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1992

51K views 720 replies 14 participants last post by  Mark43 
#1 · (Edited)
Lets drift back in time to 1992.

Some of the #1 chart topping songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRcimo3BEhA

The tennis world was ruled once again by Monica Seles, who by year's end had repeated a near stranglehold on the women's tour by taking 3 out 4 slam titles.



need to edit....
 
#662 ·
YOUNG BULGARIAN SHOWS MARTINA EARLY OPEN EXIT
By Associated Press
Sep 4, 1992
Throw another hat into the ring.

In a summer during which women's tennis went searching for a dominant player, the most dominant player in history suddenly and unexpectedly was booted out of the U.S. Open."I am glad she is the last one," Martina Navratilova said of her second-round conqueror, 17-year-old Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria, the youngest of three sisters playing the tour. "I guess I will be one of the players who have lost to all of them."

Maleeva's shocking 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 victory Thursday was Navratilova's earliest exit from the U.S. Open since she was upset by Janet Newberry in the first round in 1976.

"She is probably my favorite player because she can do everything," the 17-year-old Maleeva said of Navratilova, at 35 more than twice her age. "I always wanted to play her kind of game."

Magdalena, like her sisters, usually camps on the baseline, using her penetrating groundstrokes. Against a nervous Navratilova, it was more than enough as Maleeva reached the third round at the U.S. Open for the first time in her three trips to Flushing Meadow.

Her victory came on the same court her oldest sister, 25-year-old Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, upset Navratilova in the fourth round two years ago. And it came on the same day that Manuela, the No. 9 seed, defeated Louise Allen 6-4, 6-2 and the middle sister, 15th-seeded Katerina, eliminated Dominique Monami of Belgium 6-3, 6-4.

In a late match in a schedule turned topsy-turvy by sporadic rain showers, 16th-seeded John McEnroe pulled his game together midway through the second set and defeated Italy's Diego Nargiso 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2.

Besides Navratilova, two other seeds were ousted Thursday. Brad Gilbert staved off three match points to upset 11th-seeded Michael Stich of Germany, the 1991 Wimbledon champion, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-0), while in women's play Amanda Coetzer of South Africa shocked No. 12 Nathalie Tauziat of France 6-0, 6-0.

McEnroe started haltingly in his match, which began after a rain delay that lasted around 31/2 hours. And it was Nargiso who surprised with his quickness and left-handed power.

"It was quite windy at first," McEnroe said. "And it was tough to get a feel for his serve."

But McEnroe did, and, beginning at 5-3 in the second set, ripped off 11 consecutive games before closing out the 21/2-hour victory.
 
#663 ·
More sloppy reporting here. Fernandez was the winner of their 1989 French Open clash, not Sabatini. In fact tennis observers at the time liked to mention that MJF seemed to have some kind of mental edge over the higher-ranked Sabatini in Grand Slam matches.

And perhaps Gaby needed to learn the happy medium between overplaying and taking a long sabbatical in the summer to show up at the US Open having played only one match in between after Wimbledon. Even if she'd got past Fernandez I think Seles would have absolutely thrashed her in the semis.

No. 7 Fernandez Shows No. 4 Sabatini the Door : U.S. Open: Going to the net more often, she upsets the Argentine, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4. Top-seeded Seles sweeps past Hy in 55 minutes.
BY THOMAS BONK
SEPT. 9, 1992 12 AM PT
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —
In the end, it turned out there was nothing wrong with Mary Joe Fernandez’s memory.

In the 1990 U.S. Open, Fernandez played a three-set match against Gabriela Sabatini and lost in the semifinals--a match she had trouble forgetting.

Two years to the week later, Fernandez got another chance Tuesday against Sabatini and didn’t miss it. She scored a key service break in the third set and moved on to the Open semifinals with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 decision.

"(1990) was a big match, that stood with me for a very long time, so during the match today I thought about it a few times and I didn’t want that to happen again."

“I think everybody expected her to win,” she said. “I knew I had a chance, and I was confident going into it, but I think it was an upset.”

Ranked No. 7 to Sabatini’s No. 4, Fernandez has quietly built a reputation as a big-time Grand Slam player. She has reached the quarterfinals or better in nine of her last 11 Grand Slam events.

But Sabatini usually held the advantage against her, winning seven of their last eight meetings, including victories at the 1989 French Open and 1990 U.S. Open. Before Tuesday, Fernandez’s only victory over Sabatini in a Grand Slam event was this year’s Australian Open, when she won in the semifinals.

“I felt confident (because of that match),” Fernandez said. “I knew that I had to play aggressively.”

She was more aggressive than Sabatini, coming to the net 50 times to 32 by Sabatini. Fernandez won 30 points at the net, which might have been the difference.

“I think that is the reason why she is beating me sometimes,” Sabatini said. “She has been playing like that, trying to come to the net.”

For Sabatini, it was a disappointing end to her Grand Slam season, one in which she expected to be playing Monica Seles in Friday’s semifinals. But Sabatini was never quite on her game, possibly because she played only one match between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

“Probably next time I will try to play one more tournament or something, but . . . I am not regretting anything,” she said.

Seles raced through Patricia Hy, 6-1, 6-2, in 55 minutes to get to the semifinals of her eighth consecutive Grand Slam event.

The only thing that affected Seles was a sore throat, brought on by a cold she thinks she picked up in the air-conditioned players’ locker room--"It’s about 60 degrees and you freeze in there.”
 
#664 ·
SABATINI, FERNANDEZ TAKE IN SIGHTS, GW EXHIBITION
By Alison Muscatine
September 19, 1992
THE WASHINGTON POST

Gabriela Sabatini's personal line of perfume was handed out to fans and Gigi Fernandez promised to donate her appearance fee to hurricane victims in Florida. And so it went at the first women's tennis exhibition in Washington.

In between a visit to the White House and other sightseeing activities, Sabatini did her duty to inaugurate the "champions' challenge" at George Washington University's Smith Center, defeating Fernandez by 7-5, 6-3 last night in the first match of a two-day round-robin.

The exhibition is serving as a replacement for the old Virginia Slims of Washington, a prime stop on the women's tour for two decades. So far, the new format seems only to have partly caught on. Officials said 3,172 fans were on hand in the 4,800-seat arena.

For some tennis aficionados there are questions about whether an exhibition -- in which players are paid appearance fees but no prize money -- can provide the same quality of tennis as a real tournament. According to Sabatini, the event is plenty competitive.

The 22-year-old Argentine insisted that even though the matches don't count toward the rankings they provide an opportunity for players to try out new skills.

Sabatini, ranked No. 3, was the first player to agree to participate in the exhibition, which until several weeks ago lacked major sponsorship and other competitors. After taking nearly the entire summer off and losing in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, Sabatini planned to use this event to warm up for a tournament next week in Tokyo. She also wanted to do some sightseeing in Washington.

Fernandez, one of the best doubles players in the world, said she decided a week ago to sign up so that she could donate her appearance fee to hurricane relief in Miami.

"That was my incentive for playing," she said. "That was the reason I decided to play."

The 28-year-old Puerto Rican, who this year collected the Olympic gold medal in doubles and three Grand Slam doubles titles, was scheduled to visit Camp David today to play doubles with President Bush.

In a battle for future bragging rights, two lesser-known youngsters exchanged high-velocity groundstrokes in the second match of the evening. Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, a 20-year-old ranked No. 17, and sixteenth-ranked Mary Pierce of France, had never played each other before last night. They bludgeoned each other from the baseline, and Coetzer eventually won the slugfest, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Pierce, whose father moved her family to France after a falling-out with the U.S. Tennis Association, agreed to play as a substitute for injured Mary Joe Fernandez. The 17-year-old Pierce has won two tournaments this year.

Though both matches had plenty of spark, Sabatini and Fernandez were clearly the bigger draw. After a slow start, Sabatini began connecting on her serve and ground strokes and came back from a 1-3 deficit to claim the first set. Fernandez, a serve-and-volleyer, provided the most elegant shots of the night -- a series of feathery drop shots that died inches over the net. Ranked No. 34 in singles and with little to lose against Sabatini, she also provided most of the on-court entertainment, once changing the score on the scoreboard and occasionally mimicking her own strokes in the air. Then, when a fan yelled "C'mon, Gigi" late in the second set, the spunky Fernandez yelled back, "I'm trying!"
 
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#665 ·
A Silent Seles Goes Out Like a Lamb : Women: Graf beats her non-grunting opponent, 6-2, 6-1, for her fourth championship in five years.
BY THOMAS BONK
JULY 5, 1992 12 AM PT
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

WIMBLEDON, England —
It was dry, it was wet. It was the longest of finals, it was the shortest of finals. It was Steffi Graf unloading a trainload of forehands past Monica Seles and collecting her fourth Wimbledon title.

It was a dreary, water-logged Saturday at the All England Club where Graf slugged her way past a dead-legged Seles, 6-2, 6-1, in 58 minutes of tennis and 4 hours 24 minutes of rain delays.

Graf would not be halted from winning her 11th Grand Slam tournament title, even by the three rain delays that transformed the women’s final into little more than a exercise in futility for Seles.

After winning at Australia and France, Seles had her hopes for a Grand Slam doused, first by the weather and then by Graf’s unerring shot-making.

“I just couldn’t find my timing, my rhythm,” Seles said. “She kept making all the shots.”

Seles answered the question of the day when she disappeared in the final without a sound. After enduring two weeks of critical newspaper stories and critical comments by fellow players about her grunting during matches, Seles lapsed into near-total silence.

Her usual slashing, judo-chop game also was missing, but Seles said her silence was not a factor.

