LIPTON ARTICLE #3: MEN'S/WOMEN'S DOUBLES

Both doubles finals at the 1997 Lipton ended in straight set victories for the #1 seeds, but getting there was quite eventful in both cases. For one thing, the top seeded women took a while to find their rhythm. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Natasha Zvereva, who had been on opposite sides of a spirited doubles rivalry for the past several years, found themselves together at this event. They had won a couple titles as partners before...in 1992. The effects of a five-year layoff were evident in a fairly lackluster 6-4, 6-4 second round win over Ann Grossman and Karina Habsudova. Arantxa and Natasha did enough to win and certainly seemed to be having fun, but it was by no means a brilliant performance.

Sanchez Vicario and Zvereva found themselves in

considerably deeper trouble in the next round, against Chanda Rubin and Brenda Schultz-McCarthy. Big Brenda's rocket serves consistently kept the top seeds at bay, blowing off potential break opportunities left and right. Down 6-4, 3-3, the Spain/Belarus combination finally kicked into high gear. Many of the games which followed were close, but all ended the same way. Sanchez Vicario and Zvereva, with the support of a very vocal crowd on the packed Grandstand court, rolled through 9 games in a row to advance 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.

The situation would be much the same a few days later, with an excited crowd witnessing a marquee doubles semifinal between Sanchez Vicario/Zvereva and Mary Joe Fernandez/Martina Hingis. The popular Fernandez-Hingis pairing came in on a hot streak, having lost a total of just eight games in their first three matches of the tournament. All four players had enthusiastic fans in the crowd and the match was a nail-biting thriller. The top seeds finally prevailed 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 and advanced to the final.

So form eventually held in the top half of the women's doubles draw, but the complete opposite had taken place in the bottom half. It was "Wednesday Bloody Wednesday" for the top two teams there, who both perished in major upsets. #3 seeds Jana Novotna and Lindsay Davenport appeared truly exhausted after Sabine Appelmans and Miriam Oremans slipped past them 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 for a place in the quarterfinals. #2 seeds Larisa Neiland and Helena Sukova looked rather flat and lethargic as they were shown the door 6-0, 7-5 by Amanda Coetzer and Anke Huber. Coetzer was easily the smallest player on the court, but she was the star of the match. Even Huber, a singles star who has looked utterly confused playing doubles in the past, came through with a solid effort.

These surprise quarterfinalists continued their run with wins on Thursday. Coetzer and Huber got a morning Stadium assignment against #5 seeds Nicole Arendt and Manon Bollegraf and made the most of it. The new Coetzer-Huber team routed the experienced Arendt-Bollegraf combination 6-2, 6-3. Later that afternoon, Appelmans and Oremans secured their place in the semis with a 6-3, 7-5 win on the Grandstand. Naoko Kijimuta and Nana Miyagi were stubborn in defeat, fighting off a handful of match points before Appelmans put away the winning volley.

The two teams who weren't even supposed to get out of the 3rd round now squared off for the chance to face Zvereva and Sanchez Vicario in the final. Appelmans and Oremans had reached this point before -- they were semifinalists at the 1995 Lipton. While a great many recent women's doubles partnerships have disbanded like so many rounds of "musical chairs," Belgium's sweetheart and the Dutch Fed Cup star have stuck together. Having never won a title together or even made a serious run at one in a Grand Slam, this match represented a huge opportunity. They had come too far in this tournament to be denied a

spot in the final by a brand new unseeded team. Coetzer and Huber were not your average unseeded partners by any means, but they did indeed succumb 6-4, 6-2.

The dream run for "Apples and Oranges" finally came to an end in the final. This was much more familiar territory for Sanchez Vicario and Zvereva -- Natasha had already won 63 doubles titles in her career; Arantxa had claimed 49. Whatever contributed to their sluggish showings early in the tournament had been taken care of. Obviously in sync by now, Sanchez Vicario and Zvereva fulfilled their destiny as #1 seeds with a 6-2, 6-3 victory in the final.

The men's doubles champions took the opposite road, winning easily until a tough battle in the final. Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde are clearly the preeminent force in men's doubles. "The Woodies" came into the 1997 Lipton having won 42 titles as a team, including the past two years at Key Biscayne. If they were going to be tested, it wouldn't be early. Kelly Jones and Scott Melville exited 6-3, 6-4 in the 2nd round...Jiri Novak and David Rikl started strong but went down 7-6, 6-1...U.S. Davis Cup partners Rick Leach and Jonathan Stark went quietly 6-3, 6-4 in the quarters...Neil Broad and Piet Norval took a semifinal loss by the same score.

Awaiting the Woodies in the final were Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor. Having just won the State Farm Evert Cup doubles title in Indian Wells, the rapidly improving Knowles/Nestor team would be no pushover. They left many talented doubles players in their wake on the way to the final -- Byron Black and Grant Connell went out to them in straight sets in the quarterfinals, as did Luis Lobo and Javier Sanchez in the semis.

A competitive final appeared very possible and those hoping for one were not disappointed. The dominant Australians walked away with their third straight Lipton title, but not until after being pushed to a pair of razor-thin close tiebreaks. The Woodies claimed the first 8-6 and the second 10-8. Having survived quite a scare, Woodbridge and Woodforde ran their career record in finals to an amazing 43-7.

The odds-on favorites were Key Biscayne champions again, but there were other interesting happenings earlier in the men's doubles competition. Men's doubles tends to be the domain of good players most people have never heard of, but that wasn't always the case at this year's Lipton. Wayne Ferreira made up for a lackluster showing in singles by reaching the doubles quarterfinals with Paul "Killer" Kilderry, scoring a mammoth upset of #2 seeds Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis in the 3rd round. Jim Courier and Marc Rosset won their opening match together and nearly advanced to the 3rd round, but were clipped by Novak and Rikl 8-6 in a 3rd set tiebreak. Goran Ivanisevic joined with Andrea Gaudenzi to score a first round win, but Carlos Moya was less fortunate (he and fellow Spaniard Carlos Costa went down 7-5 in the 3rd set of their opening match).

Perhaps least impressive of all were two guys actually known for their doubles play -- Luke Jensen and Murphy Jensen were silenced 6-4, 6-1 in a night match against South Africans Marcos Ondruska and Grant Stafford. The Jensens were gone long before the only other steady doubles team able to draw a crowd even at their practice sessions, the trophy-hogging Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.