Due to travelling arrangements, Chris Gerby could not be on the scene for the final in Toronto. Luckily, technology came to the rescue. My newly installed satellite dish helps out once again! (It helped me cover the Kuerten-Chang match in Montreal before.)
What stood out about the final were three things - grunting, breaks of serve, and Anke failing to convert her chances. Oh, and one more thing: more incredible returns from Seles. She'd hit incredible returns in the semifinal, against Conchita, and she hit more now.
The number of times Huber was up 40-15 either on her own serve or against Monica's serve was quite large, the number of times she actually won the game not so large at all. That's a shame, because it can make a match much less competitive than it might have been.
The match had 18 service games, 11 of which, sadly, were breaks of serve. Such, alas, too often is the way of women's tennis, and I think it is something that may be putting people off it. It's not making me happy, I must say. Certainly makes me think again about those plans to make men's tennis slower. Take away the service power. If it means quite as many breaks of serve as happened in Sunday's final, I must say it is a bad plan indeed.
The grunting, meanwhile, was most distressing. I've not liked Monica's grunting for years. I think she's a very sweet person, and she's undoubtedly a brilliant tennis player (always go for an understatement when you have the chance), but the grunting is a big problem. It annoys me. Does it not annoy other people? Does it not annoy the players?
Normally, Anke is not a huge grunter. But Sunday she seemed to be trying to produce more decibels than Monica. She may have won, even. I'd give the first set of decibels to her, the second maybe to Seles.
Don't get me wrong, I know full well that the players are expending a lot of effort and energy on the court. Grunting can then be inevitable. It can still be annoying, of course.
In conclusion, the final was hardly a classic. It happens ...