“I don’t win my matches because of grunting, and I didn’t lose to Steffi today because I was not grunting,” Seles said.

“When I was in the locker room during the rain delay, I read all these letters, and in about 95% of them they say ‘Don’t listen to them, Monica, keep on grunting.’ So I don’t know which way to go now.

“Even if I do keep grunting, I just feel it shouldn’t have been such a big issue pointed out to me the whole two weeks.”

In silence and under leaden skies, Graf was in control from the opening minutes. If not for the rain, the match would have been over long before tea time.

Graf, who lost her No. 1 ranking to Seles in March of 1991, won her fourth Wimbledon title in five years, denied only in 1990 by Zina Garrison, who defeated her in the semifinals.

“It feels great to win the final in that kind of way,” Graf said. “This was definitely the best match I have played in a long, long time. It has a lot to do with believing in myself, I would say.”

Graf dominated from the start, but Seles clearly helped her along by contributing to the most lopsided women’s final since 1983, when Martina Navratilova brushed aside Andrea Jaeger, 6-0, 6-3.

Seles made 47 errors, put a little more than half of her first serves in play, double faulted twice and generally played like someone who couldn’t wait to get out of town.

She nearly acknowledged as much.

“I mean every day in the papers--headlines, gruntometers and everything, and then a lot of people making such a big fuss,” Seles said.

“I mean, in the whole Kraft tour, not one single player asked anything about it--not one single journalist or anything. So I really felt, you know, why is this tournament the one to be asked?

“So I felt, ‘Why is everybody picking on me?’ ”

The first rain delay occurred after Graf had closed out the first set with ease and taken a 1-0 lead in the second. After a 45-minute wait, they played five more minutes before another delay, then 14 more minutes before another break, this time with Graf leading, 4-1.

By then, Seles believed she had no chance.

“At that point, I think I felt like I could get into the match,” she said. “It was too tough. Being 4-1 down, I think it’s almost impossible to come back.”

Seles had never lost in six Grand Slam tournament finals and hadn’t been beaten in any Grand Slam event since she lost to Linda Ferrando during the third round of the 1990 U.S. Open.

Graf’s memory of Grand Slam tournament defeats doesn’t have to be nearly as good. She lost to Seles in last month’s French Open final, 6-2, 3-6, 10-8.

Graf is 6-3 against Seles and has won three of their last four meetings.

“It’s a great satisfaction to go out there and beat the No. 1 player the way that I did, that’s for sure,” Graf said.

Perhaps nearly as satisfying is the nearly $410,000 Graf won.
 
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#666 ·
I had forgotten that Graf originally had a lot of dangerous floaters in her draw at Wimbledon. Novotna, seeded 11th, was supposed to be her foe in the fourth round but Fendick took Novotna out in the third round. Martinez, seeded 8th, was supposed to be her quarter-final opponent, but no one expected Conchita to reach the last eight anyway because in her way would have been the tricky Zvereva who also took out McNeil and Garrison in back-to-back matches.

If it hadn't been for Zvereva, Graf might have had to face the winner of Garrison vs McNeil in her quarter-final. Having to play de Swardt, Novotna, and Garrison or McNeil just to get to the semis against Sabatini would have been a nice workout on grass that fortnight.

It Takes a While, but Graf Advances : Wimbledon: She has to work to defeat de Swardt in three sets. Fendick will be next after upset over Novotna. Capriati wins.
BY THOMAS BONK
JUNE 28, 1992
LOS ANGELES TIMES

WIMBLEDON, England —

Steffi Graf’s arrival in the fourth round at Wimbledon took longer than expected--three sets lasting 1 hour 46 minutes--but she still got there.

Second-seeded Graf lost the first set to Mariaan de Swardt of South Africa and struggled in the third before getting away with a 5-7, 6-0, 7-5 victory Saturday.

“She served so well, so amazingly,” said Graf, who had lost only three games in her first two matches. “If you serve like that . . . it was a very difficult match.”

De Swardt had only one ace and eight double faults, but she hit consistently hard serves and scored points directing them to Graf’s backhand.

In the fourth round, Graf plays Patty Fendick of Sacramento, who upset Jana Novotna, 6-3, 6-3. Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere also was upset by Kristin Godridge, who meets Gabriela Sabatini in the fourth round.

Natalia Zvereva, who made the fourth round at Wimbledon when she was 16, is back again at age 21, this time courtesy of a lucky shot that clipped the top of the net and bounced over on match point in a 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 third-round victory over Lori McNeil.

“Was it lucky?” Zvereva said. “Well, it match point up, not match point down.”

Zvereva made a name for herself in the 1987 Wimbledon when she reached the fourth round and lost a three-set duel to Sabatini, then made it to the 1988 French Open final before getting obliterated by Graf, 6-0, 6-0, in 37 minutes.

Zvereva has been trying to rebuild from the crushing defeat ever since. If she gets past Zina Garrison, Zvereva is in line for another shot at Graf in the quarterfinals.

A semifinalist a year ago, Jennifer Capriati beat Patricia Hy, 6-3, 6-1, and moved closer to a possible quarterfinal encounter with Sabatini.

Capriati must first get past 19-year-old Naoko Sawamatsu, who became the first Japanese woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Judith Weisner.
 
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#667 ·
The Olympics in Barcelona messed up the scheduling of the hard court events that summer. Neither Seles nor Graf entered and Sabatini crashed out early, giving Capriati a smooth ride to the title.

Ranked 23rd in the world, she takes only 1:21 to oust Mazda Classic’s top-seeded player.
BY KIM Q. BERKSHIRE
AUG. 28, 1992 12 AM PT
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER

CARLSBAD —
It’s up to you, New York, New York.

Gabriela Sabatini leaves today for the U.S. Open. Come again?

Ticket-holders for the semifinals and final of the Mazda Tennis Classic be advised: Sabatini and Jennifer Capriati will not be meeting for the championship at noon Sunday.

All in a summertime stunner at the La Costa Resort & Spa on Thursday night, soft-spoken Leila Meskhi from the Republic of Georgia gave Sabatini a 1-hour, 21-minute tennis lesson and a 6-0, 6-3 loss.

“I probably didn’t play enough matches,” said Sabatini, who looked sharp as a tack in a match she won without giving up a game two nights before.

In three previous meetings, Sabatini, the No. 4 player in the world and top-seeded here, hadn’t dropped a set to unseeded Meskhi, ranked 23rd in the world.

Asked if this was her best match of the year, Meskhi hesitated and said “Yes.”

Asked if this was her best match of her life , she smiled and said, “Maybe.”

“I played my best tennis, and she played worse than she usually does,” Meskhi said.

Sabatini’s fabulous backhand? Absent.

The powerful forehand? Missing.

In fact, nothing in Sabatini’s repertoire worked.

“I lost my concentration at times,” said Sabatini, who forced four of the games in the first set to deuce but sprayed a battery of shots long, wide or short. “She played a good match.”

Sabatini hadn’t lost a 6-0 set since the semifinals of the 1990 (sic) Lipton International, where she did so to Steffi Graf.

She said repeatedly that she was hurt by a lack of tournament play--before her opener here she had been idle since Wimbledon, 51 days without a real match. Still, she said she felt well prepared.

“It’s hard to come back after you’ve been gone a long time,” she said. “You have to play more matches. It’s understandable. I knew I’d had a tough match after my first one back. This is not that bad.”

There wasn’t one spectacular shot Meskhi hurt her opponent with, she simply hung in there longer than Sabatini.

“The first three games of the first set were very tough for me,” she said. “But after I went up 3-0, I felt very comfortable.”

Meskhi on Saturday will meet the winner of today’s Conchita Martinez-Ann Grossman.

Sabatini’s off to the Big Apple.

“The U.S. Open is a completely different tournament, it’s a completely different atmosphere. I love to play in New York,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Grossman of Grove City, Ohio, was two games away from beating 10th-ranked Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, when Novotna retired because of leg cramps.

In the final second-round match of the tournament to be played, Grossman was leading, 4-6, 6-4, 4-2 at the time Novotna approached the umpire’s chair.

The players had been on the court, where temperatures reached close to 100 degrees, for 2 hours, 24 minutes.

“The dry heat is very different,” Novotna said.

The only time Grossman, ranked 57th, had defeated a top-10 player was in 1988, when she turned back Russia’s Natalia Zvereva.

She rebounded a 4-2 deficit in the second set for her victory Wednesday.

“It has been a long time, and I’ve been through a lot, so it makes it more special,” Grossman said.

The turning point of the match came in the seventh game of the second set, with Grossman serving. After going back to deuce a dozen times, Grossman finally held, easily broke Novotna and won the next two games as Novotna started to wilt.

“Down 4-2, it finally started clicking,” she said. “I started getting better and better. When I won that game to make it 4-4, it totally changed the rhythm of the match. I was getting more confident and I think she was getting more scared and didn’t know what to do.”

Novotna had never retired from a match, although she has suffered silently with severe cramps and decided not to repeat that mistake.

“I decided when I get to a stage where I can’t move, I stop,” she said. “You can hurt yourself. It’s not worth it.”

Grossman looked concerned, then disappointed when the umpire announced Novotna had retired.

“I stuck with it and it worked out,” Grossman said. “I wish she hadn’t defaulted. . . . But a win’s a win. I’ll take it.”

Zina Garrison wasn’t as gracious. Her 6-1, 6-0 trouncing of Monique Javer took 58 minutes, not exactly prime preparation for next week’s Open.

“I thought it would be much tougher,” she said. “It was too easy. My concentration started to wander.”

