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Steffi Graf Admiration Thread Vol 2

864K views 6K replies 140 participants last post by  Michael! 
#1 ·
This is a great idea to start this topic...
I shall dedicate this thread to the player who made me notice tennis and follow it eversince I saw her play.....

Steffi Graf!
:bounce: :bounce:
 
#5,432 ·
While Monica was putting on her version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- does anyone else think the Holly Golightly character and the plot in general are pretty bleeped up and that the cat was correct to try to run away at the end? :lol: -- for the media, de Lone was of the opinion that Seles would be vulnerable to somebody who could keep her moving for a long time.

Seles blows away another obstacle
The Independent
London, England
Friday, September 1, 1995
JOHN ROBERTS reports from New York

Two down, five to go. Monica Seles took a second step towards marking her comeback with a triumph at the United States Open yesterday, troubled more by blustery conditions than a lowly ranked opponent.

A 6-2, 6-1 win in 58 minutes against Erika de Lone, an American who put studies at Harvard on hold for the sport, means that Seles has not dropped a set in seven matches since returning to the tour at the Canadian Open (eight including the exhibition against Martina Navratilova in Atlantic City).

De Lone, ranked No 113 in the world, at least had the satisfaction of breaking the No 2 seed's serve in the third game, Seles netting a backhand. Otherwise it was business as usual as Seles continued towards a projected renewal of her rivalry with Steffi Graf in the final.

For Graf, lighter moments have been so rare, what with her suspect back and her father/manager in prison accused of tax evasion, that she welcomed the opportunity of a wry smile during an interview on Wednesday night. Asked if she had been to a Broadway show, she said she had seen the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Graf's mood also brightened on the court, a second-round win against Italy's Rita Grande, 6-1, 6-3, in 44 minutes reminding her of how things were when tennis was uppermost in her mind. The ease of the match enabled Graf to relax and play her shots, a luxury denied the top seed when struggling to avert a second consecutive defeat by the South African, Amanda Coetzer, in the opening round.

A third-round contest against the experienced Nathalie Tauziat, of France, ranked No 20, would appear to suggest renewed difficulty, although the statistics argue strongly against it. Graf has won their 17 previous matches, dating back to 1986. The closest Tauziat came to taking a set was in their last meeting, at the 1993 Canadian Open (2-6, 5-7).

While Seles pressed on, the latest example of why the women's game has struggled in her absence was a crushing defeat for the 19-year-old Lindsay Davenport. The 10th seed was beaten 6-1, 6-3 in 65 minutes by an unseeded American compatriot, Zina Garrison Jackson. "Inspired," was Davenport's description of her 31-year-old opponent's performance. Garrison Jackson demonstrated why she has had second thoughts about retirement. The bulky Davenport showed she needs to work harder on her fitness.

Tim Henman failed in his attempt to become the first Briton to advance to the third round of the men's singles since Andrew Castle in 1987. The 20-year-old from Oxford, who qualified for his debut in the championships, made an encouraging recovery after losing the opening set against the American Davis Cup player Jared Palmer, and led 2-0 in the third set. Opportunities came and went before Palmer took control again to win, 6- 4, 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, after three hours and five minutes.

Boris Becker continues to show the form and confidence which took him to the Wimbledon final in July. The German's 6-1, 6-3, 7-5 win against Carsten Arriens, a countryman ranked No 118, took him into a third-round match against Jason Stoltenberg, of Australia.

Sergi Bruguera, the French Open champion of 1993 and '94, enlisted the help of John McEnroe in an attempt to improve his performance on the rubberised concrete courts. The Spaniard, seeded No 11, lost in the second round to the Czech Daniel Vacek, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

Bruguera made four winning volleys to Vacek's 13. Asked how much McEnroe had helped him in their week together, Bruguera said: "Well, he is not God. He cannot make me a god."
 
#5,433 ·
Steffi was entering the supposedly trap-filled portion of her draw, but funny things can happen...

CONTROVERSIAL LINE CALL SENDS RAYMOND PACKING
Sun-Sentinel
Friday, September 1, 1995
CHARLES BRICKER, Staff Writer

The boos were so loud and so long you'd think you were at a New York Jets game.

The full house on Court 17 definitely didn't see the ball the way the anomymous lineswoman called it. And neither, apparently, did chair umpire Lynn Welch.

They say line calls even out. Not when one comes on the next to final point of the match.

Lisa Raymond, the former University of Florida All-America, was serving in the third set at 4-5, 30-all. Kimiko Date threw up a lob that was so far beyond the baseline Raymond, circling around under it, didn't bother to play it after it hit the surface.

After a slight delay, the lineswoman put her hands down, signaling good. Raymond gaped in disbelief. The audience erupted.

Chief umpire Keith Crossland declined to identify the lines-woman and he spoke for Welch. "The chair umpire thought the ball was too close to overrule and she looked at the lineswoman, who reaffirmed her call," Crossland said.

Date won the next point and the match, putting Raymond out of the U.S. Open

for the second year in a row.

"It feels like I didn't even lose the match. It was like I didn't get a chance to battle at the end," Raymond said, disconsolately. She threw her racket into the net after losing and then tossed it onto her gear bag.

"For the umpire to go with that call is just ridiculous. I played match point like I wasn't really out there. I was still so angry."

There was an "out" call, but it came from the crowd. "I mean it was 6 inches out ... 4, 5 at least," Raymond said.

Now it gets tough

Vince Spadea of Boca Raton made the third round of the U.S. Open for the first time in three years by whipping clay courter Emilio Sanchez in straight sets, but next faces No. 7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Nicole Arendt, the former Gator, made the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her four-year pro career by beating Radka Zrubakova and now faces Zina Garrison Jackson, who upset Lindsay Davenport.

Monica's mastery

Monica Seles has faced only two break points in her two matches. Seles returned so well, Erika deLone won only 33 percent (10 of 33) of the first serves she got into play. Both Seles matches have been under an hour - 56 minutes for Ruxandra Dragomir, 58 for deLone.

Adjustment period

Upset victims Sergi Bruguera and Lindsay Davenport may need some break-in time with new coaches. Bruguera hired John McEnroe before the Open and Davenport is being coached by USTA women's coach Lynne Rolley.

Showdowns

Gabriela Sabatini, her career and motivation slowly ebbing, is headed for a major showdown in the fourth round against Martina Hingis, 14. It's a great matchup for Hingis, who is vulnerable to the big hitters like Seles, Steffi Graf and Jana Novotna, but who can outsteady and outrally players like Sabatini.

This match has the potential of putting the quality of Sabatini's game under a microscope. The match takes place if Sabatini beats Sabine Appelmans and Hingis defeats Patricia Hy-Boulais.

Also in the fourth round: Graf vs. red-hot Chanda Rubin if Graf beats Nathalie Tauziat and Rubin disposes of Natasha Zvereva, the No. 12 seed. With Graf suffering emotionally because of her father's legal problems, Rubin has a chance to register the biggest win of her career.

Second serves

Aaron Krickstein's loss late Thursday night to Jason Stoltenberg was only the second time in 12 matches than he has lost a five-setter after losing the first two sets. ...

Jaime Yzaga, who beat 1993 defending champion Pete Sampras in the round of 16 last year, plays him again Saturday, and Yzaga caught a big break in the schedule. He got two days rest after his exhausting five-set struggle with Javier Frana in the first round and doesn't have to play Sampras until the final evening match. ...

Brad Gilbert, Andre Agassi's coach, told Ray Benton, head of the Jimmy Connors Masters Tour, that he wants to compete in the 12-man tournaments when he turns 35 next year.
 
#5,434 ·
You woulda thought the WTA woulda thought to ask some NBA players to reciprocate...

NOT FAST ENOUGH
The Tampa Tribune
Thursday, August 31, 1995
From Tribune Wires

He's known for his big serve, as fast as 130 mph, but Pete Sampras didn't set any speed records Wednesday at the U.S. Open.

Some 200 people crowded the fast serve speed cage, located on the boardwalk between Shea Stadium and the USTA National Tennis Center, to see Sampras up close. The cage, though, is designed to register only speed, not accuracy, and in no way resembles a tennis court.

Sampras gave it his best shot: 73 mph, 86 mph, 82 mph, 90 mph. Each serve brought a perplexing look at the speed register, then an impish grin and a shrug. He moved closer to the so-called service line and took another crack at the electronic speed zone: 104 mph, 102 mph, 97 mph.

"I broke my racket string. I can't believe it," a slightly embarrassed Sampras said, showing his racket to the crowd. "I've never done this before."

Sampras, who eventually had an 118 mph serve, spent a half hour in the IBM ThinkPad Speed Zone, assisting youngsters from the crowd with their serves.

[] BRAVO FOR BASKETBALL

Seven of the most famous women tennis stars are to film television spots declaring, "I love this game!"

That might seem only natural, but when Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Conchita Martinez, Monica Seles, Martina Navratilova, Mary Pierce and Kimiko Date make the statement, they'll be talking about basketball, not tennis.

The request for the players to film the TV spots in English and their native languages came from the NBA.

[] COURIER'S CAPS

It could be night or day, but former No. 1-ranked tennis player Jim Courier never is without his baseball cap.

The cap does much more than protect Courier from bright sunlight.

"I sweat a lot, if you haven't noticed," Courier said. "When I don't wear the hat, you know, I don't wear it in practice, but then I am constantly wiping. It is just a mess and these hats have sweat kind of bands inside them."

The choice for a hat was easy because Courier doesn't believe the Agassi-style bandanna suits his style.

"I don't look real good with a bandanna," said Courier, a native of Dade City who now lives in Miami.

When asked if looking good is that important a consideration, Courier revised his explanation.

"My dad wouldn't let me," Courier said. "He wouldn't like that too much, either. Dade City people don't wear bandannas too much."

[] MONET, MANET, MUSTER

"I love to do it when I have time," said Muster, the French Open champion. "But I never have time, so I don't paint. But if I have time, I really enjoy doing it."

And what is Muster's artistic medium of choice?

"I am doing acrylic painting on linens; sometimes trying to really get emotions there and colors," he said. "Don't ask me to paint or draw a horse because you would not recognize it. But I am saying I like to do very colorful paintings."
 
#5,435 ·
Typical Tauziat harrumphing! :lol: Also love how Frazier, walking on to Louis Armstrong Stadium carrying a purse and fussing over her clothes like a club player who had been press-ganged into the USO draw at the last minute, quickly makes jocky, strutting Mary look like a club player.

SIXTH-SEEDED PIERCE OUSTED IN TIDY FASHION
AMY FRAZIER NEATLY PLACED HER GROUNDSTROKES TO PULL OFF THE BIGGEST UPSET YESTERDAY AT THE U.S. OPEN.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
Saturday, September 2, 1995
Diane Pucin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Amy Frazier has classic groundstrokes, carefully practiced and studied.

She is always patting down her tennis skirt, worried that it might be wrinkled. Dressed in pink yesterday, she was the perfect girl who didn't want to get messy. She even carried her purse onto Stadium Court.

