ball confidently and with purpose instead of just retrieving the ball. Almost unbelievably, Martina fought hard and came back from the dead, taking 4 games in a row to even the second set up at 5-all. Those who had been patient enough to stay for the conclusion of the match were rewarded by this sudden burst of confidence from Martina, and it goes without saying that the Lindsay fan was on the edge of her seat with every point. The crowd, wanting to see three sets, swayed a little more in favour of Martina. Lindsay knew that she’d thrown a huge lead down the drain, though, and snapped out of her subdued play. She knew that against a player like Martina, things can turn around very suddenly, and she wasn’t about to take that chance. She started getting her big serves in again, and snapped Martina’s 4 game streak to hold serve and go up 6-5 in the second set. As both players walked to their chairs during the changeover, Melanie buried her face in her hands, as nervous as ever. Her daughter would be in a situation so familiar yet totally alien to her: on the losing end in the final of the first Grand Slam of the year against Lindsay Davenport. After a tension-filled changeover, Martina went up to serve to keep her hopes for a fourth consecutive title alive. Feeling the pressure to perform once again, now that Lindsay was back to blasting the fuzz off the ball. Going for a 2 good serves, she double-faulted, taking Lindsay a quarter of the way to the title. A deep service return from Lindsay on the next point drew an error off Martina’s racquet, taking care of step two for Davenport. Martina managed to draw out her third service point a little longer, but a close call on her half-volley was called out, giving Lindsay 3 points to take her first Australian Open and third Grand Slam singles title. Murmurs went around the stadium as Martina took a couple of balls from the ballkid, but the stadium went totally silent as she got ready to serve. That was one of the qualities of the stadium that couldn’t be found on any other court in Melbourne Park. No outside noises (except for an overhead plane) made it into the stadium, so when the spectators were quiet, the atmosphere was absolutely electric. A collective sigh went around as Martina faulted on the first serve. Silence again. Martina got her second serve in, but Lindsay knew that this was her point, and played textbook tennis, getting the final unforced error off Martina’s racquet. The youngster was understandably upset, but I suppose the general feeling was that it was inevitable that Lindsay would take the title. Lindsay managed to keep her winning streak over Martina, and managed to come within one title of a career Slam -- the world #1 and #2 only had one trophy missing from their mantelpiece, and the trophy at Roland Garros will certainly be hotly contested for. In many levels, this reflects the way women’s tennis has changed in the last few years -- the French Open was usually the first title won by "the greats." The grounds crew took a few minutes to set up the court for the presentation, and everyone took the time to reflect on what had nearly been a 6-1 6-1 massacre. It was nice to see Martina putting on more of a sporting demeanour as opposed to the previous day, as she went up to take the unfamiliar runner-up trophy. She opened her speech with a cute remark, which will probably be remembered for years, saying that she had done all that she could to keep the match going for at least an hour. It’s always awkward having to hear the runners-up speeches, because no one really prepares for that. Preparing a runner-up speech would be admitting defeat before the match was even played. So after rambling a little about the match, and going through the usual rounds, Martina ended her impromptu speech, amid warm applause from the crowd. The real applause was, of course, reserved for the champ, good ol' Lindsay Davenport. I’ve found it interesting that Lindsay has managed to maintain her girl-next-door image despite being very outspoken about certain issues since first reaching the pinnacle of the tennis rankings. Even Jelena Dokic didn’t dare utter a disparaging word against her when Lindsay mocked the youngster’s situation. Anyway, Lindsay was, of course, thrilled with her performace. Her speech wasn’t as emotional as Rennae’s had been a day earlier, and after probably having given more trophy-presentation speeches than she’d care for, she went through her standard rounds, managing to fit Lisa and Stubbsy in there. She obliged with the many photos, and did a lap of honour around the court, to the delight of the many spectators in the stands with cameras, and after posing for more photos, headed off the court amid thunderous applause. Later that evening would see a wonderful setting with Lindsay and her trophy floating casually down the Yarra river during sunset. And that wrapped up the Australian Open for the women. Everyone took a short break before the start of the next match, the men’s doubles final between Ellis Ferriera and Rick Leach, and Andrew Kratzmann and Wayne Black. In what turned out to be a four-and-a-half hour battle of thrills that had to be as mentally exhausting as it was physically, the "underwear gang" (Ferriera and Leach) managed to escape with an 18-16 victory in the final set. Not only would Rennae Stubbs be the only Australian to hold a title in her home Slam, but she had a good chance to throw in the mixed doubles title for good measure with her partner, Jared Palmer, the following day. And to think they quickened the courts to give their home men the advantage... |