Tennis Notes

Calling Clyde: Zina Garrison’s brief hitting session with Clyde Drexler in Barcelona created the kind of commotion she can live with. “I need to play Clyde more often,” she said. “I got a lot of publicity out of that.” Garrison said if basketball hadn’t worked out, he’d be good enough for the men’s pro tour. “At that height? He’s quick and he can jump.” . . . Tickets for Saturday’s semifinals and Sunday’s final are sold out.

Classic Highlights

Center court, 12:30 p.m.: No. 3 Conchita Martinez vs. Ann Grossman; followed by No. 7 Zina Garrison vs. No. 2 Jennifer Capriati; followed by Sabine Appelmans-Judith Wiesner or No. 3 Jill Hetherington-Kathy Rinaldi vs. No. 2 Conchita Martinez-Marcedes Paz.

Center court, 7 p.m.: No. 6 Nathalie Tauziat vs. No. 4 Anke Huber; followed by No. 1 Jana Novotna-Larisa Savchenko-Neiland vs. No. 4 Zina Garrison-Robin White.

Site: La Costa Resort & Spa.

Tickets: For information, call 438-5683. Tickets available for morning and evening sessions. Prices range from $12 to $28. Tickets for Saturday’s semifinals and Sunday’s final are sold out.
 
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#668 ·
TENNIS / THOMAS BONK : Navratilova Facing an Age-Old Question
BY THOMAS BONK
JUNE 21, 1992
LOS ANGELES TIMES

LONDON —

Splendor on the grass? For Martina Navratilova, it seems a lot less likely now after getting dumped by 64th-ranked Linda Harvey-Wild in the second round of the traditional Wimbledon warmup for the women at Eastbourne, England.

Navratilova, playing her first tournament on the tour in 11 weeks, was clearly hoping for more, especially with an already thinning chance for a 10th Wimbledon crown.

Instead, Navratilova equaled her worst loss at Eastbourne since she first played there in 1975--and it doesn’t exactly propel her into Wimbledon under a head of steam. Still, she assumed a semi-optimistic stance after losing to Harvey-Wild, a former USC player.

“I’m here, I’m healthy, I think I can win,” Navratilova said. “This second-round loss doesn’t help my confidence, but it doesn’t shatter it. I don’t have as good a chance as I used to have, but I still have one.”

Navratilova will be playing her 20th Wimbledon, which begins Monday at the All England Club. Last year, she lost to Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals and watched as Steffi Graf won her third Wimbledon title. One of the top four seeded players will probably win this year, said Navratilova, listing Monica Seles, Graf, Gabriela Sabatini and herself.

“It’s sort of hard for me to talk about myself in the same breath as Monica, Graf and Sabatini after losing to Linda Harvey-Wild,” she added. Last year’s quarterfinal Wimbledon defeat was Navratilova’s earliest exit on the Church Road grass courts since 1977, when she was 21. But she is 35 now and is again reminded that age is hardly on her side.

“When I do lose a match, sometimes I ask, ‘Am I too old?’

“The doubts creep into your mind--whether I have enough emotional energy, or do I have anything left. So it’s a struggle and a fight for me not to let those doubts creep into my conscious mind. They’re already in my subconscious.”

Book report: In her new book, “Lady Magic,” Nancy Lieberman-Cline reveals she was once Navratilova’s lover and tells of an incident during which Rita Mae Brown, who was having an affair with Navratilova at the time, allegedly grabbed a pistol and shot out the window of Navratilova’s car while the Wimbledon champion hunkered down in the front seat.

According to “Lady Magic,” the gunplay was the result of an argument that arose when Brown questioned Navratilova about her relationship with Lieberman.

Grass news: Jimmy Connors and Michael Chang spent some time last week sharpening up their grass-court games under the watchful eye of Roscoe Tanner, the director of tennis at Sherwood Country Club’s finely manicured courts.

Serving notice: When reigning Wimbledon champion Michael Stich won a grass-court warmup tournament in the Netherlands last week, he never lost his serve. Stich also moved up to No. 4 in the rankings and bumped Boris Becker back to No. 5, Becker’s lowest in nearly seven years.

Re-Pete?: Even though he lost in the second round at Wimbledon a year ago and in the first round two years ago, Pete Sampras is actually picking up some support as a player to be reckoned with the next two weeks. Sampras isn’t counting himself out, either.

“To win on grass, you have to break serve . . . and if I’m going to win this event, that’s what I’m going to have to do,” Sampras said. “Obviously, my serve is going to be very effective, but I’m not going to win this tournament with my serve. It’s going to have to be with my first volley and return of serve, which people like Becker and (Stefan) Edberg do so well.”

Sampras isn’t too keen on the Wimbledon chances of top-ranked Jim Courier, the Australian Open and French Open champion: “The expectations of Jim on grass aren’t exactly that high.”

Endurance tests: For what it’s worth, 33 five-set men’s matches were played at the French Open, only two short of the Open era record of 35 set at the 1983 U.S. Open. Ten players came back to win after losing the first two sets.

Court costs: Teen whiz Jennifer Capriati is having a difficult time combining tennis and her teen-age years, according to former prodigy Chris Evert.

“Jennifer’s having a hard time figuring out what her reality is,” Evert told the Associated Press. “She wants it to be a home life and going to school and being with her friends. But the problem is, she’s a superstar and a great tennis champion. She’s having a tough time trying to juggle the act a bit. . . . I don’t think she really has that streak in her that wants to win at all costs, right now.”

Capriati, 16, is $30,123 short of $1 million in career earnings.

Becker update: His first-round defeat in the Stella Artois event at Queen’s here last week was his earliest exit from a grass-court tournament in more than seven years. Becker lost to Michiel Schapers in the 1985 Australian Open, which was played on grass at Kooyong in Melbourne.

Last week’s loss to Christo van Rensburg was also Becker’s first match in 32 days because of a leg injury. Becker quickly figured out what was wrong--he fired Coach Tomas Smid.

Rumor mill: With Wimbledon upon us, the London tabloids are going to have a field day with a story that appeared last week linking Sabatini to steroid use.

It began when Klaus Hofsaess, the German Federation Cup coach, was quoted in a story in the German newspaper Welt am Sontag to the effect that Sabatini of Argentina and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain used steroids.

Then, in Buenos Aires, an Argentine news agency reported that Hofsaess had denied making such a charge.

“Arantxa and Gabriela do not take anything,” Hofsaess was quoted by Diarios y Noticias.

Sabatini issued a statement anyway, called the steroid claim “a base lie and a vile infamy” and vowed to take legal action. Sanchez Vicario also vigorously denied the charges.

Tennis Notes
Besides Monica Seles and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, other notables in the draw for the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, to be played at Manhattan Country Club Aug. 10-16, are Mary Pierce, Kimiko Date and Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere. . . . Gabriela Sabatini leads the list of entries for the Mazda Tennis Classic, Aug. 24-30, at La Costa. Also entered are Jana Novotna, Conchita Martinez, Zina Garrison and Pam Shriver. . . . Bjorn Borg has entered The Volvo-Los Angeles tournament, Aug. 3-9 at UCLA.

The Volvo-Los Angeles tournament is looking for volunteer ushers. Details: Annette Davis, (310) 824-1010. . . . Monica Seles will join comedian Jerry Seinfeld and recording artist Kenny G in a celebrity exhibition match Aug. 3 at the Volvo-Los Angeles event. . . . Jim Courier’s victory at the French Open put him in some select company. Courier is the fourth player to have won three Grand Slam titles before he was 22. The others are Boris Becker, Borg and Mats Wilander. . . . Wilander, who in 1988 won three of the four Grand Slam events and ended the year No. 1, completed a long free-fall last week: He officially fell off the ATP computer list this week. He has played only in the Queen’s event this year. A record 2,196 youngsters have entered the 90th Southern California Tennis Assn. Junior Sectional Championships, which began Saturday at six Orange County sites. The finals will be played June 29 at the Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley. Top competitors include Jeoff Abrams, 14, of Newport Beach, top-ranked in the boys’ 14 division, and Ania Bleszynski, 17, of Thousand Oaks, who won the girls’ 16 title last year.
 
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#669 ·
Frazier Is Solidifying Role as Dukes’ Child Star : TeamTennis: Since joining them out of high school in 1990, she has emerged as the backbone of the Newport Beach team.
BY ELLIOTT TEAFORD
JULY 27, 1992
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEWPORT BEACH —
Amy Frazier had her foot in the door, but that was about all when she left Rochester Hills, Mich., to play for the Newport Beach Dukes in the summer of 1990. The youngest player in TeamTennis playing on the league’s newest team. It fit.

At the time, her resume seemed a little thin. The few highlights included seven national singles titles as a high school junior and victories at Virginia Slims tournaments in Kansas (1989) and Oklahoma (1990).

Just about what you’d expect from a 17-year-old who was new to the professional tour.

So, TeamTennis seemed to be the perfect showcase for an up-and-coming player like Frazier. Besides, it would offer the chance to play on a team and since Frazier decided to skip college tennis to go pro that seemed like fun.

Although the Dukes flopped in the standings that season, Frazier was named TeamTennis’ female rookie of the year.

And every summer since, Frazier has returned to Newport Beach to play in the month-long league. Every summer she seems more poised, more polished, more professional.

Now 19, Frazier has emerged as the backbone of the Dukes, who are on the verge of their first playoff appearance in franchise history.

In three seasons with the Dukes, she’s beefed up her resume considerably. Forget Oklahoma and Kansas, Frazier advanced to the semifinals of the ’92 Australian Open and has been to the fourth round of Wimbledon two years in a row. This year, she knocked off seventh-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-3, 6-3, to advance to the fourth round.