And then Frazier sweetly pinned Mary Pierce to the wall.

She made Pierce look awkward and clumsy, placing the ball just so - along the lines, the sidelines, the baseline. Pretty soon, Pierce, the No. 6 seed, was howling at the sky and on her way to a 3-6, 6-7 (6-8) loss in the third round of the U.S. Open.

Two years ago, Frazier took a six-month leave of absence from tennis. It was reported that she was suffering from eating disorders, though she will only say that "personal problems" led her to consider entering UCLA to study to become a math teacher.

When she came back to tennis, Frazier, 22, settled into being one of those top-25 players who always lose to the big names about the time the quarterfinals arrive. She was not expected to pose a threat to Pierce.

Frazier's serve is a puffball that flutters and stutters over the net, and her groundstrokes are precisely aimed but not overpowering.

Yesterday, against the jumpy Pierce, that was good enough. Pierce plays big tennis. She hits big winners, she hits big losers, and there is no middle ground. Pierce had 46 unforced errors on the Stadium Court where the wind was swirling and unpredictable.

Frazier's was the biggest upset of the day but not the only one.

Byron Black, a 25-year-old doubles specialist from Zimbabwe who is ranked No. 70 in the world, knocked out ninth-seeded Thomas Enqvist, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in a second-round men's match.

Enqvist, a 21-year-old Swede, had played well on hardcourts all summer and had beaten Goran Ivanisevic four times since Wimbledon. But the wind and the sun, the noisy fans and shopping-mall atmosphere out at Court 17 left Enqvist unsettled and unhappy all match.

Last night, No. 2 seed Pete Sampras got his quick and total revenge over Jaime Yzaga with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 win. Last year, Yzaga had shocked Sampras in the fourth round, beating the then-defending champion and No. 1-ranked player in a grueling five-set match that left Sampras with bleeding feet and cramping legs.

That match had been played in the brutal afternoon sun. Last night there was no hope for the 27-year-old Yzaga, a sturdy Peruvian who is ranked No. 69 in the world. Sampras kept relentless pressure on and even outrallied Yzaga, a clay-courter, from the baseline.

"What happened last year didn't sit well with me," Sampras said. "I wasn't in shape. I was unprepared. You never forget a loss like that, especially at a major."

Michael Stich, the No. 8 seed and a finalist last year, threw rackets and towels and swore at himself before ultimately beating Hernan Gumy of Argentina, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.

Michael Chang, the No. 5 seed, played with more equanimity and was able to eliminate his second straight Italian opponent routinely on Stadium Court. This time, Chang beat Stefano Pescosolido, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Thomas Muster, the No. 3 seed, also moved smoothly into the third round with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win over Mark Woodforde.

Frazier, ranked No. 21, started playing tennis when she was 3. She is an only child who calls herself a perfectionist. She always brings her purse out onto the court - "just because," Frazier says - and then admits the other players make fun of her for that. It is when someone asks her about the eating disorders that she quits smiling. Her shoulders hunch together and she tries to back into a wall.

Yesterday, after her victory, someone tried to press Frazier about her time off from tennis. Did you have an eating disorder, Frazier was asked.

"Well," she said, "as I've said in the past, it's a personal problem I'd like to keep between me and my family."

Frazier said she came back to tennis because she missed the competition. She described yesterday's win as "exciting," but Frazier is never comfortable talking about herself. She wouldn't call herself good, she wouldn't characterize her win in any way.

"I'm not comfortable putting a number on it," Frazier said when asked if this was her biggest win.

In other third-round women's matches, Steffi Graf , the No. 1 seed, was a little sloppy but much more powerful than Nathalie Tauziat. Graf took a 6-3, 6-3 win that left the loser unimpressed.

"It was my mistakes and not Steffi that caused me to lose," Tauziat said.

Next up for Graf will be 19-year-old Chanda Rubin, a likable young American who is now in an Open fourth round for the second time. Rubin beat Gigi Fernandez, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

No. 3 seed and defending champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario moved easily past Maria Jose Gaidano, 6-3, 6-0. And Martina Hingis, the 14-year-old from Switzerland, made this her best Grand Slam performance in a short career with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over 30-year-old Patricia Hy-Boulais.
 
#5,456 ·
Frazier, ranked No. 21, started playing tennis when she was 3. She is an only child who calls herself a perfectionist. She always brings her purse out onto the court - "just because," Frazier says - and then admits the other players make fun of her for that. It is when someone asks her about the eating disorders that she quits smiling. Her shoulders hunch together and she tries to back into a wall.

Yesterday, after her victory, someone tried to press Frazier about her time off from tennis. Did you have an eating disorder, Frazier was asked.

"Well," she said, "as I've said in the past, it's a personal problem I'd like to keep between me and my family."
This was something I didn't know. I always thought Frazier had played constantly on the tour from the late 80's as she holds the record of GS main draw appearances. But she stopped between Oklahoma in Feb 93 & the US Open later that year. I'm not sure if Frazier ever spoke publicly about this since then?

"It was my mistakes and not Steffi that caused me to lose," Tauziat said.
"She sure didn't play like she had any family problems," said Tauziat, who lost, 6-3, 6-3, and has still never taken a set off Graf.
"She played OK, but I missed a lot of easy balls," Tauziat said.
It's great to see Nat is as bitter & miserable in 95 as she would be a full 5 years later when she bitched out everyone on tour in her book :hearts:
 
#5,436 ·
GRAF WINS EASILY AT U.S. OPEN
The Columbian
Vancouver, WA
Friday, September 1, 1995
Associated Press

NEW YORK - Steffi Graf became the first to reach the fourth round at the U.S. Open today by defeating Nathalie Tauziat of France 6-3, 6-3.

She was quickly joined by 12th-seeded Natasha Zvereva, who defeated Ann Grossman 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

Graf, who has been beset by a bad back and preoccupied with her father's tax problems, has improved in each of her first three matches, but she still hasn't reached the form that has carried her to 15 Grand Slam tournament titles.

The tournament's No. 1 seed, Graf had 21 unforced errors -- high for her -- to go along with 20 winners. Tauziat had 12 winners and 30 errors.

"She played OK," Tauziat said of her conqueror, "but me, I missed a lot of smashes, easy balls. I made a lot of unforced errors."

Thursday night, Alex Corretja came close to stealing Late Night with Andre Agassi.

Agassi and Corretja traded cannon shots and most of the returns came back even harder.

It was great theater, and the tennis got progressively better as the night got older. And when it was over five sets, 3 hours and 7 minutes and 306 points later Agassi was the one left standing.

And he was angry.

"I was upset," he said. "I mean, 11 o'clock at night I shouldn't be out there."

He was there because his Spanish opponent wouldn't let him go home earlier. Actually, Corretja came close to sending Agassi home for the remainder of the tournament.

"I knew early on in the match that I was in for a long evening," Agassi said after his 5-7, 6-3, 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 victory. "It was one of those that I had to get through just by sheer determination."

Two other seeded men weren't as lucky.

Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic ousted No. 11 Sergi Bruguera of Spain 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 and Sargis Sargsian of Armenia and Arizona State upset No. 16 Andrei Medvedev of the Ukraine 1-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

In women's singles, No. 10 Lindsay Davenport was bumped from the tournament by veteran Zina Garrison Jackson 6-1, 6-3.

Seeded players who won Thursday included No. 7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia and No. 13 Marc Rosset of Switzerland in the men's singles, and No. 2 Monica Seles, No. 4 Conchita Martinez, No. 5 Jana Novotna, No. 7 Kimiko Date, No. 11 Anke Huber and No. 16 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy among the women.

Today's schedule includes No. 2 Pete Sampras, No. 3 Thomas Muster, No. 5 Michael Chang, No. 8 Michael Stich, No. 9 Thomas Enqvist, No. 12 Richard Krajicek and No. 14 Jim Courier playing second-round matches.

No. 3 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 6 Mary Pierce, No. 9 Gabriela Sabatini and No. 14 Mary Joe Fernandez were seeking fourth-round berths.

Corretja used his quickness to get to most of the shots Agassi hit, then unleashed his clay court-honed groundstrokes to find the passing lanes.

"One of the strengths of his game, if not his biggest strength, is the fact that he is going to run down a lot of balls and make you hit a couple of extra every point if your timing is a little off," Agassi said. "Instead of hitting two good shots, you have to hit four or five."
 
#5,437 ·
Sampras prevails - Pierce fails
Two-time champion avenges last year's U.S. Open loss to Yzaga

The Dallas Morning News
Saturday, September 2, 1995
Darryl Richards, Staff Writer

NEW YORK - Two-time U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras found redemption Friday night. Mary Pierce, the sixth-seeded woman, is lost for another year.

Sampras easily beat Jaime Yzaga, the man who ousted him in the fourth round of last year's U.S. Open, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3, in an hour and 32 minutes. Sampras, the Open champion in 1990 and 1993, will play 18-year-old Mark Philippoussis in the third round.

It was a much different match 360 days later. When Yzaga beat Sampras in five sets last year, it was played on a humid day that slowly robbed Sampras of his stamina. Sampras came to Flushing Meadow with little preparation, missing six weeks of the hard-court season with an injured foot. Toward the end, Sampras played like he was rooted to the ground and could not run because of badly blistered feet.

This match was played on a evening with no humidity and Sampras obviously in shape. Sampras dominated with his serve early and finished the match with 16 aces.

"Once I saw the draw and I saw there was a possibility I would be playing Jaime, I was looking forward to it," Sampras said. "What happened last year didn't sit well with me. I was really pumped up, and I wanted to be aggressive. I wanted to get a little revenge."

Amy Frazier, once tabbed as a young American player expected to make a big impact, defeated Pierce, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), in 1:27 to register the biggest upset in the women's draw.

Pierce, the Australian Open champion, was expected to be a serious challenger for top-seeded Steffi Graf, who beat Nathalie Tauziat in a third-round match. But Pierce still is struggling with strategy and depends heavily on her power game.

Usually, she is able to overpower opponents, but on a windy day, Pierce had 46 unforced errors and only 21 winners. When Pierce missed, it was most often long off her forehand.

"It is a little disappointing," Pierce said. "Especially for a tournament on hard court, which is a good surface for me. For me, losing in the third round is unexpected. I felt I was ready.

"I've got to give Amy a lot of credit. She played a great match. The wind was really tough for me because it was swirling a lot, so I never felt like I could get a rhythm with my strokes."

No. 3 Thomas Muster, No. 5 Michael Chang, No. 8 Michael Stich, No. 12 Richard Krajicek, No. 14 Jim Courier and No. 15 Todd Martin advanced in the men's draw. The only seeded player to fall was No. 9 Thomas Enqvist, who lost to Byron Black, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Enqvist, who climbed from 60th to No. 9 in the last year, has been a bust in Grand Slam tournaments this year. His best performance came at the Australian Open, at which he reached the third round. Enqvist was ousted in the first round of the French Open and Wimbledon.

