The Women's Final Is Set and Andre Meets Pat
by Prip
Different players take a different approach to the year-end "break"
and the first tournaments of the year, and today, Martina Hingis and
Jennifer Capriati proved that the age-old prescription of hard work
is indeed the best medicine. Melbourne Park had practically turned
into the twilight zone for the day, as nothing could prepare the
tennis world for the 6-1 6-1 drubbing Martina Hingis handed Venus
Williams.
Martina's chances of finally getting through against both sisters in
succession in a tournament were the greatest they've ever been, and
Martina knew it. She had watched Venus's match against Amanda Coetzer,
and had personally made sure that Venus had as little preparation for
the Aussie Open as possible, taking her out of the doubles in Sydney,
where Venus neglected to enter the singles.
Martina's plan was simple: just like yesterday, she would have to
come out blasting, and take advantage before Venus managed to get
grooved. Fortunately for her, that point of the match never came,
Venus simply never booted up, and not only coughed up a 50% first serve
percentage, but also threw in 6 double-faults. The real key came in
Martina's own serve. In contrast to her previous match, Martina took
some pace off the ball, and managed to get 78% of her first serves
in. In even starker contrast to her previous match, Martina made only
8 unforced errors in the entire match, compared to 38 from Venus.
Still sticking to her guns, Venus refused to attribute her shocking
defeat to her lack of match preparation, and instead said that she
would have preferred to work harder during the break. The only
problem is that you can't play tennis and design clothes at the same
time. As Martina Hingis advised her worthy opponent, "You can't both
go to school and play tennis. You have to choose." Education is, of
course, very important. The question is whether you can consider what
Venus is doing as "education".
And hence Martina will go into her fifth consecutive Australian Open
final against a fifth different opponent. She had beaten Mary Pierce,
Conchita Martinez and Amelie Mauresmo, fallen to Lindsay Davenport
last year, and will look to make it 4 out of 5 against Jennifer
Capriati. Jennifer had also worked hard during the break, and in fact,
had been seen by Martina on the practice courts every day in
Saddlebrook. Just like Martina, Jennifer had to beat a player her
same age in her semifinal. Unlike Martina, though, there was never a
fierce rivalry between Jennifer and Lindsay Davenport.
In a rematch of last year's semifinal, Jennifer Capriati this time
came out on top. Lindsay had been showing poor form throughout the
tournament, and whether or not she could pull the rabbit out of the
hat this time was questionable. Lindsay has many times before played
lackluster tennis in the early rounds only to suddenly raise the level
of her game in the semis, but the fact is that Jennifer Capriati is
on fire. Displaying fitness like she never has before, and a focus
and determination coming purely from inside, minus all the distractions
and circus acts around her, Jennifer has finally broken through, after
half a year of mediocre tennis.
Jennifer's tactic was also to come out blasting, literally. Lindsay's
serve, which is usually a major weapon, let her down today, and
Lindsay managed to get only 58% of them in. It didn't help that
Jennifer was putting so much pressure on her serve, and Lindsay
didn't manage to get a single ace in the match. The unforced errors
coming off her racquet were more like what one would expect from a
Williams match, and Lindsay later indulged that the hot and humid
weather had caused the balls to feel a lot lighter and "float" more.
Shot after shot landed long, and Lindsay grew frustrated at her
inability to control the ball.
All credit to Jennifer, though, who continued to move well on court
despite the torturous conditions. She played hard on the big points,
and got the breaks to take the match 6-3 6-4. With both semifinal
winners playing perhaps the best tennis of their respective careers,
the final is sure to be one to watch, despite assumptions that Hingis
should have another romp in the park.
Unfortunately (but fortunately in some ways) for Martina, she
won't be featured in both the singles and doubles finals here for a
fifth straight year. She and Monica lost to Venus and Serena in their
semifinal bout today, in a sort of grudge match for the sisters.
Monica did a very dismal job of it all, playing badly from both the
baseline and the net, and the Williamses actually had a 5-1 lead in
the first set, before Martina and Monica evened it up at 5-all. Very
notably, though, was that Venus and Serena were having target
practice, using a small Swiss Miss as their target. Lucky for
Martina, she was quick enough to avoid getting hit by the ball at
all.
With the doubles draw being another toughie (Williams incorporated
will take on Lindsay Davenport and Corina Morariu in the final),
Martina will be breathing a sigh of relief that she will get a day
off between her match today and her final match instead of having to
stress herself out on the doubles court. However disappointing it is
to lose before reaching the final, she can take some comfort in
knowing that she's lost to a team that had a 15-0 record last year
and with a partner previously ranked outside the top 100.
In the men's night match, Andre Agassi and Patrick Rafter treated the
spectators to another big five-setter. Patrick played an absolutely
fantastic match, getting a total of 22 aces in against the best
returner in tennis. The fact that he only got 63% of his first
serves in didn't matter: he was slamming his second serves in
almost as well as his first, and got an unbelievable number of
second serve aces in. Unlike his previous matches, Rafter did an
excellent job at net, and combined with breathtaking service returns,
managed to get 78 winners compared to only 55 from Agassi. On a
roll in the second set, Pat actually out-rallied Andre in the baseline
exchanges. After losing the first set 5-7, Pat absolutely stunned the
sixth seed to go up 2 sets to 1.
With the way things were going, it looked like the Aussie crowd
would finally have a real reason to cheer in the final. Unfortunately,
cramps would slowly start to affect Pat's game, and the Aussie was
left practically immobile on the court. Already in obvious discomfort
at the end of the third set, Pat had the trainer come out for a quick
massage, but it didn't help enough, and in a tragic ending, Pat had
to concede the match 6-2 6-3 in the final sets, to Andre who did well
to keep his game together. The good news is that Pat hasn't confirmed
his retirement. Instead, he will take a break, albeit a long one, at
the end of this season and will probably come back to grace Melbourne's
tennis courts if all goes well. Most of the tennis world certainly
hopes so, and if Pat can come back to finally take this title, it
will make up for the unfortunate circumstances this year.
In junior play, Sasa (pronounced Sasha for those who are wondering)
Tuksar got his revenge with Ivan Stelko against top seeds Janco
Tipsarevic and Darko Madarovski. In a match with history older than
any of the boys on court, the top seeds had actually served for the
match at 5-2 and held a total of 3 match points, but the Croats
somehow pulled through those points, and chipped away at the lead.
The real feat came in that neither Croat was talking to each other.
Sasa had been aced (as did Ivan) in the previous game, and then went
on to double-fault on break point to get the team to 2-5, but instead
of encouraging his partner, Ivan had acted deplorably and yelled at
his partner, as he had every time Sasa made a mistake. In fact, he
must have very high stress levels, by the looks on his face every
time he or his partner missed a point.
In any case, the Croats eventually came out 8-6 in the final set, to
the disbelief of Janco and Darko. With both players acting up on
court, it was amazing that neither got code violations for either
ball abuse or for arguing with the umpire. On a lighter note, by the
time the match was over, the Croats were supposed to be checking in
for their flight home. Feeling a surge of confidence, Sasa voted that
they stay and take a chance at the title, but Stelko Sr. was ready to
go home. The verdict: travel plans can be put on hold. The Aussie
Open junior doubles title is in sight.
In the girls' draw, second seed Marion Bartolli fell in straight sets
to Hsieh Su-Wei, hampered by the humid weather and cramps in her
right thigh.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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