nds, were playing
like McGrath and
Tauziat. They jumped
out to a 5-2 lead and
seemed ready
to put
away their Russian foes.
Not so fast, though.
Young Kournikova led
the way as she and
Likhovtseva reeled off
three straight games.
These are the matches that are reviewed here:
August 28th; Women's doubles; first round
I arrived after the teams had split 6-3 sets. Anna and Elena were an interesting sight -- dark outfits (blue for Elena, purple for Anna), nearly equal height, and matching ponytails. The synchronicity is all well and good, but not when the opponents are kicking butt. Bobkova, who
looks like Meredith
McGrath, and
Melicherova, who
resembles Nathalie
Tauziat plus about 10
pounds, were playing
like McGrath and
Tauziat. They jumped
out to a 5-2 lead and
seemed ready
to put
away their Russian foes.
Not so fast, though.
Young Kournikova led
the way as she and
Likhovtseva reeled off
three straight games.
After holds by Bobkova and Likhovtseva, the match went to a decisive tiebreak. Down 3-2 in the tiebreak, the Russians took over. Big groundies by Anna K and a few errors by Melicherova were key to a five-point run which ended it. Likhovtseva and Kournikova triumph -- 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3). I was impressed by Kournikova, who hits the ball quite hard and has a bigger serve than her old juniors rival, Martina Hingis. Anna is one to watch. So is Melicherova, if only because she has one of the funkiest service motions I've ever seen. She goes into motion, stops cold, then serves. I assume it must take opponents some getting used to.
August 27th; Women's singles; 1st round
This match was the first of the day out on Court 12. Oh how the mighty has fallen -- after a couple years as a seed in singles, Natasha gets stuck out on one of the lesser outer courts. Persistent noise from what I guess is a generator; limited seating; another match only two courts away (close enough to hear the line calls). All in all, I don't think Z Woman was pleased. She spent the entire first set looking frustrated and uncomfortable. Her play was a tad inconsistent, but she appeared quite fit and was ripping plenty of winners. Ruano-Pascual offered no consistent challenge in the set and dropped it 6-2; NZ closed it out with a nice volley.
Theoretically, Natasha should have breezed through set 2.
However, the Spaniard stubbornly kept the ball in play and forced Zvereva to work for points. Meanwhile, the Belle of Belarus's serve -- good in the first set -- totally abandoned her. She was repeatedly called for foot faults, usually on serves which were long anyway. Natasha was a grumpy wreck in this set, frequently screeching and yelling. I believe she even shouted "Nyet!" once, which would be the first time I've heard her speak Russian on the court. Her focus kept going in and out -- she just didn't seem to be concentrating on half the points. Despite all of this, Zvereva's talent carried her to a 5-4 lead in the set and a chance to serve for the match. So what happened? She was broken at love to get to 5-all.
Natasha's demeanor got even worse at this point. She threw her racquet in disgust over a questionable baseline non-call and continued to hit ugly drop shot attempts into the net. Zvereva and Ruano-Pascual each held to set up a tiebreak. Early in the breaker, NZ dumped another volley in the net and whined something like "I can't believe it! Four times I've done that." On serve in the tiebreak down 5-4, Natasha served a double fault. She got back to 6-5, but then hit a forehand long on VRP's second set point. Natasha sadly walks back to her chair, looks to the stands, and mumbles "unreal." Every bit as disgusted as she is, I leave to check out Florencia Labat's match. By the way, Florencia smoked Ruano-Pascual 6-3, 6-2 just a few weeks earlier in Montreal.
I keep tabs on Natasha's process during the Labat match, checking the matches in progress scoreboard with my mini-binoculars. The NZ/VRP games are incredibly long and when I get back to Court 12 (now packed with fans) Natasha is only up 3-2 in the third. I picked a good time to come back -- it's a whole new Zvereva out there now, no longer going through the motions. She creams the ball on 3 straight points and goes up 0-40. She makes two errors for 30-40, but shakes them off and earns the break with a big winner down the line. Natasha celebrates with a wild, funky dance. The woman sure does put on a show when she's got a big enough crowd to play to. I'm telling ya, the dance was so great that I was tempted to forgive her the entire second set.