Graf still isn't over the distractions of her father's arrest in Germany for suspicion of tax evasion. But her back problem isn't bothering her, and she managed to smile a few times during a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Tauziat. Graf never has lost a set to Tauziat in their 18 matches.

Graf didn't show her vintage form. She had 21 unforced errors and four double faults. However, she did show improvement from her first two matches.

"I played a couple of points that made me smile," Graf said. "I think what it shows is maybe I was more relaxed as the match kept going on. It takes more than a good shot for me to smile."

Graf will play Chanda Rubin, who defeated Gigi Fernandez, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. It is the second time this year Rubin has advanced to the fourth round of a Grand Slam event. No. 3 seed and defending U.S. Open champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 9 Gabriela Sabatini, No. 12 Natasha Zvereva and No. 14 Mary Joe Fernandez also advanced.

Frazier, 22, has been an American woman expected to make a major impact by now. But she has faltered in Grand Slams, particularly the U.S. Open, at which she never had advanced past the second round until Friday.

Frazier has wrestled with the full-time commitment needed to be a top 10 tennis player. She turned pro in 1990 and skipped the tour in the spring of 1990 to graduate from high school with honors. In 1993, she took six months off the tour and registered for classes at UCLA. She has said she would like to become a math teacher once she retires.

"This is exciting for me," said Frazier, ranked 22nd. "I never thought when I was getting ready to go to school that a few years later, this is where I would be. I don't have any ranking goals. I just want to improve my game."

Yzaga has been a pesky player for Sampras throughout his career. Sampras has only a 4-3 edge on Yzaga in his career, and it was Yzaga who beat Sampras in five sets in his first Grand Slam match in 1988 at the U.S. Open.

"It's tough to get into a rhythm with somebody serving that deep," Yzaga said. "It's hard to play somebody when they are not making any mistakes."
 
#5,438 ·
Big Advance by Frazier Takes Sixth-Seeded Pierce by Surprise
CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
The New York Times
September 2, 1995

Yet another of her forehands had roared wide, and Mary Pierce threw her head back, clenched her fists and screamed in frustration.

On the other side of the net, Amy Frazier, a young woman with a higher tolerance for her own foibles and a considerably lower profile, continued to go about her business.

For Frazier, business yesterday in the third round of the United States Open meant feeding off Pierce's natural power, keeping the ball deep and staying in rallies long enough to let her opponent shoot herself in the sneaker.

Business was very good for Frazier. Her 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over the sixth-seeded Pierce on the Stadium Court was not only the biggest upset so far in the women's tournament, but the brightest point of light in an otherwise somber history of disappointment at her national championships.

Frazier, a 22-year-old from Rochester Hills, Mich., first played in the Open in 1987 when she was awarded a wild-card berth. Until yesterday, she had never advanced past the third round despite several lengthy stints in the top 20.

In 1993, after contracting an illness early in the season, Frazier dropped off the tour for six months for what she termed "personal reasons" and enrolled at U.C.L.A. But shortly before classes began, she changed her mind and returned to the circuit.

"I never would have thought when I was getting ready for school that two years later, this is where I'd be," she said.

Frazier was not the only player with a low Q rating to eliminate a seeded player on the fifth day of the Open. Byron Black, a former stalwart at Southern Cal who hails from a ranch in Zimbabwe, made good use of his two-handed backhand and two-handed forehand to upset ninth-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden in the second round, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Enqvist, who smacks the ball flat and remarkably hard, had been outstanding on hard courts all summer, but the 21-year-old remains vulnerable on the sport's grandest stages. After losing in the first round at the French Open and Wimbledon, he did not come close to living up to his top-10 ranking here on his best surface. Enqvist did save seven match points in the final game and will now have plenty of rest before Sweden's Davis Cup semifinal against the United States later this month in Las Vegas, Nev.

Pete Sampras, one of Enqvist's probable Davis Cup opponents, had no such difficulty last night in the second round against his former Open nemesis, Jaime Yzaga of Peru. Perhaps the only thing Sampras's 92-minute, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 victory had in common with last year's fourth-round marathon won by Yzaga was that both were played on the Stadium Court.

A year ago, Sampras was troubled by a lack of match play, the heat, cramps in his legs and blisters on his feet. This time, in the cool of the evening, he looked fresh, sharp and thoroughly healthy. Yzaga could not manage a single break point against Sampras, who finished with 16 aces to the Peruvian's 1.

"Once I saw the draw and the possibility of playing Jamie, I was looking forward to it," Sampras said. "What happened last year really didn't sit well with me."

Eighth-seeded Michael Stich, a finalist here in 1994, did not look nearly as sharp. Stich needed five sets and a lot of timely serving to overcome a promising Argentine with big ground strokes, Hernan Gumy. The match, won, 6-3, in the fifth by Stich, was played on Court 16, the same court where Stich was upset by Henrik Holm of Sweden in the first round in 1993.

Meanwhile, No. 15 Todd Martin was turning memory lane into an unpaved road for the former Open champ Mats Wilander with a straight-sets victory.

While Wilander, a figure from the past, was bowing out, Justin Gimelstob, an 18-year-old from New Vernon, N.J., competing in his first United States Open, was playing for the future and losing, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, to No. 12 Richard Krajicek.

In the women's draw, top-seeded Steffi Graf, to no one's amazement, improved her career record to 18-0 against the ever-game, ever-accommodating Nathalie Tauziat of France.

"She sure didn't play like she had any family problems," said Tauziat, who lost, 6-3, 6-3, and has still never taken a set off Graf.

Other women who advanced to the fourth round in straight sets included No. 3 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 14 Mary Joe Fernandez and the unseeded Chanda Rubin, who beat her American elder Gigi Fernandez, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

The only girl left in the tournament also advanced. Martina Hingis, the 14-year-old from Switzerland, rallied to defeat Patricia Hy-Boulais of Canada, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. This is the farthest Hingis has gone in a Grand Slam event in her first full year as a professional. Her next opponent will be No. 9 Gabriela Sabatini, who had little difficulty disposing of Sabine Appelmans.

There will be no next opponent at Flushing Meadows for Pierce, who came roaring out of the blocks in January to win the Australian Open without dropping a set and has not won a tournament since.

"I'm very, very, very disappointed," Pierce said. "I started the year off better than I expected and the rest of the year didn't go as I expected."

Illnesses and nagging injuries certainly played a role in her fall, but it bears remembering that neither Graf nor Monica Seles played in Australia. It also bears remembering that with her high-risk flat strokes, incomplete grasp of match tactics and fragile psychological state on court, Pierce is not a player destined for Evert-like consistency.

Frazier, ranked 21st, probably will not win either, but she acquitted herself well under big-time pressure yesterday. With her good preparation and capacity to take the ball on the rise, she is one of the few players capable of thriving on Pierce's pace. And though she failed to convert her first match point with Pierce serving at 5-6, 30-40, she kept her cool in the ensuing tie breaker, saving a set point at 5-6 and finally winning it all when Pierce sailed a backhand long.

"I was nervous, but I just tried to concentrate on the the tennis," Frazier said. "Getting to play in the Stadium at the U.S. Open and being American, that is something special."

It remains to be seen how much more special Frazier's Open can get, but this much is clear. The hairline of her coach, John Austin, is in serious danger. Before the tournament, Austin told Frazier that he would shave his head if she reached the quarterfinals. She is now only one victory away and in no mood to cut corners. Asked yesterday whether she cared to celebrate by trimming just one of Austin's locks, Frazier politely refused.

"A deal is a deal," she said. "I don't want to jinx it."
 
#5,439 ·
Victorious Agassi in line for fine - Tennis
The Independent
London, England
Saturday, September 2, 1995
JOHN ROBERTS reports from New York

In his moment of victory, Andre Agassi took a sip of water and hurled the plastic bottle in anger. "I was just pissed off," he explained. It was the least of the remarks the world No 1 made while clinging desperately to his United States Open title, and a fine is expected follow.

Cursing himself repeatedly - "I can't f...ing play" - Agassi survived five sets of torment on Thursday to overcome Alex Corretja, a Spanish clay- court specialist, ranked No 28, whose chance of causing a major upset was wrecked by cramp as much as Agassi's shot-making.

Bruno Rebeuh, the French umpire involved in the Jeff Tarango fiasco at Wimbledon, appeared oblivious to Agassi's audible obscenities, but yesterday the referee, Brian Earley, called for a video recording of the second- round match.

"The language thing did not cross my mind," was Earley's initial response. "I thought the language was only heard by the TV production people. Now it is more serious than I thought. When that goes over to millions of people it is a different matter."

John McEnroe was fined pounds 7,500 at Wimbledon in 1991 after an ITN News microphone picked up obscenities during his fourth-round defeat by Stefan Edberg.

Bad language is a feature of Agassi's repertoire, frequently materialising when he loses control of the points. Having won 21 consecutive matches since falling to Boris Becker in the Wimbledon semi-finals, the thought of being dispatched early here smacked too much of old times.

Agassi's 67 unforced errors included double-faults on the final two points of the opening set. Another double-fault put him a break down at 1-2 in the fifth, by which time Corretja lacked the physical capacity to take advantage. The pain-racked Spaniard tumbled while attempting to save the final point as Agassi swept through the last five games to win, 5-7, 6- 3, 5-7, 6-0, 6-2.

Though Agassi's coarse self-criticism summarised his darkening mood, it was not entirely accurate. He can play, and produced 87 winners to prove it. One of these was a spectacular improvised shot over his left shoulder in the concluding game of the fourth set, meriting a bow to the crowd; a rare glimpse of Agassi's charm. "I didn't feel great about a lot of that stuff out there tonight," he said.

In the third round, Agassi will play Edberg, the champion in 1991 and 1992 who is unseeded for the first time in a decade. Last year, Agassi became the first unseeded player to win the tournament since the Australian, Fred Stolle, in 1966.

Edberg, competing in his 50th consecutive Grand Slam championship, has not played Agassi in one of the majors before. The Las Vegan has won their last four matches and leads the head-to-head series 5-3.

Thomas Enqvist, Sweden's top-ranked player nowadays, failed to justify his ninth seeding. He was defeated in the second round by the 70th ranked Byron Black, of Zimbabwe, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Andrei Medvedev, the Ukrainian No 16 seed, was another casualty, beaten by Sargis Sargsian, the first Armenian to play in a Grand Slam event, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Sargsian, who came to America in 1993, competed with Medvedev as a junior when their countries were under the rule of the Soviet Union.

In the women's singles, Mary Pierce dropped out of Steffi Graf's quarter of the draw. The sixth seed, who began the year in triumph at the Australian Open, was defeated in the third round by the American Amy Frazier, 6-3, 7-6.

The 14-year-old Martina Hingis advanced to the fourth round, her best Grand Slam performance, with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win against Patricia Hy-Boulais, of Canada.

Graf defeated Nathalie Tauziat, 6-3, 6-3. It was the top seed's 18th consecutive victory against the French player, who managed one break of serve but was not particularly impressed with either her own performance, or Graf's. "She played OK, but I missed a lot of easy balls," Tauziat said.
 