There’s no question that she’s not the same player she was in 1990.

Here’s what Martina Navratilova had to say after outlasting Frazier, 6-4, when the Atlanta Thunder played the Dukes earlier this month:

“She’s had some great wins. She hits the ball hard, so you really have to be ready for her. If she served better, she’d be really dangerous. Her shots are as good as anyone else’s, though.”

Greg Patton, the Dukes’ coach, can’t stop raving about her play this season. He’s mentioned her in each post-match meeting with reporters, repeatedly describing her--as only he can--as tough and unyielding.

“Amy wasn’t giving up that pocketbook. I don’t care how many muggers were around her,” Patton said Friday after Frazier beat Sacramento’s Debbie Graham, 6-2, and helped Ronnie Bathman win the match-clinching mixed doubles set over Patty Fendick and David MacPherson, 6-5 (5-4).

“Let’s start with Amy (Frazier),” Patton said after Saturday’s victory over Wichita. “She played flawless. She’s playing so well right now she makes my heart go thump-a, thump-a.”

Through injury and disappointment on the court and barely a ripple of interest at the box office, Dukes owner Fred Lieberman has counted on Frazier to be his star attraction.

“You nurture them when they’re young and develop some loyalty,” he said of Frazier before the season.

Indeed, a summer without the Dukes would seem a little empty to Frazier. The Dukes have been just as good to her as she has been to them.

“I had just finished high school and I decided not to go to college,” she said. “This was something I really wanted to do. You can’t compare tournament play and TeamTennis. I love what I do on my own, but I love this, too.

“It’s totally different. You want to win for the team. You want to win every point because it helps the team win.”

That seems to be the bottom line in TeamTennis. Everyone from Navratilova to Jimmy Connors--playing his second season for the Los Angeles Strings--to Frazier points to the team concept as the reason they’re playing.

Unlike Navratilova and Connors, Frazier also plays to improve. There are elements of her game that need to be improved and she’ll be the first to admit it.

Start with her serve, which often flutters over the net with little pace on it. And if her serve were more damaging, she might come to the net more instead of hanging back on the baseline. When she does come forward, however, her volleys are usually sharp and well-placed.

“On the baseline . . . that’s where I’m most comfortable,” Frazier said. “Everything can be improved. My serve can be improved. I could come to the net a little more.

“I’m working on it. I’m still improving. I don’t set any ranking goals. I set goals to improve my game and if I do, hopefully my ranking will improve.”
 
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#670 ·
WAIT….
In “Lady Magic,” Nancy Lieberman-Cline reveals she was once Navratilova’s lover and tells of an incident during which Rita Mae Brown, who was having an affair with Navratilova at the time, allegedly grabbed a pistol and shot out the window of Navratilova’s car while the Wimbledon champion hunkered down in the front seat.

Is that true? Nancy admitted to a love affair with sMartina? I’ve never heard this.
 
#671 ·
I haven't read "Lady Magic", but in all the reviews I've read of the book, it was always mentioned that Lieberman only talked about her friendship with Navratilova and denied having been her lover. I wonder if the writer of the article I posted added his own interpretation of how Lieberman presented her relationship.
 
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#672 ·
While the tennis media and commentators were all focussing on Monica, Gaby, Steffi or Jennifer as the likely winners, Arantxita, in her typical style, quietly crept through the draw and walked away with the title.

TENNIS PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPS : The Fault Is With Seles in Loss to Capriati
MARCH 19, 1992
FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. —
Top-ranked Monica Seles double-faulted on the final point and had her 27-match winning streak ended by Jennifer Capriati in Wednesday’s quarterfinals of the International Players Championships.

Capriati, ranked sixth, prevailed in a slugfest from the baseline, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

Seles, the defending champion, had reached the final in 21 consecutive tournaments. She had won her three previous tournaments this year and was 19-0 in matches.

After a slow start, Seles fought back into the match by winning four consecutive games to lead the second set, 5-3. Then, serving for the set, she double-faulted twice in a row, and Capriati broke her at love.

Seles led the tiebreaker, 5-4, but then hit a forehand long and a forehand wide before double-faulting.

“It’s really the first time I’ve ever double-faulted on match point,” Seles said.

“Today the shots were not there. I was not making the shots I usually do, and she was a lot better from the baseline than I was.”

Capriati, whose record against Seles improved to 2-3, was relatively subdued during a news conference after the big victory.

“That’s what I was aiming for,” she said. “I was expecting her at any time to go off and get on a roll, and she really didn’t.”

Earlier Wednesday, Steffi Graf defeated Mary Joe Fernandez in straight sets for the eighth time in as many tries, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Graf advanced to a semifinal match today against third-ranked Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, who overwhelmed Amy Frazier, 6-0, 6-1.

No. 4-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated unseeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-1, 6-4. Sanchez Vicario, who has yet to lose a set in four matches, will play Capriati next.

In men’s play, ninth-ranked Michael Chang defeated No. 4 Pete Sampras, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), and No. 1 Jim Courier got past Diego Nargiso of Italy, 6-7 (10-8), 6-2, 6-0. Nargiso is ranked No. 100.

Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland defeated Russian Andrei Cherkasov, 6-7 (7-1), 6-3, 6-4, and Alberto Mancini of Argentina beat Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, 6-4, 6-7 (8-6), 7-5.

Friday’s semifinals will pit Courier against Chang and Hlasek against Mancini.

Fernandez is ranked seventh, but she can’t keep up with the second-ranked Graf. Two weeks ago, Fernandez won only three points in the first set of a 6-0, 7-5 loss to Graf in the Virginia Slims of Florida.

Graf hasn’t exactly rolled into the quarterfinals. In four matches, she has lost one set and gone to a tiebreaker in two others.
 
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#673 ·
Teen Scene Provides New Face
BY THOMAS BONK
SEPT. 6, 1992 12 AM PT
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —
Ready for the next Jennifer Capriati?

Sixteen years old, a month older than reigning teen queen Capriati, Chanda Rubin of Lafayette, La., zoomed into the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Saturday, where quite unexpectedly, it looks as if it actually might be time for a new sensation.

Then again, maybe not. The future is not always clear when you’re talking teen-age tennis stars. But Rubin appears to be the real thing, or at least close to it.

Rubin worked over 15th-seeded Katarina Maleeva, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, Saturday, which means she is one Maleeva sister--17-year-old Magdalena--away from the quarterfinals and a potential matchup against the last of the Maleevas, 25-year-old Manuela.

And a quarterfinal victory might get her into the semifinals against, yes, Steffi Graf.

But that’s getting ahead of herself, which is something the senior at Episcopal School of Acadiama in Cade, La., tries never to do.

Daughter of a lawyer and a schoolteacher, Rubin won the girls’ 12 national title in 1988 and the 14 age-group title the next year before turning pro at 15, a year after Capriati did.

Since then, Capriati has been to three Grand Slam semifinals and Rubin has been quiet.

“I am a totally different person (than Capriati) and I am moving at my own pace,” Rubin said. “I am happy with my game. I am improving. I am just kind of thinking about me. I don’t try to compare myself to anybody else.”

That task is left to others.

“She’s on a slower track than Jennifer,” said Lynn Rolley of the USTA junior development program.

Rubin made a breakthrough when she defeated Natalia Zvereva and made it to the third round of the Virginia Slims of Florida in March, but was 3-9 and had six first-round losses since.

Rolley convinced her to play the juniors at the French Open and Wimbledon, which is the tennis equivalent of being sent to the minors. It worked. Rubin reached the quarterfinals in Paris, then won the junior title at Wimbledon.

The comparisons to Capriati will probably continue, part of it because of circumstance--Rubin comes on strong the day after Capriati, winner of the Olympic gold medal, is eliminated.
 
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#675 ·
TENNIS / AUSTRALIAN OPEN : Graf, Sampras Pull Out; Seles Gets Easy Victory

JAN. 14, 1992 12 AM PT
FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS

MELBOURNE, Australia —
Three-time Australian Open champion Steffi Graf withdrew from the tournament on Tuesday, citing a viral infection.

The Women’s Tennis Assn. made the announcement hours before Graf was scheduled to play her first-round match against Katja Oeljeklaus.

Graf was affected by a middle-ear infection during the Hopman Cup in Perth 10 days ago.

She won the Australian Open in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

Pete Sampras, sixth-seeded among the men, was forced to withdraw for the second consecutive year because of a sore shoulder that was aggravated last week during a tuneup tournament at Adelaide.

Defending champion Monica Seles, making her first tournament appearance since November, shrugged off a sore neck and defeated Japan’s Akiko Kijimuta in a first-round match on Monday.

Seles rebounded from a first-game service break and needed only 48 minutes to win, 6-2, 6-0. Kijimuta failed to hold any of her seven service games.

Seles, slowed by a neck strain since arriving in Australia a week ago, wore a brace for a day before switching to a scarf for warmth.

“Today was the first day I played without the scarf,” she said. “Maybe just one or two points I was aware of (the injury). But it felt fine.

“I’m not feeling that comfortable with the service because I didn’t hit that many this week. I just wanted to get over the match.”

The two-month layoff helped Seles’ attitude, however.

“I feel fresh,” she said.

Second-seeded Boris Becker of Germany defeated Jan Gunnarsson of Sweden, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, and seemed surprised when told he had 25 aces.

“That’s good news,” Becker said with a smile. “That’s quite a lot, even for me. I couldn’t have asked for a better match.”

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg, also appearing in a major tournament for the first time after a two-month layoff caused by injuries, was nervous before his match. But he beat doubles partner Jeremy Bates of Britain, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

John McEnroe, other than one scary moment when he turned an ankle and fell early in the third set, coasted through the first round with a 6-2, 6-0, 6-1 victory over Broderick ****.

