Steffi rode only as a passenger precisely because she did NOT need to be in control all the time and recognized her limits.
GRITTY VICTORY EARNS MCNEIL BERTH IN FINAL AGAINST GRAF
THE TOP SEED WILL BE RESTED AFTER AN EASY SEMIFINAL. THE UNSEEDED MCNEIL FOUGHT OFF PAIN TO WIN A 3-SET MARATHON.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Sunday, November 12, 1995
Diane Pucin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
For 2 hours, 43 minutes, Lori McNeil and Anke Huber pummeled each other, befuddled each other, finessed each other. The tennis was fast and furious at times, clever at others, occasionally sloppy but always intense.
Huber was the 20-year-old defending champion of the Advanta Championships, seeded No. 7 this year. She had the young legs and the heavy, punishing ground strokes. McNeil, 31, was ranked No. 63 in the world, the lowest-ranked player to get into the main draw. She fought cramps and a strained muscle and exhaustion, squandered five match points, and then, somehow, got herself a sixth.
This time, kicking a second serve wide and high, McNeil forced Huber into a wild, wide, forehand service return. McNeil might have jumped for joy, except she was too tired to celebrate this 6-4, 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (12-10) semifinal win last night at the Civic Center.
For her trouble, McNeil earned herself a shot at a rested and confident Steffi Graf, the top seed, today at 1 p.m. in the final.
It took Graf all of 56 minutes to beat Zina Garrison-Jackson, 6-1, 6-3, in the afternoon semifinal of the $800,000 tournament. Graf had time to schmooze with the patrons in a sponsor's tent, watch the first set of the night match, have a lovely dinner and a good night's sleep. And McNeil had to play a doubles match after she had finally limped away from her singles match last night.
"Sheer determination and really wanting to win," was how McNeil explained her ability to play through the pain of a strained and cramping left thigh.
It was warm and humid inside the Civic Center. Many in the crowd of 6,106 were fanning themselves with programs and napkins, and by the middle of the first set, McNeil's skirt and shirt were drenched.
After McNeil had missed two match points, on her own serve, in the ninth game of the second set, and after she had struggled through a terrible tiebreak, she called for a trainer and had her left thigh taped. The trainer also left a pile of bananas on a table and a pile of sports drinks at McNeil's feet. The problem was, the taped thigh made McNeil cramp even worse.
She won the first three games of the third set, then barely seemed able to move while losing the next four.
"I didn't think she would make it," Huber said. "It seemed like she couldn't move at all, and then, suddenly, she was playing normally, like she did in the first two sets. It was very difficult."
By the time the third-set tiebreak began, Huber was grunting loudly on every ball and McNeil was wincing after every point. Huber had three match points herself in the tiebreak, two on McNeil's serve and one on her own. But Huber was pressing too much now, going for the lines but missing them.
"I was just trying to keep the ball in play," Huber said, "but I think I played a little too defensive."
Graf had a big smile on her face after she finished off Garrison with a winning backhand volley, of all things. It hasn't been often the last two months that Graf has felt comfortable and relaxed, either with her tennis or with her life. But after a week in Philadelphia, Graf spoke of riding motorcycles, and of crashing twice. And she offered a movie review of Mighty Aphrodite. Woody Allen would not be pleased.
Graf was feeling frisky enough to sometimes come to the net and volley, to try the topspin lob once in a while, and even to hit over her backhand instead of sticking with her traditional slice.
Most of all, Graf could sit in a chair, lean back and look people in the eye. For the moment there are no questions about tax problems or her father, who is in jail in Germany. There have been no German reporters camped in front of her hotel. There have been only quiet dinners and Knicks games on TV, tennis practices in front of her coach and her mother, and time to find her own brand of dominating tennis, which has been in hiding since she conquered Monica Seles in the finals of the U.S. Open in September.
Yesterday, Graf was relentless. Garrison, 31, had spent much of the summer wrestling with the idea of retirement. Just before the U.S. Open, Garrison realized she wasn't ready yet to quit playing competitively, and in this tournament she had been playing enthusiastically.
But Garrison had also played two matches Friday night, a three-set singles quarterfinal and a long, two-set doubles match that ended at 11:10. Garrison said she was "a step slow," and that is a step back you don't want to take against Graf.
Garrison never even had a break point against Graf in the 20-minute first set, which many fans didn't get to see. About 25,000 motorcyclists converged on the street in front of the Civic Center just about the time Graf and Garrison were warming up. The motorcycle riders were doing a charity stop at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia across the street, but it meant that all the roads around the Civic Center were blocked.
After Garrison had been throughly whomped, she said that she had wished for a Harley and a place in the motorcycle parade instead of a spot in this match.
Graf had noticed all the bikers, too, when she arrived at the Civic Center. Asked if she had ever ridden a motorcycle, Graf giggled and said yes. Once, she rounded a curve too quickly, wiped out, ripped up her right hand, and missed a week of tennis. Once, she was at a lake, skidded at the shore, wiped out, and knocked off the bike's mirror, but didn't hurt herself. After that, Graf has only been a passenger.
Graf needs to be in control. That is what a tennis court is for.