#5,440 ·
STITCH TAKES LONG, WHINING ROAD PAST NO. 98 GUMY
Sun-Sentinel
Saturday, September 2, 1995
CHARLES BRICKER, Staff Writer

It was Gumy vs. Gloomy in the tight quarters of fan-friendly Court 16 at the U.S. Open.

Gloomy won.

Right on his grumbling form, and maybe more so in the confrontational confines of Flushing Meadow, Michael Stich slammed rackets, groaned at calls, glowered at linespeople and ultimately dispatched unseeded and 98th-ranked Argentine Hernan Gumy in a five-set marathon Friday.

The score was 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, and Stich, the No. 8 seed, needed a hard-won break in the eighth game of the final set to secure this win.

The victory was a tribute to his persistence, experience, fitness level, and maybe his pride, too. He was runner-up here last year and this could be his last chance to salvage what has been a generally disappointing season.

"I played three normal sets and two terrible sets," he said, surprisingly becalmed after 45 minutes of cooling out from this two-hour, 37-minute grinder.

He didn't apologize for his tantrums. "I was [bleeped] off about myself. I think that was pretty obvious," he said of his racket tossing. "I wasn't very happy with my performance and I didn't play as well as I wanted to."

Stich avoided a colossal upset, but No. 9 seed Thomas Enqvist, one of the dark horses, did not. He was taken apart by the finesse of Byron Black of Zimbabwe, the No. 70 player in the world, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. There was also one upset on the women's side. Unpredictable Mary Pierce, seeded sixth, was in a mood to spray balls, a condition she suffers from at least once in every tournament, losing to Amy Frazier 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).

With world No. 1 Andre Agassi safely ensconced Thursday in the third round, No. 2 Pete Sampras joined him, beating Jaime Yzaga of Peru 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. It was a revenge match for Sampras, who lost to Yzaga in the round of 16 at last year's Open.

Five other seeded men advanced - No. 3 Thomas Muster, No. 5 Michael Chang, No. 12 Richard Krajicek, No. 14 Jim Courier and No. 15 Todd Martin.

Among the women, top-seeded Steffi Graf , looking more emotionally comfortable with each match, whipped Nathalie Tauziat 6-3, 6-3 to go into the fourth round. She is 18-0 lifetime against Tauziat without the loss of a set.

With her father in a German prison awaiting trial on tax evasion charges, Graf has been fighting her emotions and an undependable serve. But she actually grinned on court Friday. "I played a couple of shots that made me smile," she said.

Joining her in the fourth round were No. 3 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 9 Gabriela Sabatini, No. 12 Natasha Zvereva and No. 14 Mary Joe Fernandez of Miami. Fernandez defeated Katrina Adams 6-3, 6-1, but things get tougher Sunday when she plays Sanchez Vicario.

Stich next faces talented Aussie Scott Draper, 21, but there is no way of predicting what Stich will do.

From No. 2 in the world at the end of 1993, he slipped to No. 9 last year and now stands at No. 8. He has won only one title this year, at Los Angeles, where he beat Enqvist. He has lost three finals - to Krajicek, Wayne Ferreira and Marc Rosset.

"Overall, an average year," Stich admitted. "I wouldn't complain about having a bad year and I wouldn't say I had a good year. But I'm happy the way I played the hardcourts this summer, so that is a little bit of change from the first six months."

Power is his forte and he used his big serve to whack 17 aces, eight in the fifth set. But it was two deft backhand slices in a row that produced the key points in breaking Gumy for a 5-3 lead. "For sure, those two balls made the difference," he said.

Gumy is not unknown to tennis fans who followed or watched him at America's Red Clay tournament in Coral Springs. He upset third-seeded David Wheaton and had a good run at Greg Rusedski in the quarterfinals.

"Those two slices ... usually I get those," he said. "But after 2 1/2 hours, it is harder to bend over. They stayed very low."

He'll be heard from again. So will Stich, one way or the other.
 
#5,441 ·
Puzzling Pierce out, this time to Frazier
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Saturday, September 2, 1995
JERRY MAGEE, Staff Writer

A trace of a smile should be playing at the corners of Mary Pierce's mouth. That's how enigmas are supposed to look, isn't it?

Pierce is one. As Steffi Graf remarked yesterday, "Sometimes, you're not sure how she is going to be out there."

The woman with residences in Paris and Bradenton, Fla., can be good enough to win a Grand Slam event, as she did at this year's Australian Open. She can be sufficiently ordinary to lose to Iva Majoli in the fourth round of the French Open, to Nathalie Tauziat in the second round at Wimbledon, and to Amy Frazier in the third round here yesterday.

Frazier's game contains little severity, but the Rochester Hills, Mich., woman advanced handily enough 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).

Among those moving up in the women's draw with Frazier were No. 1 seed Graf, who defeated Tauziat for a 19th consecutive time 6-3, 6-3; 14-year-old Swiss Martina Hingis, a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victor over Patricia Hy-Boulais; and Chanda Rubin, who rallied from 1-4 down in the first set for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 triumph over doubles whiz Gigi Fernandez.

Rubin is on a roll. Since the French Open, she is 16-5. Some in the tennis community are saying she can handle Graf in the fourth round.

"Chanda, she hits very good, the ball," said Tauziat, "and she has a very good chance against Steffi right now."

After winning in Australia, Pierce said she felt she was ready to play consistently. She hasn't. She admitted she isn't as secure concerning her game as she might be.

"When I go to a tournament, I believe I have the game to win the tournament, but I don't think about winning the tournament," she said.

Pierce noted that the players at the top of the women's game possess something that sets them apart. "Obviously," said Pierce. "That's what makes them champions."

Pierce did not specify what this quality might be.

Half volleys

At the foot of the stairs leading to the women's locker room, the security guard Thursday was Brian Rocovich of Queens. As Angelica Gavaldon was going out for her match, Rocovich advised her, "You're going to win 6-3, 6-2." Nice call. She won 6-3, 6-1 . . . Another pretty good prognosticator is Rino Tomassi, a tennis writer from Milan, Italy, whose feature-match selections are published in the draw sheets sold at the Open. Tomassi's hot. Thursday, he called Zina Garrison Jackson's victory over Lindsay Davenport and Daniel Vacek's ouster of Sergi Bruguera.

Ninety minutes before play was to begin yesterday, the line of people wishing to purchase tickets to get on the grounds -- a stadium seat is not included -- stretched for at least six blocks. These tickets are $20 . . . Alex Corretja didn't beat Andre Agassi late Thursday, but he became only the third unseeded player to take a set from the defending champion this season. The others were David Wheaton at Wimbledon and Thomas Enqvist in the U.S. Indoors . . . A sleeper who might be rousing: Jonas Bjorkman. The athletic Swede, a quarterfinalist here a year ago, when he took Todd Martin to five sets, did a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 number on Paul Haarhuis . . . Davenport has great regard for Jackson, but she also has a warning: That Jackson is in tough against Nicole Arendt, a New Jersey resident with a wicked left-handed serve . . . Few tennis players are more of an enigma than the vastly talented but often lackadaisical Cedric Pioline. The Frenchman was an Open finalist in 1993, a year his ranking nudged into the top 10. Yesterday he went out 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-0 to Francisco Clavet of Spain. Pioline's current ranking: No. 56 . . . The other night, Graf attended the musical, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Graf, succinct in all matters, calls it "How to do Business Without Trying."

U.S. OPEN

Off the court It's a "West Side Story" lyric: "Maria. I just met a girl named Maria." Probably at the U.S. Open. In the women's singles field at the tournament's beginning were three players named Maria -- Maria Jose Gaidano, Maria Strandlund and Maria Jose (Mary Joe) Fernandez.

On the court One of the hot guys in the men's field was supposed to be Thomas Enqvist, a young Swede, but Byron Black of Zimbabwe, who swings with both hands from both sides, took him out 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Enqvist was the No. 9 seed.

Quote From Andre Agassi, on what it is like to be playing in Louis Armstrong Stadium when the hour has grown late: "This is the U.S. Open, man. By the fifth set, everybody has two or three beers in them. It's rockin'!"

TV CBS (11 a.m.); USA (4:30 p.m.).
 
#5,442 ·
Frazier upstages Pierce at Open - Rubin advances
The Sun
Baltimore, MD
Saturday, September 2, 1995
Sandra McKee

NEW YORK -- It has been 13 years since an American-born woman has won the U.S. Open, and 11 years since one has made it to the championship match. Not since Chris Evert won in 1982 and reached the finals in 1984 has the United States had something to cheer about in its Grand Slam tournament final.

The prospects of it happening this year are slim, too, but yesterday, St. Louis native Amy Frazier jolted everyone when she upset No. 6 seed Mary Pierce, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), to be one of five American-born women players in contention after five days of play.

It was a stunning moment on Stadium Court when Frazier, ranked No. 21, won before a boisterous crowd that voiced its mixed emotions. There is no more sympathetic player than Pierce, whose struggles to escape her tyrannical father are well-chronicled. But in the American psyche there is also no more appealing competitor than an underdog like Frazier.

Fellow American Chanda Rubin, 19, was delighted by Frazier's performance as she sat in the locker room waiting for her own match to start. Rubin, Frazier, Mary Joe Fernandez, Zina Garrison Jackson and Nicole Arendt are the remaining American-born women's players. The United States has one other representative in the women's field -- recent naturalized citizen Monica Seles, who was born in Yugoslavia.

''I thought it was a good match up from the beginning,'' said Rubin, who pounded Gigi Fernandez, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, of Frazier's triumph. ''You don't find yourself in situations like that very often and it was nice to see her take advantage it . . . to see someone unexpected win on the Stadium Court.''

Rubin will have an opportunity to duplicate the excitement in her fourth-round match when she faces No. 1 seed Steffi Graf in a match that Rubin said she believes she can win.

There were few other upsets yesterday. The biggest of the day came when unseeded Byron Black, a top doubles player, dispatched No. 9 seed Thomas Enqvist, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Last year's men's runner-up Michael Stich finally broke Hernan Gumy in the eighth game of the fifth set to hold on, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.

Fifth-seeded Michael Chang and No. 3 Thomas Muster each won in four sets, and second seed Pete Sampras defeated Jaime Yzaga. Sampras faced no break points and fired 16 aces, avenging last year's fourth-round loss to the Peruvian.

''I was looking forward to [the match], just to get a little revenge,'' said Sampras. ''We were going to do battle because what happened last year really didn't sit well with me.''

These days, the talk of the women's draw are Seles, Graf and 14-year-old Martina Hingis and Rubin, the young, bright hopes of the future.

Pierce, who was pointed to as the savior-to-be of women's tennis when she made the finals of the French Open two years ago, has not won a tournament since the Australian Open in January.

And no one talks about Frazier, though it became apparent as the day wore on yesterday, that Graf is a pretty good prognosticator.

After advancing to the fourth round with a routine 6-3, 6-3 victory over Nathalie Tauziat, Graf predicted Rubin would advance in her match against Gigi Fernandez and be her next opponent. She also thought Pierce might struggle.