McEnroe was leading, 40-15, in the opening game of the third set when his feet suddenly got tangled at the baseline while he tried to reverse direction and scoop up a deep forehand by ****.

McEnroe rolled over and lay on the court a moment, holding his left ankle before getting up and testing it gingerly. He asked for a brief injury timeout, then returned to serve as fans applauded him.

It was McEnroe’s first match in the Australian Open since he was ejected from the tournament following a temper tantrum in 1990.

“It was one of those matches where his game played well into mine,” McEnroe said. “I think I did everything well. This is the type of match I like to play.”
 
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#676 ·
The dig at Chris America made me laugh...

Merely Another Day on the Clay : Olympic Tennis Tournament Has Look of Pro Tour Stop
BY MIKE PENNER
JULY 4, 1992 12 AM PT
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER

It is essentially the Barcelona Open, duded up with five-ringed logos, gold medals and three-tiered victory stands. Hilton Head revisited. Paris in the summer.

They are staging a tennis tournament later this month, on European clay, open to all professionals, and they are calling it the Olympic tennis competition. Jim Courier will probably win in the men’s division. Steffi Graf or Arantxa Sanchez Vicario will probably win in the women’s, primarily because Monica Seles is taking the week off.

Along the way, Boris Becker and Jennifer Capriati and Pete Sampras and Mary Joe Fernandez and Stefan Edberg will all check in, dirty a few tennis balls and complain about how going from British grass to Spanish soil to U.S. concrete will completely mess with their games.

Undoubtedly, the world needs to know who the best clay-court players in tennis are. That is why God created the French Open.

The Olympics?

No one involved would dare describe them as redundant, but . . .

“It doesn’t differ at all from any other stop on the tour,” says Marty Riessen, who has been designated as the United States women’s coach. “Single elimination. Singles and doubles.

“The only way it might differ is that there’s certainly more of a nationalistic feeling involved. You go as a team. You stay in the village, in the same buildings as the U.S. Olympic team. There’s a team feeling that’s hard to carry over into tennis, this being such an individualistic sport.”

Sometimes, not even the Olympics are capable of carrying that weight.

Since tennis regained its full-fledged medal status in 1988, “Team USA” has given us:

--Chris Evert bumping Elise Burgin off of the 1988 squad when Ms. Done It All, Seen It All decided, at the last minute, that a South Korean gold medallion was the one trinket missing from the family trophy case. So Evert went to Seoul and became the only American tennis player not to win a medal, proving to Burgin that life isn’t entirely unfair.

--Martina Navratilova griping about being left off the ’92 squad after making herself ineligible by refusing to play Federation Cup in ’91.

--John McEnroe griping about being left off the ’92 squad after declining a doubles-only invitation from the USTA. McEnroe wanted to play singles, too, but rosters were set months ago, long before his unexpected success at Wimbledon. Before Wimbledon, McEnroe was ranked 30th in the world and 10th in the United States--behind Aaron Krickstein, Derrick Rostagno and MaliVai Washington.

Thus, Team USA will look like this in Barcelona:

Men’s singles: Courier, ranked No. 1 in the world; Sampras, No. 3, and Michael Chang, No. 7.

Women’s singles: Capriati, No. 6; Mary Joe Fernandez, No. 7, and Zina Garrison, No. 14. Fernandez suffered a leg injury last week playing at Wimbledon, but it is not known how, or if, it will affect her availability.

Men’s doubles: Courier and Sampras.

Women’s doubles: The best available Fernandezes, Mary Joe and Gigi.

Selections were made by the USTA in January, based on the world rankings. At the time, the USTA figured it was the most equitable way to go.

Is this any way to pick an Olympic team?

Tim Mayotte, who won a silver medal in 1988, votes yes.

“The rankings are the best way to do it,” Mayotte says. “It would be a crime to take someone off the team just because somebody else has a better name.

“If you want to slip McEnroe into the doubles, fine. But we bust our butts all year long to get ranked high enough to get an opportunity like the Olympics. Players accept the rankings as the way players are judged and seeded into tournaments. To change it now would be a crime.”

Pam Shriver, who won a doubles gold medal at Seoul but won’t get the chance to defend it, agrees, but says the selections should be made later in the season.

“I’ve been the highest-ranking American doubles player for months,” Shriver says. “I’m fifth in the world now, but I was 10th at the time the selections were made. It’s just too far in advance.”

Still, if the U.S. men’s team seemed light in 1988--Mayotte and Brad Gilbert played singles--the 1992 squad arrives with three French and one U.S. Open championship trophies in tow.

And not one of them has seen his 22nd birthday.

Courier, 21, has won consecutive French Opens and is 13-0 on clay this year.

“Forget his result at Wimbledon,” says U.S. men’s Coach Tom Gorman, referring to Courier’s third-round loss to Andrei Olhovskiy of Russia. “On a clay court, Jim has an air of invincibility. He’s in such great condition and he’s such a strong individual that, emotionally, he’s an intimidating player to face on that surface.

“He’s doing what Lendl did for a couple of years--'If you don’t win the first set, forget about the fifth.’ ”

Chang, 20, was the youngest French Open champion, winning the 1989 title at 17, and has been absolutely relentless on clay in Davis Cup. Indeed, two of the greatest clay-court matches of the last decade have been won by Chang--his five-set victory over cramps and Lendl in the ’89 French Open and his two-day, down-from-two-sets victory over Horst Skoff of Germany in the 1990 Davis Cup semifinals.

Beyond that, Gorman puts the reason for the United States’ recent renaissance in men’s tennis on the slight shoulders of the 5-foot-8, 145-pound Chang.

“In a weird way, Michael’s winning the French Open opened the door for Sampras to win the U.S. Open and Courier to win the French and the Australian,” Gorman says. “All of a sudden, one of their teen-age buddies wins a Grand Slam and they start thinking, ‘Hey, I tagged this guy in the juniors. I can beat him.’ He got everyone believing, ‘I can win a Grand Slam, too.’ ”

Sampras got his in New York, in 1990, at 19. Now a month shy of 21, he also has a Wimbledon semifinal to his credit. Clay is his least friendly surface, but after second-round blowouts in his first two French Opens, Sampras reached the quarterfinals in Paris last month.

Courier is the prohibitive favorite in Barcelona, but the field also includes a former French Open finalist in Edberg of Sweden, ’92 French Open finalist Petr Korda of Czechoslovakia, Becker and Michael Stich of Germany and Gorman’s darkhorse, Carlos Costa of Spain.

“He’s had a real good spring,” Gorman notes.

Also a real good address. Costa was born and continues to live in Barcelona.

The women’s draw has been thinned by the Federation Cup-or-else threat, a requirement that went unheeded by three of the sport’s big four. Navratilova, Seles and Gabriela Sabatini didn’t play in ’91, so they won’t play in ’92, leaving Graf, the French Open winner in ’87 and ’88, and Sanchez Vicario, the French Open winner in ’90, in all likelihood, to divide the gold and silver medals.

The requirement has drawn predictable criticism, but Riessen maintains: “All sports in the Olympics have qualifying events and Fed Cup was ours. The men had Davis Cup. Personally, I think you should be able to qualify by your ranking alone, but I also think it’s fair to ask the players to qualify. Martina had an equal chance.”

Thus, the great American female hope is Capriati, 16.

“She’s still ranked sixth in the world,” Riessen says. “She’s only one of two players who have beaten Seles this year. That’s not a bad year. All the supposed problems that have been mentioned are normal age problems. She’s a normal teen-ager who happens to be growing up in the public eye.”

Capriati had an average French Open, losing in the quarterfinals to Seles. Mary Joe Fernandez lost to Sabine Hack during the third round in Paris, but reached the semifinals at Rome and Berlin, also clay tournaments. Garrison has played only eight matches this year on clay, but did reach the final in Houston, where she lost to Seles.

“We have a good chance for three medals,” Riessen says. “Two singles, and Mary Joe and Gigi ought to be seeded No. 1 in the doubles.”

Medals. That’s one difference between Barcelona and, say, Key Biscayne. The players are playing for medals, and for once in their careers, no cash. So the Olympics have that going for themselves, plus the opening ceremony.

Other than that, it is merely another tournament. That could change sometime. A team format has been suggested where men and women players would compete together under one flag.

How about Courier and Capriati vs. Becker and Graf, mixed doubles, USA vs. Germany, vying for the gold medal?

“Something like that would certainly help,” Mayotte says. “They need to do something that puts it apart from the rest of the tennis schedule.”

To be considered, before Atlanta.
 
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#677 ·
TENNIS ROUNDUP : Sabatini Gives Seles the Boot in Italy

MAY 11, 1992 12 AM PT
FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gabriela Sabatini is at home in Rome.

Sabatini defeated top-ranked Monica Seles in the final for the second consecutive year to win the Italian Open, 7-5, 6-4, in 1 hour 50 minutes before 10,000 fans at Foro Italico.

“I always play well here in Rome,” Sabatini said. “The crowd always helps. I’m feeling stronger than I ever felt.”

It was the fourth Italian Open title for the 21-year-old Sabatini, from Argentina, who has won five of her nine tournaments this year.

Seles raced to a 5-2 lead in the first set, but Sabatini fought off three set points before winning the last five games of the set.

The pace slowed in the second set, but Sabatini picked up the pressure by going to net and scoring repeatedly with volleys hit out of Seles’ reach.

“The match was close, but Gaby just played better on the close points,” Seles said. “I stopped playing my game and turned defensive. I couldn’t cash in when leading.”

