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Friday, July 28, 2000 Day Matches Williams def. Frazier 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5) In this extremely close 3 set marathon, the victor won by only 3 points. This match had a weird sense of symmetry to it. Whatever one player did, the other player countered. Venus would win a game, and then Amy would win one. The entire first set was played on serve ending in a tiebreaker. Even then, the score was close till the 12th point when Frazier took the edge and won the tiebreak and the set. Amidst all the tension caused by the brilliant tennis, there were some joking comments from the crowd. One man shouted, "Go Serena!" while Venus was serving. The second set was like a seesaw in terms of breaks. At first it looked like Frazier was going to use the momentum coming off the first set to run away in the second. She broke Venus to go up 3-1. However, Venus broke right back in the next game and went on a 3 game run to lead it by 4-3. Amy held the next game, and then Venus won 2 in a row and won the set 6-4. During the set, Frazier disputed many close line calls. Venus was given a time violation warning because she stayed in her seat too long during a changeover. The third set was another struggle for both players. Frazier broke back to take the 5-3 lead and got herself a chance to serve out the match. However, as Venus told us after the match, she didn't feel like she was going home yet. As it turned out, she wasn't about to. She broke back to 5-4. From then on, they stayed on serve to bring the match into a 3rd set tiebreak. The tiebreak couldn't be any closer: Frazier-Williams, 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 5-4, 5-5(ace), 5-6 (pass), 7-5(down the line winner) Game, Set, Match --Williams Davenport def. Rubin 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 This one turned out to be another 3 setter. Davenport being the number one seed and playing extremely well gave Rubin a tough challenge, but she was up to it. After losing the 1st set 3-6, she rallied back in the next set going up 3-0 and winning it eventually 6-3 thus taking Davenport to a third deciding set. But that was when she ran out of gas. Davenport showed no mercy to finish off fellow American 6-1 in the third. After the match, Lindsay talked about her upcoming opponent, Monica Seles. She said that she and Monica have a similar game. To win, she will have to make her run so she can't step into a lot of balls. And holding serve is a key Lindsay pointed out. The world #2 player also express how special this tournament is for her, especially 2 years ago when she beat Graf and Venus to win here and go on winning all 3 CA tourneys. She definitely wants to go for it again this year. Doubles: Black/Frazier def. Lastra/Tokuda 6-3, 6-1 Night Matches Kournikova def Testud 6-3, 6-2 1 hr and 3 mins Anna's match started late because the day matches finished late due to the marathon matches of Amy/Venus and Lindsay/Chanda. Crowd started to line up outside the stadium waiting for the finish of the doubles match. When the stadium finally cleared of the day match spectators, it didn't take long before the eager fans filed in to witness the Russian "babe", Anna Kournikova, strut her stuff. For the whole match, Anna was in complete control. She went straight into a 3-love lead and wound up winning the first set 6-3. The second set started with a long and eventful game which lasted as long as half of the first set. In that one game, the chair empire, Christina Olausson, made 3 overrules against Anna. Two of which were on the other side of the net. They were called good by the linesmen, but the chair ruled them out. Anna was pretty riled by then, but there were more to come. The third overrule came when the ball landed right in front of Anna. It was clearly out and it was called out, but the chair had a different view so she called it good. By then, Anna really was pissed off. The crowd was aroused too. A crescendo of boo's emerged from the stands, and in the heat of the moment, Anna walked up to the umpire's chair with a mouthful of arguments. She was sarcastically asking, "Are they all blind then?" As she got up to the chair, she smashed her racquet on the net in a release of her frustration. The racquet broke and she had to retrieve a new one as the chair gave her a warning. After the ordeal, Anna went back to the unfinished game and broke Sandrine's serve. The rest of the set went pretty smoothly. No more run-in's with the umpire. Anna closed out the set 6-1. Throughout the match, Testud made many attempts to come into the net, but they were mostly unsuccessful due to some nicely placed low shots by Anna. When the match ended, Anna still walked up to the umpire and graciously shook her hand. In the post match interview she said she was just caught in the heat of the moment. She also declared that this was the first time she's ever broken a racquet on purpose. Doubles: Graham/Po def. De Lone/Pratt 6-3, 7-6(4) |