''Sometimes, you're still not sure how Mary is going to play,'' said Graf. ''Sometimes she plays some great tennis; sometimes she can make quite a few errors. So you are never quite sure of how she can do.''

That was certainly true on Stadium Court. Pierce's forehand was consistently long in the 6-3 first set. But then she won nine straight points at the start of the second set to go up a break and seemed in control.

''The first set was like totally swimming up a creek,'' said Pierce. ''Nothing was working. I was missing all my shots that I was going for. Then, after the first set, I felt like I started getting used to the wind a little bit and I started feeling at least I was playing a little bit better. The second set was better. It was close. I felt I probably could have won the second set. Then hopefully start feeling better, better in the third.''

But the unassuming Frazier didn't let it get that far.

At the age of 22 she seems to have few tennis aspirations. She skipped the tour in 1990 to graduate magna cum laude from high school and dropped off again for six months in 1993 for personal reasons. She says she is still planning to return to college and become a math teacher and said coming into this match she didn't think about winning or losing.

''I don't dream about winning the U.S. Open,'' she said. ''I mean, everyone here wants to win it, but I don't dream about it because I don't come into a tournament thinking how many matches I want to win or what round I want to get to.

''But it was exciting to play the stadium court at the U.S. Open, being an American. That's something special. That's something that will stay with me always.''
 
#5,443 ·
CHANG, SAMPRAS GAIN
The Star-Ledger
Newark, NJ
Saturday, September 2, 1995
BY AL PICKER

NEW YORK -- MICHAEL CHANG YESTERDAY CELEBRATED THE EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS FIRST VICTORY AT THE U.S. OPEN, THE TIME WHEN HE BECAME THE YOUNGEST EVER TO WIN A MATCH IN THE MEN'S DRAW. HE WAS 15, WINNING IN FOUR SETS OVER PAUL MCNAMEE IN 1987.

CHANG, NOW 23, MARKED THE OCCASION WITH ANOTHER FOUR-SET SUCCESS, THIS TIME KNOCKING OFF STEFANO PESCOSOLIDO OF ITALY, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, THE FIFTH-SEEDED PLAYER ADVANCING TO THE THIRD ROUND OF THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR THE EIGHTH STRAIGHT YEAR BEFORE A DELIGHTED AFTERNOON CROWD OF 21,041 AT THE NATIONAL TENNIS CENTER IN FLUSHING MEADOW.

CHANG'S ADVANCE TO THE MEN'S THIRD ROUND CAME ON A DAY WHEN THIRD-SEEDED THOMAS MUSTER, CHANG'S CONQUEROR IN THE FRENCH OPEN FINAL, CAME THROUGH WITH HIS OWN FOUR-SET VICTORY AND 1994 U.S. OPEN FINALIST MICHAEL STICH, THE NO. 8-SEEDED PLAYER, SURVIVED A FIVE-SETTER.

AT NIGHT, PETE SAMPRAS RETURNED WITH A VENGEANCE. A YEAR AGO, AFTER A SUMMER OF INACTIVITY DUE TO AN INJURY, HE WAS UPSET IN THE FOURTH ROUND IN A FIVE-SETTER BY JAIME YZAGA. THIS TIME SAMPRAS WAS OUT TO SHOW WHAT A FLUKE THAT RESULT WAS.
"YOU DON'T FORGET LOSSES LIKE THAT IN SLAMS," SAID SAMPRAS, OBVIOUSLY VERY
MOTIVATED FOR THE REMATCH.

SAMPRAS OPENED THE MATCH BY CRASHING A 130 MPH SERVE. HE STRUCK TWO OF HIS 16 ACES IN THAT OPENING GAME. THE MESSAGE WAS SENT AND DELIVERED WITH FINALITY IN 92 MINUTES, THE SECOND-RANKED SAMPRAS CRUSHING YZAGA, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

LAST YEAR, SAMPRAS WILTED IN A 3:58 AFTERNOON DUEL. UNDER THE LIGHTS THIS TIME, HE WAS AS STRONG AT THE END AS HE WAS AT THE START.

YZAGA WAS OUT OF HIS LEAGUE IN THIS ENCOUNTER. "IT IS HARD WHEN SOMEBODY STARTS SERVING THAT BIG, HE PLAYED A GREAT MATCH," SAID THE 69TH-RANKED PLAYER.

SOME 3,500 OF THE 19,877 IN ATTENDANCE AT NIGHT MOVED FROM THE STADIUM TO THE GRANDSTAND TO WATCH YOUNG NEW JERSEYAN JUSTIN GIMELSTOB IN THE SECOND OUTING OF HIS FIRST U.S. OPEN. IT ENDED IN DEFEAT AGAINST ONE OF THE TOP PLAYERS IN THE WORLD, 12TH-SEEDED RICHARD KRAJICEK, WHO PARLAYED EARLY BREAKS IN EACH SET FOR A 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 VICTORY.

"HE HAS A FUTURE," SAID KRAJICEK, WHO RECENTLY HELD A MATCH POINT AGAINST ANDRE AGASSI.

GIMELSTOB, AN UPSET WINNER OVER DAVID PRINOSIL IN THE FIRST ROUND, FELT THAT HIS OPEN DEBUT HAS LEFT HIM WITH "GREAT MEMORIES".

"I'M DISAPPOINTED (WITH THE RESULT) BUT HE WAS THE BEST PLAYER I HAVE EVER FACED," SAID THE 18-YEAR-OLD FROM NEW VERNON, WHO WILL COMPLETE HIS JUNIOR CAREER NEXT WEEK IN THE U.S. OPEN JUNIORS.

ON THE WOMEN'S SIDE, TOP-SEEDED STEFFI GRAF AND UNSEEDED CHANDA RUBIN, RANKED 16TH, EACH SCORED DAYTIME VICTORIES AND SET UP A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED FOURTH-ROUND BATTLE. GRAF KNOCKED OFF NO. 20 NATHALIE TAUZIAT OF FRANCE, 6-3, 6-3, IN A 62-MINUTE GRANDSTAND DUEL, LIFTING HER RECORD IN THE PERSONAL SERIES TO 17-0 -- ALL IN STRAIGHT SETS. RUBIN TURNED BACK NO. 29 GIGI FERNANDEZ, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

GRAF MIGHT HAVE BEEN WATCHING THE PROGRESS OF A POTENTIAL QUARTERFINAL OPPONENT IN MARY PIERCE. THAT WILL NO LONGER BE NECESSARY, THANKS TO NO. 21 AMY FRAZIER, WHO POLISHED OFF THE NO. 6-SEEDED PIERCE, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), IN AN 87-MINUTE UPSET. FRAZIER PLAYED WELL, BUT SHE GOT PLENTY OF HELP FROM THE WINNER OF THIS YEAR'S AUSTRALIAN OPEN AS PIERCE PERFORMING ERRATICALLY IN WINDY CONDITIONS.

NO. 3-SEEDED ARANTXA SANCHEZ VICARIO, THE WOMEN'S DEFENDING CHAMPION, ARRIVED IN THE FINAL 32 WITH A 6-3, 6-0 DECISION OVER NO. 123 MARIA JOSE GAIDANO OF ARGENTINA. MARTINA HINGIS, THE YOUNG LADY CONSIDERED A FUTURE STAR ON THE WTA TOUR, MADE IT TO THE THIRD ROUND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A GRAND SLAM. THE 14-YEAR-OLD SWISS PLAYER, RANKED NO. 18, RALLIED TO DEFEAT NO. 73 PATRICIA HY-BOULAIS OF CANADA, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

NO. 9 GABRIELA SABATINI, WHO DROPPED ONLY THREE GAMES IN THE FIRST ROUND, BLEW AWAY NO. 34 SABINE APPELMANS OF BELGIUM, 6-1, 6-1, IN 68 MINUTES.

PIERCE WAS THE LONE WOMEN'S SEED TO FALL AND THE MEN ALSO HAD A SINGULAR DEPARTURE AMONG THE FAVORITES AS 70TH-RANKED BYRON BLACK OF ZIMBABWE STUNNED NO. 9-SEEDED THOMAS ENQVIST OF SWEDEN, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

"THAT'S MY FIRST VICTORY OVER A TOP 10 PLAYER," SAID BLACK, WHOSE RETURNS FRUSTRATED THE HARD-SERVING ENQVIST.

EXCEPT FOR HIS TENACITY AND FOOT SPEED, THERE'S A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHANG OF TODAY AND THE SKINNY 15-YEAR-OLD BACK IN '87. THEN HE WAS AN UNKNOWN. TODAY HE IS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED AND ONE OF THE WORLD'S BEST.

"I WAS PRETTY SKINNY BACK THEN AND NOW I HAVE FILLED OUT QUITE A BIT," SAID THE 5-9 CHANG, BARELY 135 IN HIS INITIAL APPEARANCE AND NOW A SOLID 150. "I WAS A DEFENSIVE PLAYER, JUST GETTING IN MY SERVE AND PLAYING PATIENT TENNIS. I DIDN'T VENTURE TO THE NET UNLESS THERE WAS A DROP SHOT."

CHANG IS PHYSICALLY STRONGER NOW AND PLAYS A FAR MORE AGGRESSIVE GAME, RIGHT FROM THE MOMENT HE UNCORKS HIS SERVE.

PESCOSOLIDO FOUND THAT OUT TO HIS DISMAY. THE HOBOKEN, N.J.-BORN CHANG WAS UNLEASHING 120 MPH. HE LACED TWO ACES IN THE OPENING GAME AND DIDN'T FINISH IN THAT DEPARTMENT UNTIL HE HAD 19.

CHANG IS WILLING TO MAKE FREQUENT VENTURES TO THE NET AND ABLE TO GO FOR WINNERS QUICKLY AND ELIMINATE LONG RALLIES. HE MADE 33 APPROACHES, WINNING 18 POINTS. AND WHEN THE ROAD GETS ROCKY, HE RESPONDS. THE 87TH-RANKED PESCOSOLIDO MOVED TO A 3-1 LEAD IN THE THIRD SET AND THOUGHT: "I HAVE A CHANCE."

BUT THAT'S WHEN CHANG PLAYS HIS BEST. WHEN HE'S BEHIND. HE TOOK TO THE OFFENSE,
ATTACKING SECOND SERVES AND SHORT BALLS. THE DELIVERIES FINALLY WORE DOWN PESCOSOLIDO, WHOSE PLAY DETERIORATED UNDER THE PRESSURE.

MUSTER, A MASTER OF POWER SHOTMAKING FROM THE BACK OF THE COURT, GRADUALLY WORE DOWN AUSSIE MARK WOODFORDE. THE 40TH-RANKED PLAYER HAD A GOOD START BEFORE MUSTER'S ACCURATE AND DEEP STROKES FINALLY MADE THE DIFFERENCE WITH MUSTER PLOWING AHEAD, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4, IN 2:06.