Seles, 18, won five of her six previous tournaments this year.

The men’s Italian Open begins today. Top-ranked Jim Courier drew a tough first-round opponent, clay court specialist Thomas Muster of Austria.

***

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden and Michael Stich of Germany advanced to today’s final of the ATP German Open at Hamburg.

Edberg rallied to beat unseeded Carlos Costa of Spain, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7), and Stich trounced Boris Becker of Germany, 6-1, 6-1, in the semifinals.

Before facing Stich, Becker had to finish off defending champion Karel Novacek, defeating the Czechoslovak, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), in the continuation of a quarterfinal match which was postponed by rain Saturday.

The final, which would have been held Sunday, was rescheduled for this morning because of rain that set the tournament back a day. Tournament officials reduced the match to best-of-three instead of best-of-five.

If Stich wins, he will be the first German to win the tournament since Wilhelm Bungert in 1964.

Stich, playing in his hometown, barely missed a return, passing a sluggish, poorly serving Becker repeatedly to take the first set in 40 minutes and the match in 1 hour 14 minutes.

MaliVai Washington completed a three-year climb to the top by winning the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Claudio Mezzadri of Switzerland at Charlotte, N.C.

Earlier in the day, Washington defeated Jeff Tarango of Manhattan Beach, 6-4, 6-4, in a semifinal match, and Mezzadri beat Luiz Mattar of Brazil, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Washington and Mezzadri also played twice Saturday, the result of three consecutive days of rain that compressed the tournament schedule into two frantic days of action.

Washington, who lost in the semifinals in the last two tournaments, won every set in winning here.
 
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#678 ·
What on earth is Almond talking about? Off the top of my head I can think of Wimbledon 1988 where the four semifinalists were Graf (#1), Navratilova (#2), Shriver (#3), and Evert (#4).

Did he mean that the four top-seeded women had never all reached the French semi-final since 1968?

FRENCH OPEN / WOMEN : Expected Cast Stays Alive as Final Four
BY ELLIOTT ALMOND
JUNE 4, 1992
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER

PARIS —
Weather permitting, the four top-seeded women will play today in the French Open at Roland Garros Stadium in a sequel to last year’s semifinals.

For the second consecutive year, defending champion Monica Seles will meet Gabriela Sabatini, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario will meet Steff Graf for the right to play for the championship.

It is the first time since 1968 that the four top-seeded women have reached a Grand Slam semifinal.

"(This) could be very good tennis,” said Sanchez Vicario of Spain, who defeated Graf in the 1991 semifinals, 6-0, 6-2.

How good might depend on the weather, which turned chilly Wednesday. Today’s forecast calls for continuing rain and cold.

By now, the women should be used to less-than-ideal conditions. Their quarterfinal matches Tuesday were played on slippery clay. The surface was so unresponsive that the balls behaved as if they were tranquilized.

Seles, seeded first, and Sabatini, seeded third, are the kind of players who can adapt to the situation. Seles, 24-1 at Roland Garros, has dropped only one set in five matches--during a fourth-round victory over Japan’s Akiko Kijimuta Saturday. Sabatini lost her first set against Conchita Martinez in the quarterfinals.

Sabatini, of Buenos Aires, defeated Seles in the final of the Italian Open last month, 7-5, 6-4. She also defeated Seles in Rome in 1991. But that did not help in Paris, where Seles won last year, 6-4, 6-1.

Seles, 18, said it is impossible to improve much in the time between the French and Italian opens, but thinks her chances are better here.

“I hope I am running better,” she said. “I ran a lot in Rome.”


Sabatini, 22, lost nine games in her first four matches. She said she hardly thought about the competition until she faced Martinez, seeded seventh.

She was nervous then with the kind of queasiness that comes before big matches. At 5 feet 8, Sabatini has the ability to control the pace. She is considered one of the biggest threats to Seles.

Because this is Paris, Sanchez Vicario is a formidable opponent for Graf, seeded second. Sanchez Vicario, seeded fourth, joined the top echelon of women’s tennis in 1989 by shocking Graf in the French Open final in three sets. Whether she can defeat Graf at Center Court for the third time, not even she is sure.

“It could be interesting,” she said.

Starting in 1988, the two have met 16 times with Graf winning all matches except those at Roland Garros. Sanchez Vicario told Spanish reporters Wednesday that she wonders how Graf will handle the pressure.

“I know I can beat her . . . and I feel very comfortable,” Sanchez Vicario said. “Maybe that helps me a little bit.”

Graf, who will be 23 this month, said she has not been haunted by her losses to Sanchez Vicario on the red clay.

“Not at all,” she said. “I haven’t looked back.”

Graf said she did not analyze her last loss to Sanchez Vicario because she had nothing to learn.

“I tried to put the ball in the court, and it didn’t work,” she said. “So what else can you do?”
 
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#679 ·
Jim Levee gets mentioned in this article on hangers-on and groupies. While I find his behaviour odd and verging on creepy the players, their families, and the WTA were happy to play along because none of them wanted to say no to attention, gifts, and money.


<snip all the non-tennis bits>
THE GROUPIE

The cadaverous figure lurking around the women's tennis tour is a middle-aged millionaire who loves to throw money at other millionaires. His name is Jim Levee, and he buys the affections of players with gifts of cash, jewelry, cars and attention—all for the chance to sit in the players' box and be seen. Tennis is the sport of sycophants, and Levee sets the pace.

Levee made his money the old-fashioned way: He inherited it. A scion of the Annenberg publishing family, he hovers around top-ranked Monica Seles and "sponsors" at least six other women players, including stars Arantxa Sànchez Vicario, Conchita Martínez and Mary Joe Fernandez. He calls them "my girls."

Levee adopted the women's game as a grand and expensive obsession in the mid-1980s. A former teaching pro at a Florida country club says Levee offered him $50,000 to recruit a half dozen prospects. Levee would cover the players' coaching, travel and living expenses; in return, he would receive 40% of their tournament and endorsement earnings. The pro, who wishes to remain anonymous, put together a list of candidates. Levee eliminated one because she was too heavy. "I asked Levee if he wanted models or tennis players," the pro says. When Levee said he would bankroll travel only in the U.S., the pro walked out on him. "He changed the rules and made me look like an idiot," the pro says. Levee paid him only $2,000 and did not sponsor any of his recruits.

Levee angrily denies the pro's allegations and says he found his first protègèe, Steffi Graf, on his own in 1986. He courted her the way he courted his latest beneficiary, Karina Habsudova, a 19-year-old Czech ranked 67th in the world. Habsudova noticed earlier this year that Levee kept popping up at her matches. "I didn't know if I should be afraid of him," she says, "so I asked another player." The player told her, "He supports Arantxa. He's definitely worth knowing."

He finally pounced last August at a tournament in Montreal. Levee took Habsudova on a shopping spree and offered to spring for her coaching. "It's very hard to make friendships with other players," she says. "But I can count on Jim as a friend. He roots for me and cares for me. I'd like him even if he didn't give me money. I get lots of love from him."

What does Levee want in return?

"I don't expect sex from my girls," he says. "I do expect a birthday card, a Christmas card, a phone call or two, a guest pass and a win." Though Levee insists he has no hidden agenda, others aren't so sure. "He wants to be very close to players, which is impossible," says Juan Núnez, coach of former Levee-ite Natalia Zvereva. "He demands their time. And when they don't go along with him, he becomes their worst enemy."

Which is precisely what happened between Levee and Graf. In '86 he began showing up at her matches all over the world. He bought her a Porsche before she could even drive. Though Steffi's father, Peter, politely refused that gift, Levee soon became an accepted accessory at her matches. He bombarded her with fur coats, jewelry, clothes, sports cars and $200,000 in cash. "I would die for Steffi Graf," he said then. "She is the only person in my life who has lived up to all my expectations, and that includes relatives, close friends, even my former wife." He called Graf "God's child" and yelled "I love you!" to her during changeovers.

By 1989, Levee's ardor had cooled. He switched his allegiance and cash to the Seles camp. But he didn't go quietly. When Seles beat Graf in the final of the 1990 French Open, Levee taunted Steffi and Peter by screaming "Number One!" and pointing toward Monica.

The next year, while Steffi was suffering the worst defeat of her career in the French Open semifinals against Sànchez Vicario, Levee and Peter scuffled in the stands. As Peter was leaving the players' box during the final game of the first set, Levee, who had cheered every point lost by Steffi, said, "Monica is Number One, and this is why she's Number One." Furious, Peter bopped Levee on the head. One wag called it "the most accurate Graf backhand of the day."

As Peter walked away, Levee rose from his seat and shouted at Steffi's coach, Pavel Slozil, "Wail until Wimbledon! I'll have a bodyguard, and he'll break Peter's legs." Three weeks later Levee showed up at Wimbledon with two bodyguards. It was there, he says, that Steffi's brother, Michael, "smiled at me in a threatening manner. I feared for my life." From then until the end of 1991, whenever Levee attended a tournament in the U.S. in which Steffi was entered, he obtained a restraining order to keep Peter's fist and Michael's grin away from him.

In conversation Levee sometimes sounds like a lawyer. And he did graduate from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1969. He often seems very smart. But there's a skittish, trampled quality to him: During the women's final at this year's U.S. Open, which pitted two of his protègèes, Seles and Sànchez Vicario, against each other, Levee shifted in his seat with the jerky head motion of a parakeet sidling on its perch. Around his fingers was a tortured daisy chain of rubber bands; at his side, Sànchez Vicario's mother, Marisa. Across the court Levee's fiancèe, Jill Genson, a designer of awnings and canopies whom he met through a dating service, sat with Seles's mom and dad, Esther and Karolj.

