monicain
Jun 13th, 2003, 08:13 AM
It's been a long time when people saved the surface factor only to be discussed in men's tennis, and absolutely nothing about that on the XX-sided one.
While the likes of Gustavo Kuerten, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Albert Costa and the likes of Tim Henman, Mark Philippoussis, Richard Krajicek separate the two surfaces, Grass and Clay, into a very different part of a tennis calendar, we've witnessed years after years when steffi graf lifted both RG trophies and the Wimbledon plates within only one-month interval between them.
And so did the other six women before her.
Moreover, Lindsey Davenport reached RG SF once and even Arantxa Sanchez Vicario reached the Wimbledon final back-to-back, and was even so close to win the plate. And most strongly apparent, Conchita Martinez has proved her style of moonball can do some damage more than only to splash the red dust when she managed to win her, to say, lone Grandslam victory on the green grass of tennis' Mecca stadium.
So comes the cliché : women care nothing on what they're hitting on.
As close as just last year, the fiercest form of Serena Williams seemed to confirm the diagnosis, when she wiped all the four grand slams on four different surfaces including the mission-impossible wins before the Paris and London crowd within a month to become the 8th girl achieving such honour. And with no serious difficulties.
And people started to think she could even win a GS on ice with no problem if exists one. And it seemed very likely.
But as they say, time changes, things change.
While Serena is finding her 1st title since the tour left the hardness of the hardcourt to something dustier in April, Justine Henin-Hardenne suddenly bursted into a super-woman form and collected 2 tier I titles and a Grandslam title.
Please be noted--All happened on clay.
Now that the surface issue renaisses, we could only look back to emphasize some facts which most of us choose to ignore for a while.
A fact that Conchita has won 4 straight titles on clay at Foro Italico, or the fact that all of Novotna's GS finals are on grass, the fact that Lindsay has withdrew so many clay seasons in recent years and the fact that Venus herself couldn't handle red clay that well.
Now we can say, surface is more of a factor than it has been ever in the history of women tennis.
While the likes of Gustavo Kuerten, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Albert Costa and the likes of Tim Henman, Mark Philippoussis, Richard Krajicek separate the two surfaces, Grass and Clay, into a very different part of a tennis calendar, we've witnessed years after years when steffi graf lifted both RG trophies and the Wimbledon plates within only one-month interval between them.
And so did the other six women before her.
Moreover, Lindsey Davenport reached RG SF once and even Arantxa Sanchez Vicario reached the Wimbledon final back-to-back, and was even so close to win the plate. And most strongly apparent, Conchita Martinez has proved her style of moonball can do some damage more than only to splash the red dust when she managed to win her, to say, lone Grandslam victory on the green grass of tennis' Mecca stadium.
So comes the cliché : women care nothing on what they're hitting on.
As close as just last year, the fiercest form of Serena Williams seemed to confirm the diagnosis, when she wiped all the four grand slams on four different surfaces including the mission-impossible wins before the Paris and London crowd within a month to become the 8th girl achieving such honour. And with no serious difficulties.
And people started to think she could even win a GS on ice with no problem if exists one. And it seemed very likely.
But as they say, time changes, things change.
While Serena is finding her 1st title since the tour left the hardness of the hardcourt to something dustier in April, Justine Henin-Hardenne suddenly bursted into a super-woman form and collected 2 tier I titles and a Grandslam title.
Please be noted--All happened on clay.
Now that the surface issue renaisses, we could only look back to emphasize some facts which most of us choose to ignore for a while.
A fact that Conchita has won 4 straight titles on clay at Foro Italico, or the fact that all of Novotna's GS finals are on grass, the fact that Lindsay has withdrew so many clay seasons in recent years and the fact that Venus herself couldn't handle red clay that well.
Now we can say, surface is more of a factor than it has been ever in the history of women tennis.