The end is near for Ruano Pascual, who should have been in over her head all the way. Her service game now back in order, Zvereva holds for a 5-2 lead, then breaks to win the match -- 6-2, 6-7, 6-2. She perhaps sarcastically raises her arms in victory and marches to her chair. Once there, she turns around her cap, puts on her snazzy sunglasses, and signs a bunch of autographs. What should have been a straight set cakewalk had somehow ballooned into a 2 hour, 25 minute epic. This match reminded me of why the Belle used to be my favorite player...and also reminded me of why she no longer is.
August 27th; Women's singles; first round
After the Edberg/Krajicek and Capriati/Ellwood matches ended, a huge flood of people poured out of the show courts and took over the outer courts. As a result, two matches I wanted to check out were totally mobbed -- long lines for Kimiko Date vs. Kimberly Po and not a seat to be had at Jeff Tarango's doubles match. Even Jeff's nattily attired wife Benedicte had trouble finding a place to sit at that one. So I high-tailed it to Court 9, where a contrast-in-styles bout between Frazier and Neiland was about to begin.
Court 9 is adjacent to Court 12 (see report #1) and has all the same problems, with even less
seating. The small stands were packed, although I got a nice second row spot behind Amy's chair.
The first three games or so were promising, with Larisa doing her chip-and-charge stuff and Amy
countering with solid groundstrokes. Neiland's game is one which can go totally haywire if it's
just a fraction or two off. That's what happened in the first set. Larisa wasn't missing by much,
but she was missing and missing and missing. Amy breaks in games 3, 5, and 7 to claim a
ridiculously easy 6-1 first set. After winning a long first game in the second set, Frazier goes back
to dominating. She ends up reeling off 11 games in a row for a 6-1, 5-0 lead. Not by doing
anything spectacular; she's just not making errors.
Suddenly, a few people seated near me
get it in their heads that they want to see
a Neiland comeback. They begin
shouting encouragement to her..and she
responds! Neiland holds in a tough sixth
game and gets on the board -- 5-1. Up
0-30, she hits a very nice winner and
performs a curtsey for her supporters.
She finishes off the love break and gets to
5-2. Game Eight features a funny
exchange between Frazier and the chair
umpire. After a Neiland shot apparently
sails long with no call, Amy complains
that it was out by a foot. The umpire
gives her a "you can't be serious" look
and cheerfully replies, "it wasn't a FOOT
out." Amy grins sheepishly and ends up
losing the argument...and then the game
on a Neiland ace.
Frazier finally settles down in her service game, holding at love and finishing a 6-1, 6-3 win which
lasted about one hour. Asked by someone who I was guess was a friend of hers about what
happened after she got the 5-0 lead, Amy responds, "I lost my concentration...I got so excited."
After watching Frazier do the same thing in the first round at the Canadian Open, I'd suggest that
she take some tips from Florencia Labat on the art of closing out an easy victory.
August 27th; Men's doubles; first round
I finally did get a seat for this one, arriving with Tarango/Delaitre down 7-6, 2-2. All four players have their moments, but essentially it's Tarango and Merklein hitting the winners, with Shelton and Delaitre hitting the errors. Shelton in particular gets really shaky. Twice he has match point on his racquet but hits hideous shots into the net. Everyone holds serve to 6-all, setting up another tiebreak. Tarango and Delaitre, both fired up, come up with the goods and win it 7-5 to even the match at a set per team. They carried the momentum all the way to a 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 victory as Merklein's magic subsided a bit and Shelton continued to be the goat.