Of all of Levee's current girls, he moons most over Monica. When he speaks of her, he sounds like a smitten schoolboy: "I call her Miss Monica because she is so young, so clever, so cultured, so classy, so kind. We have a fun time together." Seles describes Levee as "just a friend. He is very good at cheering for me. I always hear his voice."

Levee doesn't seem threatened by the prospect of Monica's having a boyfriend. "I love it because it's normal, and I love anything normal," says the man who travels to events with both his fiancèe and his ex-wife, Deborah Levee, in tow. "The class goes on, and I sometimes feel like Mr. Chips. I try not to look at myself as just a cashbox. I'm a psychologist, a morale booster, a surrogate father."

"Jim has a heart as big as the world," says Patty Fendick, who drew an allowance from Levee for three years. "He even saved my life." When she developed a blood clot four years ago at a Florida tournament, Levee leased a Learjet to fly her to a specialist in California.

He can be a demanding dad. "I pay for performance," he says. "The better you do, the more money you get." Perform poorly, and you risk being disinherited. When Fendick's ranking dropped precipitously last year, Levee dropped her. "Patty hasn't spoken to me since," Levee says. "She probably thinks I'm a bastard. I still love her, but I'm sure she resents me."

"Resent him?" says Fendick. "If someone gave you a gold Rolex, diamonds, a Mercedes and 30 grand a year for three years, would you resent him?"

The Women's Tennis Association does. Levee had pledged $125,000 to the Special Olympics and other WTA-sponsored charities, but he withdrew the offer over what he calls a "WTA conspiracy" against Seles. "Monica thinks a lot of the players are envious of her, and she's right," Levee says, his voice raw with anger. "They smile at her face, but when her back is turned, they stick their knives in."

Which pretty much sums up the consensus on Levee. "His girls are just using him," says one Top 10 veteran. "They take the cars and the money and laugh behind his back. It's very sad and dishonest."

That doesn't faze Levee. "If some girls think I'm a fool, it's their loss," he says. "Fifty percent of the players think I'm the best thing that's happened to women's tennis. The rest think I'm the worst. They're jealous because I'm the game's white knight." Levee argues that he's no more of a parasite than anyone else on the tour. "Who doesn't take something from these girls?" he asks. "I'm the only one who doesn't ask anything from them, but I get everything from them."

And what exactly does he get? "A frozen moment in time," he says. "This is not like a normal love affair with a woman that can be up, down, over and done. This romance will stay with me forever. All I desire is to be associated with winning, to be part of a victory."
 
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#681 ·
In some ways this increased the expectations on Jennifer at the US Open that year where she ended up crashing out early to Patricia Hy. Perhaps she could have managed a decent run in New York had the Olympics been held after the Open that year. Instead the Olympic win ended up seeming like a lone highlight in a career that never really delivered on the hype until The Great Comeback in 2001.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-08-sp-4541-story.html

BARCELONA ‘92 OLYMPICS / DAY 14 : Capriati Finally Arrives : Tennis: Florida teen-ager beats Graf for gold medal and enjoys Olympic experience. It’s her first major victory.
BY MIKE PENNER
AUG. 8, 1992
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER

BARCELONA —
Teen-age burnout never looked like this:

Forehand still screaming after two hours in the baking sun, the defending Wimbledon champion on the run, kiss planted upon an Olympic gold medal while American flags wave in the stands.

Teen-age burnout never sounded like this, either:
“It was so emotional, I got the chills out there. This is unbelievable. I mean, I can’t believe it. The last two weeks, I saw all the other athletes up there on the victory stand and I thought, ‘Wow, that would be so cool .’ ”

Whatever happened to Jennifer Capriati, the girl who was supposed to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the French Open before the end of adolescence, the girl who had disappointed so many by failing to reach even one Grand Slam final in her 16 years?

She came to Spain, that’s what. Played around on the clay a little. Hung out at the cafeteria inside the Olympic village and met some swimmers and some rowers, which, she said, “was neat.” Got away from the expectations. Had some fun.

Then she beat Steffi Graf.

With her resolute, resilient 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory at Vall d’Hebron on Friday, Capriati replaced the 1988 Olympic gold medalist on the women’s singles victory stand. For all those whohad been counting and waiting, this one was major.

“It’s her first big win,” said Marty Riessen, the U.S. Olympic women’s tennis coach. “This is right there with a Grand Slam.

“How many tournaments has she won? One? Three? Nothing really big. You have to break through and win one like that--and she did it by beating the best players in the tournament--(Spaniard Arantxa) Sanchez in Barcelona (and) Graf, for the very first time.

“Winning the Olympics, the gold, that’s going to change her. The confidence she’s going to get from this is going to help her a lot.”

Help had been needed, too. She cried in the interview room after losing to Gabriela Sabatini in the Australian Open. Bound to an exhibition in Japan the next week, she balked and flew home instead.

She painted her fingernails black and began wearing skull earrings. She argued with her parents. She lost the first matches she played at Tokyo and Hilton Head, S.C., and couldn’t get past the quarterfinals at Paris or Wimbledon.

Said Riessen: “Everything that was happening to Jennifer, I would assume, comes with being 16. She did everything a normal 16-year-old does, but she happens to be in the eye of the press all the time.”

That is why Capriati winning in Barcelona, despite a career 0-4 showing against Graf, makes so much sense. For Capriati, the Olympics weren’t a pain in the summer tennis itinerary, a clay-court hassle with the hard-court season ready to open.

For Capriati, the Olympics meant meeting Carl Lewis and exchanging computer messages with Matt Biondi. It meant tickets to watch Shannon Miller on the balance beam.

“This has been the most fun I’ve ever had,” she said. “I got to meet all the athletes, take it easy with them in the training room and stuff. It’s neat.”

Relaxed and refreshed, Capriati took it all out on Graf. Despite losing the first set, 6-3, Capriati engaged Graf in an exhausting fifth game that was at deuce 13 times before Graf finally held serve.

“I was a little disappointed I couldn’t get the one point I needed there,” Capriati said, “but, actually, that game gave me confidence. If I could come out there like that and give her a hard time, coming that close to a break, she had to realize that she was going to have to serve really well today, and that put more pressure on her.”

Eventually, the pressure showed. Graf failed to hold serve three times in her last six service games, including consecutive breaks at 3-4 in the second set and to begin the third.

Capriati also minimized Graf’s forehand, which is launched with a running start. Capriati accomplished this with crisp, sharp slices to Graf’s backhand.

“Jennifer is one of the very few players who hits hard enough to do that,” Riessen said. “That kept Steffi from running around and teeing off on her forehand.”

Graf described Capriati as “very steady from the baseline, adding: “She didn’t give me a lot of errors like she sometimes does. She was very consistent, very patient, which I wasn’t, really.”

Graf was attempting to give Germany a sweep of Friday’s tennis medals. Earlier in the day, Boris Becker and Michael Stich defeated the South African team of Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, for the men’s doubles championship. By reaching the final, Ferreira and Norval had clinched South Africa’s first Olympic medal since 1960--a silver.

Tennis Medalists

* WOMEN’S SINGLES

GOLD: Jennifer Capriati (United States)

SILVER: Steffi Graf (Germany)

BRONZE: (tie) Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (Spain)

BRONZE Mary Joe Fernandez (United States)

* MEN’S DOUBLES

GOLD: Boris Becker and Michael Stich (Germany)

SILVER: Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval (South Africa)

BRONZE: (tie) Goran Ivanisevic and Goran Prpic (Croatia)

BRONZE: Javier Frana and Christian Carlos Miniussi (Argentina)
 
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#682 ·

OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992: Tennis: Capriati's date with destiny
Guy Hodgson
Friday 07 August 1992

JENNIFER Capriati, who four months ago would have won a medal only for being fed up with tennis, claimed the Olympic title here yesterday. girl from Florida via New York, whose career has been saddled with a gilt complex almost from birth, had fulfilled her destiny.

In defeating the holder, Steffi Graf, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 she achieved her first major success and turned anticipation into fact. Two years after being heralded as the next great champion, at 16 years five months nine days she added a new item to her litany of firsts: the youngest Olympic tennis champion. Equally pertinently given her age, it was also her first victory over Graf.

'It was so emotional,' she said of the award ceremony. 'I had chills all the time. I've watched other athletes seeing their flag go up and thought 'Jeez, I bet it's so good to be there.' Here I got the chance. It's wonderful.'

Wonderful was not a word she would have used as recently as April. Helen Wills was the previous American woman to win an Olympic gold and she had done it in 1924 before becoming Helen Wills Moody. In Capriati's case she had to discard a mood which, at the French Open, pointed her towards normal teenage pursuits rather than the grind of professional tennis. She was homesick and wanted to do what other adolescents do.

In Barcelona, however, she unveiled a new hair colour - gold - and a new attitude. The match swung her way after Graf appeared poised to extend her unbeaten run in Olympic matches to 11, a record for either men or women. In the past if Graf edged ahead Capriati buckled; this time she scrapped tigerishly.

The American had nine break points at 2-2 and when she blew them and lost the first set 6-3 she could have wilted in the debilitating heat of Vall d'Hebron's cockpit of a Centre Court. Instead she began to hit the ball harder and closer to the lines. 'I was encouraged even though I messed up those break points,' she said. 'I'd given her a hard time. She knew she'd have to serve well to beat me. It put pressure on her.'

So instead of the girl cracking it was the woman. Graf, 23, lost her serve in the eighth game of the second set and again at the same stage in the third, Capriati thumping a forehand drive down the line to make the second break. The American had only to hold her serve to become champion and she did so to 15. It was only her 12th tournament on clay and by far her most important victory.