THE 100TH-RANKED MEN'S PLAYER, SEBASTIEN LAREAU OF CANADA, FOUND OUT THAT 14TH-SEEDED JIM COURIER MAY NOT BE THE PLAYER HE WAS IN 1992 WHEN HE WAS NO. 1 BUT THAT HE APPEARS TO BE ON THE ROAD BACK.

"NO REASON TO GO TRUMPETING, BUT WE'LL SEE HOW THINGS GO," SAID COURIER, WHO SIDELINED LAREAU IN REGULATION SETS, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

STICH, WHO WAS OUSTED IN

THE FIRST ROUND AT WIMBLEDON, PLAYED WELL ONLY IN SPURTS, BUT THAT WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO BEAT NO. 98 HERNAN GUMY OF ARGENTINA, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.

"I WASN'T HAPPY WITH THE WAY I WAS PLAYING," SAID STICH. HE SUMMED UP HIS EFFORT THIS WAY: "I PLAYED THREE NORMAL SETS AND TWO TERRIBLE SETS."

GRAF WAS HARDLY STRETCHED BY THE ERROR-PRONE TAUZIAT. THE FRENCH PLAYER WAS NOT A SERIOUS THREAT, BUT SHE MANAGED ONE SERVICE BREAK AND HAD BREAK POINTS IN TWO
OTHER GAMES.

"SHE (GRAF) PLAYED GOOD BUT DIDN'T SERVE AS WELL AS SHE DID BEFORE AGAINST ME," SAID TAUZIAT. "BUT HER GAME WAS NOT TOO BAD."

GRAF, LOOKING AHEAD TO POSSIBLE MEETING WITH PIERCE, WAS RIGHT ON TARGET WITH THIS APPRAISAL OF THE FRENCH STAR: "SOMETIMES SHE PLAYS SOME GREAT TENNIS,
SOMETIMES SHE MAKES QUITE A FEW ERRORS. YOU ARE NOT QUITE SURE WHAT SHE WILL DO."

THAT'S JUST WHAT HAPPENED TO PIERCE IN HER STADIUM MATCH WITH FRAZIER, WHO ATTACKED PIERCE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY. RESPONDING, PIERCE EITHER HIT OUTRIGHT WINNERS OR SPRAYED ERRORS ALL OVER THE PLACE.

NICOLE ARENDT OF PRINCETON, N.J., WHO PLAYS ZINA GARRISON JACKSON TODAY IN THE THIRD ROUND, WAS BEATEN IN BOTH WOMEN'S DOUBLES AND MIXED DOUBLES. MARTINA NAVRATILOVA, WHO ISN'T COMPETING IN THE SINGLES, KEPT HER HOPES ALIVE IN BOTH DOUBLES. THE VETERAN STAR, IN THE SECOND ROUND IN WOMEN'S DOUBLES WITH SABATINI, ADVANCED TO THE THIRD ROUND OF MIXED DOUBLES WITH PARTNER JONATHAN STARK.
 
#5,444 ·
ONE DECENT UPSET AND A COUPLE OF NEAR SURPRISES AT U.S. OPEN
Scripps Howard News Service
Saturday, September 2, 1995
MARK FAINARU

There was one decent upset Friday at the U.S. Open and a couple near surprises that fizzled, but does this really faze anyone? No. This is the Graf-Seles, Agassi-Sampras Open, and nothing else will really do. As long as those four are around, everything else is just the fringe.

And so it goes here at the '95 Open, where women's top seed Steffi Graf rolled along with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Nathalie Tauziat, and men's top seed Pete Sampras took revenge on Jaime Yzaga and pounded him 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

For Graf, it was all part of a continued streak of the calm that has followed her first-round struggles against Amanda Coetzer. In fact, in this latest victory, Graf even stumbled across a smile or two along the way.

Such are the treasured moments these days for Graf, who seemed increasingly more at ease on the court but still pained in the aftermath. Hers is the somewhat dwarfed story now, overshadowed almost entirely by the Monica Seles Comeback, coming soon to a Movie of the Week near you.

For Graf, she's merely dealing with a father under house [sic] arrest back in Germany on tax evasion charges, and a pending investigation into her own role in the dealings with her finances. She hasn't been allowed to speak with her father in nearly a month. And, oh yeah, she has some back problems.

So when Graf smiles these days, it's news.

"It's just that I have had a couple, played a couple points that made me smile," said Graf, who will play Chanda Rubin of Lafayette, La., in the fourth round. "I think what it shows is that maybe I was more relaxed as the match kept going on.

"I think it takes more than kind of a good shot to make me smile. I think it is harder to make me smile (these days)."

She plods along, nonetheless, looking anguished in her moments off the court. There was nary a question about her father or her tax situation in the press conference following her easy victory over Tauziat, yet she clearly was uncomfortable just talking about tennis and life.

It could be worse. Even she admitted there is less attention being paid her these days, now that Monica Seles has returned and is trying to put together her storybook ending to her dramatic forced absence from -- and gutsy return to -- tennis.

That tale continues Saturday when the second-seeded Seles faces Yone Kamio of Japan in her third-round match.

As for the men, they're progressing fairly nicely, although a few gasps remain from Andre Agassi's five-set dip into the scary world of an Agassi-less Open. He does remain, though, and he will be back at it Saturday in the Stadium Court, where it will just be he, Stefan Edberg, 20,000 chatty New Yorkers and Brooke Shields' amazing facial expressions. It's all right there, on CBS.

And if CBS and the rest of us get lucky, the final will provide Agassi going at Sampras, who trampled all over Yzaga in 1 hour, 31 minutes. It was a far cry from the pair's meeting here last year, when Yzaga ousted Sampras in the Open's round of 16, taking five sets and 3:38 to get it done.

"Once I saw the draw and the possibility of playing Jaime, I was really looking forward to it," Sampras said. "What happened last year didn't sit well with me.

"This is what I was looking forward to. Once I saw the draw, it was a little bit of revenge. ... You never forget a loss like that, especially in a major tournament."

Sampras will be challenged Sunday by Australian Mark Philippoussis, who had 22 aces on the way to a straight-sets victory over Marc Goellner. Sampras and Philippoussis have never played each other before.

Not everything went exactly as expected on the eve of the Open's first weekend. That's because sixth-seeded Mary Pierce lost 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) to American Amy Frazier, continuing Pierce's pattern of inconsistency.

"I am really disappointed, I have to be honest, because I started the year off better than I expected," said Pierce, who began the year by winning the Australian Open and then finishing a runner-up to Graf at the French Open [sic]. "So it is a little bit disappointing; especially here, where the hard courts are a good surface for me, and I like to play here in New York."

While Rubin's surge into the round of 16 might seem a slight surprise to some, her 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 victory over Gigi Fernandez convinced Fernandez that Rubin could be trouble for the distracted Graf.

"I think it will be a great matchup," Fernandez said. "I think she has a very good chance to beat Steffi."

The 19-year-old seems confident she can play with Graf, and she is coming off a runner-up finish at a hard-court tuneup in Los Angeles.

Other winners on the women's side were ninth-seeded Gabriela Sabatini, 12th-seeded Natasha Zvereva, 14th-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez and 14-year-old Martina Hingis. In the men's draw, ninth-seeded Thomas Enqvist was upset by Byron Black, and other winners included third-seeded Thomas Muster, fourth-seeded Michael Chang and eighth-seeded Michael Stich, who was stretched to five sets by Argentina's Hernan Gumy.
 
#5,445 ·
Wait... Is that... a trace of a good mood from Miss I-Can-Smile-Or-I-Can-Play-Tennis? And LMAO at Wilander!

U.S. OPEN PASSING SHOTS
John Jeansonne
Newsday
September 2, 1995

ACE. Grandstand Court continues to have the good feel of springtraining baseball: The best players are in action, but can be watched up-close (because of a seating capacity of 6,000).

ACE. Player praise for the National Tennis Center's enlarged new locker room, which no longer separates the top seeds in separate quarters, away from the rest of the competitors.

FAULT. The Arthur Ashe Endowment for the Defeat of AIDS booth has been shifted off the U.S. Open grounds to a spot located on the boardwalk between Shea Stadium and the National Tennis Center, according to the Associated Press. For the past three years, the booth was located within the grounds of the U.S. Open where spectators would constantly walk past.

The new booth location has severely cut into the exposure and revenue the Arthur Ashe Endowment for the Defeat of AIDS is receiving.

ACE. The radio broadcast room of the press box around 5:30 p.m., when everybody is taping a report and it sounds like the Tower of Babel.

ACE. Those two tennis sculptures, called "Apogee" and "Momentum," in the plaza next to the main stadium still are great. And a good meeting place.

ACE. Michael Chang acknowledging National Tennis Center maintenance and staff workers for their part in the U.S. Open's wild two-week run. "The people that you don't actually see around the tournament do a great job," Chang said. "People that, you know, let you into the parking lot
and security guards and just a lot of people that you don't really take into consideration. They do a great job to make the U.S. Open a great event."

ACE. Steffi Graf was detected smiling on the court after a winning lob against Nathalie Tauziat. "Yeh, and I lost my serve right after that," Graf said with good humor. "I think what it shows is that maybe I was more relaxed as the match went on. I think it takes more than a good shot to make me smile."

LET. Just in case you didn't notice: The chair umpire for the featured Stadium Court match between Andre Agassi and Spain's Alex Corretja Thursday night was Bruno Rebeuh, the object of Jeff Tarango's anger at Wimbledon in June.

ACE. Mats Wilander, now 31 years old and seven years after he won the U.S. Open, made it clear that everything is different in his "second" tennis career. Asked if he ever gets the feeling that he might have beaten a player such as 25-year-old Todd Martin, his conqueror yesterday, when he was in his prime, Wilander answered: "Did you ever think that you are going to die? What I mean is, you can't ask that question. How can you think like that? Did you ever think about the girls that you get when you are 18 compared to 45? It's not going to happen, okay. It's never going to happen again, I'm telling you. Why think about those things? It doesn't matter anymore."

ONLY IN AMERICA?

Foreigners continue to be amazed at the short attention span of American sports spectators, who constantly move in and out of their seats during play. Certainly the players notice, with annoynance, the fans' inability to sit still throughout a match, or even a set.

TODAY'S U.S. OPEN LIST:

Things to do at the tennis championships:
1. Eat.
2. Sunbathe.
3. Shop.
4. Schmooze.
5. Check out Brooke Shields.
6. Visit the ATM machine on the grounds.
7. Be seen.
8. Watch tennis.
 
#5,446 ·
And as a break from all the "Gloom, despair, and agony on me..." today is mostly light-hearted. Steffi's own fortunes (of various kinds) might be hanging in the balance, but, hey, things are looking positive for her lovable-losers favorite team!

SIX MONTHS LATER, GRAF'S TIP FOR HEAT'S STAFF COMES TRUE
The Palm Beach Post
Sunday, September 3, 1995
CHARLES ELMORE, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Steffi Graf, hoops prognosticator?

In an on-court interview at the Lipton Championships, Graf was asked what the Miami Heat needed to do improve their fortunes.