After the match, Jeff and Benedicte chatted with some friends for quite a while. Jeff seems to be
a real Jekyll and Hyde type -- so nice and affable off the court; so surly and sour in the heat of
battle. He behaved himself pretty well in this match, though. Even throughout one discussion
with the umpire which lasted an entire changeover, Jeff remained calm and spoke so softly that I
couldn't figure out what he was complaining about. Delaitre was the bad boy on Tuesday,
smashing a ball into the fence and asking a heckler in the stands to take his racquet and see how
he could do. Olivier even got an audible obscenity for something he screamed in French. His
reply was the line of the day -- "Excuse my French."
August 28th; Women's doubles; first round
I got a seat right behind Martina's chair,
which explains how I got nice pictures with
a relatively weak zoom lens. They have
since had a falling out, but Martina and
Helena were smoking on this
afternoon.
They clicked seamlessly in a first set bagel
which seemed to last about 15 minutes.
Studenikova and Nagyova were totally
disoriented. On one point, Henrietta
served while Katarina was still casually
getting into position. So the latter was
totally unprepared when a return sailed past
her.
The tide turned abruptly at the start of the
second set. Helena and then Martina were
broken, giving Studenikova/Nagyova a 3-0
lead. The Wimbledon champs pulled it together, though, and put together another streak of six
games for the victory. This match was pretty brief and one-sided, but it was the highlight of my
day. I could watch Hingis for weeks on end. With her smooth strokes and relentless smile, she is
such a joy to behold. Hingis hung around after the 6-0, 6-3 win to sign a bunch of autographs.
The requests were plentiful, but she was thoroughly sweet about it.
August 28th; Women's doubles; first round
The Hingis match
made my day, but
watching Anke and Iva
up close was the icing
on the cake. Guy
Forget's marathon on
Court 17 forced this
one over to Court 18.
Word spread pretty
quickly, but I got there
just as the players were
arriving and the stands
were close to empty. 
Unfortunately, Anke's game arrived even later than the bulk of the crowd. Huber was simply awful in the first five games, all five of them going to Jeyaseelan and Simpson. The Canadians were earning some oohs and ahhs with their play, but Huber and Majoli mounted a comeback. They got all the way to 5-4 until Majoli was broken on a Simpson backhand down the line. First set to Jeyaseelan/Simpson, 6-4.
Anke fell apart again in the early games of set number two. She bounced her racquet a few times and kept shaking her head in disbelief at the errors she was producing. However, the high profile upset victims in singles went on another run here in doubles. They played a fantastic game to break for 4-3, then Iva held at love for 4-all.
Jeyaseelan held serve to take a 5-4 lead
and put the pressure on erratic Anke.
The tenth game of the set was a spirited,
high quality affair with a couple of
spectacular rallies. Huber and Majoli
took a 40-30 lead, but Simpson
responded with a winner. At deuce,
Anke promptly served two straight
double faults. Just like that, the match
was over. A pretty good 6-4, 6-4 win
for Sonya and Rene. As for Huber and
Majoli, they're not likely to remember
the '96 US Open fondly.
August 30th; Mixed doubles; first round
Yeah, this is the match I built my day around. I made
sure to show up early, which was good because Court
12 filled up twenty minutes before the players arrived.
Melanie Zogg, Martina's 
mother/coach, sat down
directly in front of me and spent the entire first set
there before moving up to my row. She even
accidentally touched me once. To my surprise,
Melanie quite warm and cheerful in person.
Martina and Christo had fun together. He did most of the talking during the changeovers. Hingis would mostly nod her head and was almost always smiling when she went back out to the court. They also clicked well during the points. Van Rensburg came up with the power and Hingis supplied the finesse. They broke Graham's serve in the fourth game of the set and held on to win it 6-3.
The second set was essentially a repeat of
the first. The teams were pretty evenly
matched and had lots of great rallies, but
Graham's pitiful serves were the difference.
They were on serve in the second at 4-3
Hingis/Van Rensburg when Graham
committed two mo
re double faults (she had
six in the match) and got broken. Christo
then served out a 6-3, 6-3 victory which
was very well received by the crowd. As
she did all week, Martina stayed and signed
a remarkable number of autographs.
