Big Hitting |
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Big Hitting |
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The morning session experiment here at the Chase Championships has gone about as expected. Attendance has been only marginally better than it usually was for the late night matches these 11 A.M. starts have replaced. Even with #6 seed Mary Pierce (c
The pesky net cord which had made its presence felt on the tournament's first two evenings was at it again. In the opening game, three consecutive points ended on Pierce shots which grazed the tape: one fell over for a lucky winner, one tumbled back
For Coetzer this has been, in her words, "a really interesting year." She won the big clay court event at Hilton Head and made a nice run at the U.S. Open, but her ranking fell from a career high 4th to 16th. Things would apparently get worse for he
Decked out in her latest sleeveless Nike number, Pierce went back to overpowering Coetzer, breaking at 15 with a winner from the backhand side. She then stormed through the seventh game, blasting an ace for 40-0 and converting triple set point with a
The carnage continued in the second set, Pierce ripping through another break for 1-0, another hold for 2-0, and yet another break to go up 3 games to none. Coetzer finally came up with a nice winner in the set's fourth game, but it was immediately f however, Mary reeled off three straight points, adding an exclamation point with a 98 MPH ace on match point.
The match was "over too quickly," Coetzer said afterwards. To be specific, the 6-1, 6-0 demolition took just 44 minutes. Pierce had cause to be pleased with the quickest win of the week. Her winners had doubled her unforced errors -- 18 to 9. "I j
Martina Hingis has already accomplished virtually everything there is to accomplish in women's tennis, but one thing she had yet to do was win a doubles match at Madison Square Garden. After first round losses with Helena Sukova in '96 and Arantxa Sa
Big serves from Vis -- including an ace and a sevice winner -- made the difference in Game 6, a hold for 4-2. Novotna held easily for 4-3 and teamed with Hingis to take a 0-40 edge on Basuki's serve. However, the #1 seeds made five errors in a row t
This was heady stuff for a team which had only gotten into the tournament on a technicality. Basuki and Vis actually finished ninth in the '98 "Race to the Chase" doubles standings. Luckily, for them the eighth place team was Martina HInigis/Mirjana
The set's second game featured some of the afternoon's highest quality play. Hingis twice hit service return winners, but they were negated by an airborne Vis smash and a Basuki ace. A Vis volley right at Novotna completed a hold for 1-1, but Hingis
Holds from Novotna and Basuki opened the third and final set. Yayuk rolled over a pair of big forehand winners in the third game, but Hingis made a nifty shoestring volley to fight off break point. Vis earned a second break chance with a forehand wi
At 30-30 in the fourth game, all four players got involved in a breathtaking rally which went from the baselines to the net. It ended with a Hingis volley clipping the tape, Basuki angling a volley reply, and Novotna falling to her knees as she flick
After Novotna held at love for 3-2, Irina Spirlea and Patricia Tarabini sat down in the players box. Maybe word had spread that a big upset was brewing -- two games later, Sandrine Testud emerged and took a seat in the stands. Hingis was making a go
Hingis and Novotna had cruised through most of their service games in the last two sets. Game Nine was no different, Novotna holding without difficulty for 5-4. So the match now rested on the racquet of Yayuk Basuki, who would attempt to serve it ou
Gigi Fernandez uncharacteristically missed a number of volleys late in her farewell match at the '97 Chase. Basuki looked to be following in her footsteps, netting volleys for 0-15 and 15-30. The next point was a wild one -- Novotna made two almost
One of the better -- if not well known -- doubles teams on the tour in the past few years was able to celebrate a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win before appreciative fans who cheered loudly and clamored for autographs. Yayuk Basuki will be playing at least one mor
The marquee matchup of the '98 Chase first round arguably may have been Graf vs. Novotna, but the most tangible pre-match buzz I felt in the arena this year was for sentimental favorite Monica Seles's bout with glamour girl Anna Kournikova. As two of
Both players came into the match with a fairly serious problem. For Anna Kournikova, the concern was a tennis equivalent of what Kevin Costner's journeyman golf pro in the movie "Tin Cup" dubbed "the shanks". Kournikova had simply lost the ability t
Seles looked strong early on, however, holding at love to open the match. Kournikova, on the other hand, wasted no time in resuming the troubles which have plagued her of late. Double faults for 0-15 and 0-40 helped Seles along to a 2-0 lead. Seles
Back on serve at 3-2, Kournikova seemed to be right in the thick of this match again. However, she fell behind again after hitting an amazing five double faults in Game 6. That she was able to keep the game going so long by winning most of the ralli
Once again, the deficit was only one and the break advantage had been eliminated. Not much of a comfort when you're liable to break yourself with double faults. Indeed, Kournikova committed a double at 15-0 and another at 30-40. Rather than simply
Seles played a solid game to hold for 1-0 in the second. Kournikova managed to toss in another pair of double faults in Game 2, but won the rest of the points in that game to hold. The teen was starting to mix things up, employing a topspin lob and
Both players had to do a good deal of running in the long fifth game. That was not necessarily to Seles's advantage, but she kept the ball in play and drew enough errors from Kournikova to finally hold for a 3-2 lead. A few more errant groundstrokes
After the changeover, Kournikova stepped to the line and promptly struck a serve about three feet long. She got another ball and hit her second serve...about three feet long. That ugly, demoralizing double fault was followed by another for 30-30 and
Seles hit a very lethargic looking one-handed forehand long to fall behind 15-40 in the ninth game of the set. However, Kournikova's forehand got wild again and Seles took three straight points to set up match point. She missed her first serve, but
As the reigning U.S. Open champion and #1 player in the world, Lindsay Davenport went into Wednesday night's match as a heavy favorite against France's Sandrine Testud. Which is not to slight Testud, who has earned a "giant killer" reputation and eve
If expectations were all that mattered, they wouldn't have to play the matches, now would they? When I finally got out of the long-delayed Monica Seles press conference, Testud had a surprising 6-4, 2-1 lead over the American. Davenport needed to fi
Testud appeared to be about to take a 15-40 lead in Game 6 when a second ball rolled out from behind Davenport. Chair umpire Leanne White immediately called a let, stopping the point Testud would have won. The incident appeared to have a negative ef
Davenport was just two points from defeat when a long forehand made it 15-30, but the crowd did their best to invigorate her. There was a lot of shouting for both players (my favorite was the intermittent "Test-OOOOO" chant), but the majority of supp
Testud opened the tiebreak with a service winner and took a 3-1 lead a few points later with a forehand near the corner which looked wide and long. Interestingly, it was the same corner of the court where John Frame famously blew a call in the Andre
Testud's strokes were just a bit off now. Two forehand errors put her behind 5 points to 3 in the tiebreak. Testud tried a drop shot on the 10th point. Davenport got to it with some time to spare, but Testud finished the point by popping a low fore
Davenport won the first game of the final set with an ace and broke at love to up 2-zip. Suddenly Testud did not seem to have much left. Davenport won the third game with a service winner and got through a few deuces (and another disputed line call)
Relief was the name of the game for Davenport, who considered herself a little lucky to still be in the tournament. She was looking at the bright side, however. "I have always said a lot of times when you look at tournaments and scores of previous rounds, sometimes the people that barely kind of squeak through in the beginning go on to play better tennis and win." Lindsay will next test that theory against another member of the '97 Fed Cup winning team, ageless serve-and-volley artist Nathalie Tauz iat.
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