"Doubles Drubbing: Amelia Double-Dipper over Hometown Gator-Fave"

by Marsha Strong

Sunday, April 13th was a very good day for Lindsay Davenport. Not only did she have very little trouble dominating a lackadaisical Mary Pierce in the Bausch & Lomb Singles Final held at Amelia Island, Florida, but she also managed to have a fairly easy time sharing the doubles title with her partner, Jana Novotna. Sweeping both the singles and doubles crowns is a feat referred to as "double-dipping" and few players are able to achieve it, especially on the same day, with only a short break between games (at the Slams, Singles and Doubles finals are usually on different days). However, on April 13, 1997, Lindsay Davenport managed to do just that -- hope she bought herself a lottery ticket for that day as well!

To achieve this end, though, Lindsay and Jana first had to fend off the game efforts of hometown favorite, ex-UF "Gator" Nicole Arendt and her partner Manon ("Bolly") Bollegraf. With cheers of "Go Gator!" and "Come on, Bolly" ringing through the air, the clearly crowd-favored team managed to stay close in the first set, losing it by only a service break. But in the second set, Davenport/ Novotna turned up the heat and "Hometown Gal" Arendt had her service game broken twice (despite three well-timed aces off her lefty out-wide serve), resulting in a final score of 6-3, 6-0.

The Arendt/Bollegraf team had done very well to get into the finals. Seeded 4th, they had received a first round bye, but faced a challenge in the second round from the team of Magdelena Grzybowska and Shi-Ting Wang. The latter team extended Arendt (or "Ardent" as the scoreboard read for about half the match) and Bollegraf to three sets, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.

Nor did Nicki and Bolly have a much easier time defeating the 6th-seeded team of Martinez/Tarabini, in another exciting momentum-shifting match, characterized by its long points. Even when Patricia "Pato" Tarabini sent her racquet flying over the court wall to try to catch a ball that had gone that way (a highlight for many Pato-watchers), both teams were in it until the end.

Finally, Arendt/Bollegraf met their toughest competitors in the top-seeded team of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Larisa Neiland. Both teams played exceptional ball in the first set, with Sanchez Vicario/Neiland managing to squeak out one break of service to take the first set 6-4. They were also able to get a break early in the second when Manon, annoyed by the appearence of the nightly gnats and unable to get her bug repellent applied to her liking, used that anger to kick up her game and tie the second set at 3-all. The evenness of play continued throughout that set, leading to a tie-breaker which seesawed back and forth until Arendt/Bollegraf were finally able to secure it at 12-10. Now fighting off darkness, creeping cold, and gnats, the Sanchez Vicario/Neiland duo let down their guard a bit and Larisa (who had to have a trainer treat her blisters in the first set and seemed to hyper-extend her knee at the end of the second) had her service game quite easily broken. When Arantxa's serve was broken also, it was all over but the shouting. Sanchez Vicario/Neiland were able to dig deep and get one of the breaks back, but it was too little too late and the match ended with Arendt/Bollegraf on top, 4-6, 7-6 (12), 6-3.

The Davenport/Novotna duo had a bit of an easier time in their march to the final. Seeded third, their second round match found them opposing Tina Krizan and Noelle Van Lottum, who were able to win just two games against the higher-ranked pair. Likewise, it took only two sets for Jana and Lindsey to defeat Dragomir/Majoli, due in part to the fact that Iva had earlier in the day fought a grueling three-set battle to emerge victorious over Conchita Martinez in Women's Singles.

The only team to give Davenport/Novotna any test at all were the Olympic gold-medal team of Fernandez/Fernandez. Even with a back injury sustained in her match against Amanda Coetzer, Mary Joe was able to give a good account of herself and Gigi put away some lovely volleys and smashing overheads, This, however, not enough to stave off the steadily-improving Jana/Lindsay duo, although Fernandez/Fernandez was the only team who was able to extend their match to three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

All-in-all, the Bausch & Lomb was a great tournament for lovers of the game of doubles -- many close exciting matches and great play all around. The diverstiy of women's doubles players was showcased at Amelia

with all colors of the spectrum represented -- from the interesting newcomers such as Elena Wagner and Olga Lugina to the primarily doubles specialists such as Bollegraf, Mercedes Paz, Patricia Tarabini, Gigi Fernandez, and Caroline Vis, to the top ten players who manage to do both such as Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Conchita Martinez, Iva Majoli, Davenport and Novotna. With the new pairings which are slated to occur on European clay (Zvereva and McGrath; Hingis and Sanchez Vicario) as well as such old standbys as Arendt/Bollegraf, Martinez/Tarabini and Appelmans/Oremans, May and June should prove to be provide more exciting and entertaining moments in the world of women's doubles.

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