''Hire Pat Riley,'' Graf replied.

Nearly six months later, the Heat have done just that.

Graf, an avid Heat fan who has a home in Boca Raton, said she was glad the team finally followed her advice and brought in the former Knicks coach.

''I'm glad that he's going to Miami,'' Graf said Saturday. ''He'll be very good for the Heat. Obviously he knows how to win and he brings a championship attitude, which is something you gain only through experience. All of those things will be very good for Miami.''

TIME FLIES: Gabriela Sabatini meets 14-year-old Martina Hingis of Switzerland today in a quarterfinal match fraught with (1) possible peril for Gaby and (2) parallels for all.

''I was thinking, geez, I was 14 when I played my first U.S. Open,'' Sabatini said.

Sabatini, 25, improved from her third-round finish in 1984 to win the Open six years later, in 1990. It was her first - and last - Grand Slam title.

If Sabatini continues to have problems with her serve, Hingis could prevent her from returning to the semifinals for the second straight year.

That's followed by two matches pitting former Open champions against newcomers worth watching: No. 1 Steffi Graf meets Louisiana's Chanda Rubin, and No. 2 men's seed Pete Sampras confronts hard-serving Mark Philippoussis of Australia.

SERVE ADVANTAGE: In a quarterfinal Monday, the hardest-serving woman in tennis meets the top 10 player with the weakest serve.

No. 16 seed Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands and Delray Beach, with a tour-leading top serve of 117 mph, meets No. 7 seed Kimiko Date of Japan, who has a 75-mph serve but rock-steady ground strokes.

Schultz-McCarthy reached the quarterfinals - a career best - with Saturday's 6-2, 7-5 win over Angelica Gaveldon of Mexico. She did this despite hitting only eight aces, an off day for her, and landing just 48 percent of her first serves.
 
#5,447 ·
Their security procedures had an obvious flaw. :lol: We note that the obvious solution of having the security guards block entry to the bathroom until Steffi was finished cleaning up was obviously not implemented. What that says about Steffi's obvious consideration for other people will be left as an exercise for the reader, with the hint that some other superstars maybe would have demanded the solution.

LONG ISLAND JOURNAL
DIANE KETCHAM
The New York Times
September 3, 1995

[....]

Here and There

. . . Seeing professional tennis players up close and personal has always been a draw at the Hamlet Cup tennis tournament in Commack. This year there was an added dimension. Organizers invited Steffi Graf, the No. 1 player in the women's game, to play an exhibition match at the all-male tournament. After the match Ms. Graf's four male guards accompanied her to the club's ladies locker room. But they had to stay out as she walked in, followed by numerous female fans wanting to use the restroom. Putting on lipstick over and over were Lynn Ricca of Smithtown and her sister-in-law, Arlene Ricca. "My daughter wanted to get her autograph," Lynn Ricca said, "and I'm the one who's seeing her in a towel." Mrs. Ricca is no stranger to close proximity to celebrities. "I was standing next to Lou Holtz of Notre Dame once," she recalled, "and I got his autograph. After, he said, 'You've got a real problem with this pencil.' I had given him my eyeliner."
 
#5,448 ·
Now, I will grant that this poll was taken before Monica Mania had truly started, but ... :lol:

Raiders' Turk discovered at center of history
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sunday, September 3, 1995
From Journal Sentinel staff and wire reports

[....]

Your favorites

Michael Jordan and Steffi Graf are the most popular male and female athletes in the United States, according to an ESPN Chilton Sports Poll.

A total of 1,004 U.S. residents ages 12 and older were invited to rate their favorites in a survey conducted from July 4 to July 31.

The top 10 males were: 1. Jordan (12.3%); 2. Joe Montana (3.2%); 3. Troy Aikman (2.0%); 4. Shaquille O'Neal (1.8%); 5 (tie). Emmitt Smith and Dale Earnhardt (1.6%); 7. Hakeem Olajuwon (1.4%); 8. Jack Nicklaus (1.3%); 9. Steve Young (1.1%); and 10. Charles Barkley (1.0%).

The top 10 females were: 1. Graf (10.0%); 2. Kristi Yamaguchi (7.1%); 3. Nancy Kerrigan (6.4%); 4. Jackie Joyner-Kersee (4.1%); 5 (tie). Martina Navratilova and Gabriella Sabatini (2.6%); 7. Nancy Lopez (1.4%); 8. Florence Griffith-Joyner (1.3%); 9 (tie). Chris Evert and Monica Seles (1.2%).
 
#5,449 ·
Rubin Knows Her Time of Arrival
Jennifer Frey
The Washington Post
September 3, 1995

Chanda Rubin never wanted to be the youngest player to win a match at Wimbledon, or the youngest to win a Grand Slam title, or the youngest, period. That didn't matter.

She is 19 now, too old to be a phenom in this sport, where players have been known to win Grand Slam titles at age 16, and a 14-year-old named Martina Hingis is expected to give veteran Gabriela Sabatini a challenge on Stadium Court on Sunday afternoon. Rubin will play the big court afterward against Steffi Graf, the top seed who has a share of the No. 1 ranking, in front of what is sure to be a full house.

It is not a new situation for Rubin, who has played on Stadium Court before and has played on Centre Court at Wimbledon. She has faced the top-seeded women, upset a few of them, and she's long past the point of being nervous at the sight of a No. 1 seed.

But for the first time, Rubin is considered a real threat to a player such as Graf, and for the first time, she believes deep in her heart that she has just as much of a shot as her much-heralded counterpart of winning the match. Some might think this rise has been a long time in coming. For Rubin, though, it is the perfect time.

"I never really had a timetable," Rubin said Saturday after she finished a mixed-doubles match on one of the fringe courts at Flushing Meadows. "When I turned pro, I was 15, but there was no pressure. I was always the youngest, so I didn't let myself feel like that.

"I never wanted to be somebody who was 19 or 20 years old and had to say that I hadn't finished high school," she said when asked why she didn't abandon high school for a tennis academy, or join the tour full-time. "I always felt like that kind of counted a lot. School had to be finished first before I could continue with tennis, and everything else in my life."

Jennifer Capriati is the same age as Rubin. She's already been to drug rehab. After watching Mary Pierce and Amy Frazier play Friday on Stadium Court -- and after listening to all the talk about the still-absent Capriati -- Rubin seems to make sense. Frazier dropped off the tour twice before age 20, once for stress-related personal problems she does not like to discuss. Pierce has a nightmare of a tennis father, and her childhood on the circuit was so horrifying that her own coaches said in Toronto two weeks ago that she needs to consult a sports psychologist.

Rubin was smart -- smart and lucky. Her father is a judge. Her mother is a teacher, now retired. They never let her spend more than two or three weeks at a time out of school. They made her come home between the junior tournaments at the French Open and Wimbledon, made her sleep in her own bed and eat breakfast with her brother. To this day, Chanda Rubin keeps her room at home in Lafayette, La., and that is where she goes between tour appearances.

It's not that she wasn't independent. Bernadette Rubin got upset when she watched her daughter march into an airport, all of 10 years old, calmly pick her flight information off the video screen, then proceed to the gate with hardly a look back.

To Bernadette, it seemed as if her baby was growing up too fast. But perhaps that's the great thing about Rubin -- she never did.

"She's always been so full of self-confidence, so self-assured," Bernadette Rubin said as her daughter practiced next to Pete Sampras in the late-morning sunshine. "Sometimes it frightened me. Sometimes I got jealous of it. But that's the way she is. She's always known exactly what she's doing."

And Chanda Rubin knows now is the time for her to show she can be a top 10 player. Zina Garrison Jackson, Rubin's role model, said as much after she won her own third-round match Saturday afternoon.

"Chanda has been beating some top players, she is getting confidence," said Garrison Jackson, who received a fierce hug from Rubin after Jackson upset 10th-seeded Lindsay Davenport in the second round. "She is believing that she should be on the court, whoever it is. She hits such a big ball. Her forehand is a weapon -- and to be a great player, you have to have a weapon. . . . She is a great player. She has all that it takes."

Now in her second full season on the tour, Rubin has had a spectacular summer, and arrived at the U.S. Open with the highest ranking of her career at No. 16. Had it not been for the return of Monica Seles, she would have been seeded higher, but she shrugs off that thought.

"Right now I believe that every match I go out and play, I have a good chance at winning," Rubin said. "Definitely this summer has been part of that. I had some good tournaments, gained a lot of confidence, and that contributed to that feeling. Now I just have to take advantage of it all."

When she was squeezing in tournaments between school sessions, Rubin used to travel with Davenport, a fellow American her age, who flew up the rankings to reach No. 6 last season. Rubin watched from the sidelines, with no envy, and quietly waited her turn.

Today, on Stadium Court, Rubin finally may get her big opportunity. Perhaps Graf will dominate, in that way Graf can dominate any player -- save perhaps Seles -- on any given day. Perhaps she won't. Either way, it is Rubin's turn for the spotlight. Even Graf sees it.

"I have seen some of the confidence before," Graf said, when asked about Rubin, "but now she has finally come into her own."
 
#5,450 ·
Naturally, Monica would only see the money aspect of Steffi's problems. That whole press conference was "classic" Monica, especially the part about what to do about the player she would bump from the Tour Championships; even trying to make her understand that the question was not about her was a challenge. And of course, Monica would be the one taking it much more personally in the final. Again, don't be too irate, because it all worked to Steffi's advantage.

Agassi hot once again; Seles wins
The Times
Trenton, NJ
Sunday, September 3, 1995
STEVE WILSTEIN, Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Like a magician in command of all his tricks, Andre Agassi created the illusion of playing in slow motion, his racket ready long before balls came toward him, his shots flying past a frozen Stefan Edberg.

Agassi shook off a sloppy five-set match in the second round of the U.S. Open with a brilliant 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 romp over the former two-time champion in the third round yesterday to keep going in defense of his title.

The best trick of the day, though, came late in the evening when 80th- ranked Vince Spadea, a promising player in the USTA development program, scored the biggest victory of his three-year career by upsetting No. 7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. Spadea, 21, beat Kafelnikov at his own baseline game to reach the fourth round against Petr Korda. Spadea had never gone beyond the third round in any of his five previous Grand Slam appearances.

''I didn't have any chance to beat him,'' said Kafelnikov, who had been a darkhorse to win the tournament. ''He was over my head tonight. He was too good. He was dominating all three sets. I never had a chance to put pressure on him.''

SPADEA LOOKED as pumped up on the court as Agassi did, and the two could meet in the quarters.

''I definitely came out ready for a battle,'' Agassi said. ''Stefan's a different style player than (Alex) Corretja. Stefan's coming forward and giving me a target. I returned well, and that's the strength of my game. It's a big weapon when I'm serving well. And I have a lot of options with my groundstroke game. It's just how well I'm focusing my arsenal on my opponent's game.''

In a run of 11 games in the second and third sets, Agassi crushed returns of serves as if the balls were floating instead of coming at him at more than 110 mph. The radar display didn't show how fast Agassi's returns were traveling, but they seemed to speed past Edberg faster than they had arrived.