The afternoon was not entirely without German gold as Boris Becker and Michael Stich won the men's doubles, beating South Africa's Wayene Ferreira and Piet Norval 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. 'It can not compare to winning Wimbledon,' Becker said. 'You win that for yourself. Today I was playing for my country.'

Becker, not at his best in the singles where he was beaten by Fabrice Santoro in the second round, has looked more comfortable playing in the doubles format during the Games. He called for the Olympics to be played on a team basis this week, finding it easier to embrace the concept of patriotism with a partner than on his own.

Yesterday he was embracing Stich after a result that was a surprise in its manner rather than its accomplishment. Becker and Stich possess two of the best serves in the world, but yesterday those weapons were muzzled by inaccuracy which meant they had only one ace and six double-faults. Instead they volleyed and ground stroked to a win, the magnitude of which was apparent by the length of the clinch they indulged in at the end.

It did not suggest a permament relationship, however. Stich, who won Wimbledon in concert with John McEnroe, was asked if he had decided who he would be playing with in the US Open. 'John,' he answered. Patriotism may be the last resort of scoundrels, but in tennis it is the first to be jettisoned when Grand Slam titles are at stake.
 
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#683 ·
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#684 ·
LOL at Gigi implying that the US lost their Federation Cup tie to France only because she'd been forced to play doubles with the Pamther instead of Mary Joe who was at the Mahwah exhibition that week.


Amid controversy, Fernandez & Fernandez go for gold
By PAUL LEVINE
AUG. 6, 1992
UPI

BARCELONA, Spain -- All Gigi Fernandez wanted was a gold medal in the Olympic doubles tennis competition, not a controversy over which country she represents.

Now Fernandez is one step away from that medal -- and one step away from possibly reigniting some slighted feelings in her native Puerto Rico.

Fernandez and doubles partner Mary Joe Fernandez, representing the United States, scored a 6-4, 7-5 victory over the Unifed Team on Thursday to move into Saturday's final.

The Fernandez-Fernandez team will face top-seeded Spain, represented by Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

But if the gold-medal match ends and the playing of the Star Spangled Banner follows, Gigi Fernandez may once again find herself in the middle of a controversy.

'My decision to play for the U.S. was not popular with Puerto Rico,' said Gigi, who was born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, but now lives in Aspen, Colo. 'There was a lot of controversy about it.'

Fernandez has captured 28 doubles titles, including this year's French Open and Wimbledon championships with Natalia Zvereva. But all along, she has cherished the Olympic gold.

'I wanted to win a gold medal,' she said. 'People might realize this was the only way I could win a medal. But they still preferred I play for Puerto Rico.'

However, if she had played for Puerto Rico, the team would probably not have even made the 32-player main draw, because she would have been paired with unheralded Emile Viqueira -- not even ranked among the top 240 in doubles.

Simply, Mary Joe was Gigi's best ticket to the gold. Gigi hopes people in Puerto Rico understand.

'This might ease it up,' she said.

Shortly after winning Wimbledon, Gigi, ranked No. 8 ranked doubles, lost with Pam Shriver at the Federation Cup in the third round to France.

The 28-year-old was annoyed because she felt if she would have played with the 20-year-old Mary Joe, they would have won. But Mary Joe taken the week off to play an exhibition in Mahwah, N.J..

'I think Gigi was very unhappy,' said U.S. women's coach Marty Riessen of the situation. 'If they win on Saturday, Gigi will be able to say, 'I told you so,' which she will.'


Normally Mary Joe, ranked No. 9 in doubles, plays with Zina Garrison, but Riessen explained how the team doubles team was formed.

'The idea here is to get the medals. When we came here, we thought our best chance was to get a gold in doubles. Doubles was a priority.'

The American team will have their hands full with Spain on Saturday.

'I think we had the toughest draw of the tournament,' Gigi said. 'But I think the pressures on the Spaniards.'
 
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#686 ·
To be fair, Jenny was a child herself at the time. She may have been 16 but she came across as being a bit younger emotionally.
 
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#687 ·
BULIMIA CHANGES GARRISON'S NO. 1 PRIORITY
By Alison Muscatine
August 17, 1992
THE WASHINGTON POST

Not so long ago, Zina Garrison tiptoed to the edge of tennis greatness. She humbled legends such as Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf. She knew what it was like to curtsy on Centre Court for a Wimbledon final. She was among the elite of her sport: ranked fourth, with more than $3 million in prize money in her pocket.

Her life seemed the stuff of myth, a young black athlete who emerged from the steamy playgrounds of Houston to compete successfully in the rich and lily-white province of professional tennis.

But despite the success, all was not well in Garrison's universe. She lacked the killer instinct of the great players. She was emotional, easily hurt, more concerned about helping others than helping herself.

And she had a secret, a demon that tormented her as she pursued her dream of the No. 1 ranking.

"I've struggled with the eating disorder of being bulimic," Garrison said last week in a telephone interview from California, where she lost to Navratilova in the quarterfinals of the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

"It's hard {to admit it} because I want to be a perfectionist, and any time you have to say there is something wrong with you and you need help for it, it's like criticism and being put down and you have to deal with it."

Now ranked No. 16 and still waiting for a victory this year that she can be proud of, Garrison, 28, remains a woman of passionate causes. The homeless and inner city children occupy a large chunk of her time. And in the past year, she has begun to speak more openly about the once-taboo subject of bulimia.

"It's something a lot of women and a lot of girls have a problem with and a lot of them are afraid to talk about it," Garrison said. "I believe the way to correct something is to hit it head-on and talk about it." Her bulimic episodes started after her mother's death in 1983 when a relative suggested that by purging after meals she could eat heartily and still stay trim. Although she broke into the top 10 that year and remained there for six of the next seven years, Garrison privately endured the ravages of the disease.

"You can't control it. You're very depressed and you don't know why you're depressed. Your fingernails are very soft, your hair starts to fall out, your skin is bad," she said.

She still had bulimic episodes when she ended Evert's Grand Slam career in the 1989 U.S. Open quarterfinals. And when she married Willard Jackson later that year. And when she toppled Graf and Monica Seles back-to-back to reach the Wimbledon final in 1990.

But instead of capping those triumphs with the No. 1 ranking and a Grand Slam title, Garrison's career veered off its mark. Just when she was on the verge of her biggest breakthrough in 1989, she slipped back, inexplicably faltering. Only with time did Garrison admit the severity of her health problem and the toll it was taking physically and professionally.

"I lost to someone ranked 350th in the world and I lost because I didn't have any energy," she recalled. "That had never happened to me before."

She is not the only famous woman athlete to have suffered from bulimia. Recently, a host of other stars have gone public as well: tennis player Carling Bassett-Seguso; Olympic gymnasts Cathy Rigby, Nadia Comaneci, and Kathy Johnson, and diver Megan Neyer.

But Garrison is one of the only athletes to discuss bulimia openly while still competing. After years of keeping it hidden -- even her friend and Olympic gold medal doubles partner in Seoul in 1988, Pam Shriver, never knew about it -- she has found it therapeutic to speak up.

Buffered by her family -- she is the youngest of seven children and both her parents are deceased -- Garrison has tried to remain positive. She is determined to leave her mark on the world, be it in tennis or the good works she supports through her private foundation. Presently, she is absorbed with raising money for a homeless shelter she hopes to run when her tennis career is over. (The idea came to her after she tripped over a homeless man on a San Francisco sidewalk and woke up in the middle of the night thinking about him). And she continues to organize a program to provide tennis clinics for inner city children.

She knows that her sensitivity not only made her vulnerable to an eating disorder but also has too often contributed to inconsistent performances on the court.

"It's always been a negative part {of me} from the tennis point of view," she said. "It's probably why I never made it to No. 1 -- because I wasn't cutthroat. But that's me. I'm very happy with myself. I like helping others. That's the way my family grew up. None of us is selfish."

If she could change anything, she said, it would be this: "Sometimes I get upset with myself because I should be a little more selfish and maybe I wouldn't get hurt so much emotionally," she said. "But I grew up in a totally different atmosphere than a lot of these tennis players and that makes me a lot more sensitive."

It's not entirely surprising that as her ranking has slipped, Garrison has seemed increasingly mellow and upbeat. There is virtue in lowered expectations, and now the pressure is distinctly off.

She would like to play another four or five years if she remains healthy. She still loves the sport, she said, and will stop as soon as she doesn't.

She is philosophical about her ranking -- her lowest in a decade -- and that she has claimed only one title in nearly two years. She has scaled back her goals, tried to stay in shape with running, and promised not to overlook that tennis should be fun.

"It's harder now because I have a lot more things in my life, a lot more things to worry about, and a lot of things I want to do off the court," she said. "Being in the top 10 for so long I have a certain amount of pride and I want to do well. But I realize there are a lot of good players out there. ... I don't feel great about it {her ranking}. But the fact is that that's the way I've been playing. I have to play a lot more consistently to get my ranking up."

For now she can take pleasure in other victories. Like conquering bulimia, which for the most part she has done.

"It's more under control, although it has triggered off a couple of times more recently, within the last year," Garrison said. "It's just a matter of controlling it. It's something you live with day to day."

DEFEATED MONICA SELES and Steffi Graf before losing in the 1990 Wimbledon final to Martina Navratilova, 6-4, 6-1.

IN MIXED DOUBLES won the 1988 and 1990 titles at Wimbledon and the 1987 Australian Open.

U.S. OPEN SEMIFINALIST in 1989 and 1990.

RANKED NO. 4 for six months in 1989 and 1990, her highest Virginia Slims ranking.
 
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