August 30th; Women's doubles; second round
The following is my account of a
match you certainly didn't see on
television or read about in the
newspapers. For the few of us who
saw every point of it, however, it
was thoroughly riveting tennis. I
spent most of this Friday out at
lowly Court 21, where Nideffer and
Hy-Boulais, fresh off an upset win
over Schultz-McCarthy and Tauziat,
were set to take on Labat and
Kijimuta. I ended up sitting with a
fairly large contingent of Japanese
fans who exuberantly cheered for
Naoko and Flo throughout. 
The tennis dress phenomenon really is spreading. Patricia Hy-Boulais sported a nice one for this match, but it was no help in the first set. Florencia and Naoko were on fire. Flo was even SMILING, for crying out loud, which I have never seen her do during a match. I think she's finally found a partner she enjoys playing with. It's too bad that Kijimuta's skills are limited. She's good at the net but has rather sluggish reflexes, a pretty weak serve, and inconsistent groundstrokes. Flo was the star of the first set, which they took 6-1 after a love break of Nideffer.
The wily 30-somethings didn't go away, though. They immediately broke Kijimuta to open the second set. It was all holds after that to 5-4, with Nideffer serving. Labat and Kijimuta earned two break points in that crucial game but Ros and Patricia fought them off and won the set 6-4.
The streak of games won on serve continued in the third set. Hy-Boulais got down 30-40 in the sixth game, but she and Nideffer reeled off three straight winners and got to 3-all. The next game was a long one, with weak link Kijimuta finally broken to make it 4-3. A Nideffer hold followed, giving her and Patricia a 5-3 lead in the final set. Florencia, serving well all afternoon, got down 15-30 before she and Naoko fought back to 5-4.
Hy-Boulais then served for the match, but the Argentina/Japan duo came out focused and ready. They got a break point and made the most of it -- a big Florencia winner to the baseline made it 5-5. Kijimuta then rolled through her service game, ripping a backhand down the line at 40-0 to take a 6-5 lead. With their backs now against the wall, Hy-Boulais and Nideffer did not crack. A Nideffer service winner at 40-15 sent the match to a do or die third set tiebreak. The old timers (as tennis pros go) jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the breaker, but Flo and Naoko battled back to 4-all.
A volley winner by Kijimuta makes it 5-4. A Hy-Boulais service winner makes it 5-5. A forehand error by Hy-Boulais gives Kijimuta/Labat a match point at 6-5. However, an atrocious backhand volley by Flo bounces before even reaching the net, making it 6-all. Hy-Boulais barely gets a racquet on a Labat smash, giving Flo/Naoko a second match point up 7-6. High backhand volley winner by Hy-Boulais evens it at 7-all. A Labat lob sails barely long, giving Ros/Patricia a match point up 8-7. A winning smash by Kijimuta makes it 8-8. A Labat forehand volley goes long -- it's 9-8 in favor of Nideffer and Hy-Boulais.
On the 18th point of this incredibly tense tiebreak, a forehand by Kijimuta apparently catches the baseline but is ruled out on a late call. Everything comes to a complete stop -- the crowd and the players are stunned into silence. Then the Japanese fans near me begin shouting at the chair umpire. Hy-Boulais and Nideffer congratulate each other and walk to the net. Florencia finally speaks up, asking the umpire if she's absolutely sure that the ball was long. The umpire responds that it was too close to overrule. Labat reluctantly agrees to accept the loss and shake hands with the opponents, but she makes a point of blowing off the umpire.
Despite the unfortunate ending, this was without a doubt the best match I attended in three days
at the '96 US Open. There were nervous errors on big points from all four players, but the last
two sets were incredibly close and exciting. It's a shame that Florencia and Naoko weren't able to
score the victory, because they would have had a realistic path to the quarterfinals (where their
opponents would have been Hingis and Sukova). Instead, they went home with a very tough loss.
Hats off to the former Miss Fairbank and the spunky Canadian for gutting out the win, though. It
was an outstanding effort from both teams; it's a shame either one had to lose.
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