Agassi appeared to be in trouble when Edberg won the first three games of the second set, then escaped from that jam by sweeping the next six games to take the set. Any hopes Edberg had of mounting a comeback vanished when Agassi won the first five games of the third set en route to a fourth-round match against Jared Palmer.

''Maybe I lost a half of a step,'' said Edberg, who won the Open in 1991 and '92 but came in unseeded and ranked No. 19 this year in his 50th consecutive Grand Slam event. ''It makes me make a few more mistakes than I did before, especially if you are playing somebody returning as well as Agassi. Then you need to be very, very sharp.''

AS SHARP as Agassi was, Monica Seles was even sharper.

The black brace she wore on her left knee for the first time hinted ominously she might be breaking down the longer the Open goes on, her tendinitis flaring up and the pain increasing the more she pounds the hardcourts.

But she had no need to worry against Yone Kamio of Japan, sweeping past her 6-1, 6-1 in 54 minutes for her easiest victory so far. The competition, though, will be getting tougher starting in the fourth round when Seles meets No. 11 Anke Huber.

Seles looked no less mobile, powerful or accurate with the brace on her knee, and she overwhelmed Kamio with blazing serves and punishing groundstrokes into the corners. Seles hit 18 winners to Kamio's five.

''My knee was sore this morning so I thought it was better to be safe,'' Seles said, explaining why she wore the brace.

Asked whether her knee would hold up for the four matches she would have to win to take her third Open title, Seles replied:

''I hope so. I hope for as many matches as I need it to. This morning and yesterday, it hurt. I wanted to see how it felt with it on, with my mobility with it. I might just wear it until I lose. I rested it after Atlantic City for two weeks. But every time I play on it, (the pain) keeps coming back.''

DESPITE THAT, Seles certainly has struggled much less than top-seeded Steffi Graf, who has been under stress since the arrest of her father on tax evasion charges related to his handling of her earnings.

''Steffi's problems are very different,'' Seles said. ''Hers are taxes, mine's a stabbing. I hope Steffi's life doesn't depend on winning the U.S. Open. Mine certainly doesn't.

''I marvel that I'm actually here. I didn't realize before it was so noisy. I'm comfortable signing autographs. Everyone's so nice. I'm having a great time. It's the most amazing thing. I'm walking down the streets, shopping and people are stopping and saying things to me. That's the biggest surprise.''

Seles, who beat Huber two weeks ago in Canada in a close but straight-sets match, knows she'll have to be healthy and on target against the German.

''I have to raise my game a few levels,'' Seles said. ''We'll be hitting bazookas out there. I'll have to play great tennis.

''I didn't hit as many first serves today as I would have liked, but I was feeling strong, so I was happy about that.''

HUBER, WHO rallied for a 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Elena Makarova, was eagerly looking forward to playing Seles again.

''For sure, it is going to be very tough,'' Huber said. ''She is playing well. I think even better than the first matches in Toronto.''

Since starting her comeback, Seles is 8-0, and this victory was her 16th straight in the Open, going back to the titles she won in 1991 and '92 before missing the next two years. In her three matches this year, Seles has won 36 games while yielding only nine in a total of about three hours.

Boris Becker played nearly that long Saturday, losing his serve four times in a row in one stretch before beating Jason Stoltenberg 6-2, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.

''I was trying to concentrate just to hold serve once, and I wasn't able to do it,'' Becker said of that lapse in the second set. ''It hasn't happened to me in a long time, that I was losing my serve four times in a row and I broke his serve all the time as well. Thank God that it started to end in the third. It didn't for him. I kept breaking him and I was able to hold finally.''

Women's No. 3 Conchita Martinez crushed Naoko Sawamatsu 6-1, 6-2; No. 5 Jana Novotna beat Sandrine Testud 6-4, 7-5; No. 7 Kimiko Date beat Florencia Labat 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; No. 16 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy beat Angelica Gavaldon 6-2, 7-5; and unseeded Zina Garrison Jackson beat Nicole Arendt 6-0, 7-6 (7-3).

In other men's matches, No. 13 Marc Rosset beat Renzo Furlan 6-1, 7-6 (7- 2), 3-6, 7-5; Jared Palmer beat Sargis Sargsian 6-3, 6-2, 6-2; Daniel Vacek beat Nicolas Pereira 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 7-6 (7-3); and Patrick McEnroe won his second five-setter, 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, against Alexander Volkov.
 
#5,451 ·
Stagnation Dominated Tour During Absence of Seles
September 3, 1995
JULIE CART
Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK — Women's tennis can't seem to catch a break.

Without a sponsor for this year, the WTA tour turned down the one that did come courting, the manufacturers of Tampax tampons, out of squeamishness.

The sport's stars have either dimmed or gone out. Martina Navratilova retired, Jennifer Capriati remains uninterested in returning to the game, Steffi Graf is nursing injures to mind and body. Then there is Monica Seles.

Her courageous and wildly successful return to the tour since she was attacked during a match 2 1/2 years ago should be nothing but positive p.r. for women's tennis. But is it? How is it that a player absent from professional tennis for 28 months can dominate as Seles has, dropping not a set to win the first tournament she entered? What does that say about the depth of women's tennis?

Of course, Seles is a remarkable player and a unique case. Last January, Graf was asked if she thought Seles was capable of coming back after such a prolonged absence. Graf said without hesitation that Seles, if anyone, would be able to come back. This was months before Seles gave any indication that she intended to return.

What has happened in Seles' absence? Stagnation. Graf has dominated, with minor incursions from Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. In fact, with Seles out, Graf has been cruising along on grit and reputation as her back has disintegrated.

Players have for some time harbored quiet thoughts about Graf's vulnerability. But her tremendous court presence intimidates all but the most bold. Only now that she has openly admitted her lack of confidence will Graf take the court with her prodigious talent alone to help her.

Men's tennis is buoyed (and hyped) by the idea of a rivalry between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Never mind that Sampras hasn't held up his end of the bargain this season in terms of the rankings race. Should Seles and Graf develop a true rivalry, it would be wonderful for the women's game.

But should Seles dominate, Graf fade and no other player rise to the fill the power vacuum, it would be another horrible blow, a reminder of the thin crust of top players.

Seles' return is good news. That her return would raise the level of the game among the top players would be better news.

*

Zina Garrison Jackson had intended to retire, telling everyone this was her last year, her last U.S. Open and that she and her husband wanted to start a family and devote more time to her charitable causes. What made Garrison Jackson change her mind? The counsel of the person she called "Mother Tennis," Billie Jean King.

"Sometimes I think she is like this little angel that hangs over people," Garrison Jackson said. "I had been telling her that I was confused. Billie just said, 'Do whatever you believe, do what you want to do, not what other people want you to do.' I said, 'I don't know if I want to retire. It's driving me crazy.'

"One day I was extremely depressed. I had just been crying and crying. The phone rings and it's Billie. She asked how I was and I said, 'Fine,' trying to sound like I wasn't upset. She just kept asking. Finally, she told me, 'Zina, you have to make the decision. You can't go with what other people want you to do. You can't worry about the media. You can't worry about your husband, your family. You have to make the decision.' I finally did."

Garrison Jackson has been a fixture on the tennis tour and paved the way for a handful of African American players, although she is not fond of such distinctions. Yet, when she announced months ago that this was to be her last year, other players said they were sorry to see her go.

Thinking about it, Garrison Jackson felt the same way.

"I was wavering within myself about if I really wanted to give it up," she said. "Reality hit when people started calling and wanted to come down to do interviews in Houston before the Open. I started getting very, very depressed because it is something I have been doing since I was 10 and I thought I could just give it up, walk away from it. I still love the game. I want to play some more and just kind of fade away."

It's not likely to happen in that fashion, given Garrison Jackson's competitive nature.

"I am such a competitive person on and off the court," she said. "I love being in the moment. I love when you reach down and get a shot, the feeling that you get. I always wondered why you see Magic Johnson, people like that, coming back. You might have a lot of things in your life, but [sports] is still a part of you that you really love."

*

Notes

The USTA pro satellite circuit will open its California segment Sept. 18 with a tournament at Rio Bravo in Bakersfield, followed by week-long events at Whittier Narrows Sept. 25, Anaheim Tennis Center Oct. 2 and the segment finale at UCLA the week of Oct. 9. Each tournament carries with it a $12,500 purse, plus important ATP tour points. . . . Perhaps the most impressive performance in the recent Mammoth Open was by B-Division player Tracey Fulford of Coto de Caza, who played 11 matches in five days at the 8,000-foot altitude event and won both the mixed and women's doubles titles while being four months pregnant. . . . The Santa Monica Tennis championships are set for the weekend of Sept. 16-17 at Lincoln Park in Santa Monica.
 
#5,452 ·
Stagnation Dominated Tour During Absence of Seles
September 3, 1995
JULIE CART
Los Angeles Times

[...]

Her courageous and wildly successful return to the tour since she was attacked during a match 2 1/2 years ago should be nothing but positive p.r. for women's tennis. But is it? How is it that a player absent from professional tennis for 28 months can dominate as Seles has, dropping not a set to win the first tournament she entered? What does that say about the depth of women's tennis?
I'm not sure why so many media types did not understand that it wasn't like she hadn't touched a racket in those 28 months.

Of course, Seles is a remarkable player and a unique case. Last January, Graf was asked if she thought Seles was capable of coming back after such a prolonged absence. Graf said without hesitation that Seles, if anyone, would be able to come back. This was months before Seles gave any indication that she intended to return.
Of course, Graf also saw that, whatever reasons you want to believe are behind Seles' prolonged absence, none of them are compatible with the assertion that "Monica is soooo very mentally strong and emotionally tough." She was too polite to say it outright, but not too polite not to take advantage of it on the court. :oh:

What has happened in Seles' absence? Stagnation. Graf has dominated, with minor incursions from Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. In fact, with Seles out, Graf has been cruising along on grit and reputation as her back has disintegrated.
Did she not notice just how high Steffi's level of play was? Did it really seem to her that all the other players really were better in terms of skill, athleticism, and tactical/strategic intelligence but they just turned to jelly in the face of Steffi's determination and past record? It's one thing for a kid like Martina Hingis to either not see just how good Steffi was and how she continued to improve on Already Great or to say whatever her handlers told her to say. But when too many media types and old-enough-to-know-better opponents start to believe their own disinformation, Steffi Graf would take advantage of that.

Players have for some time harbored quiet thoughts about Graf's vulnerability. But her tremendous court presence intimidates all but the most bold. Only now that she has openly admitted her lack of confidence will Graf take the court with her prodigious talent alone to help her.
Psst! I'll let you in on a little secret: Her prodigious talent was the reason she won! And her tremendous court presence became even more intimidating when the other players realized she didn't need to feel "confident" in order to win. The honey badger really doesn't care.
 
#5,453 · (Edited)
Graf and Seles reunion hides misery of women’s tennis

September 10, 1995
Benedicte Mathieu
Le Monde

They all believed in it but her. In spite of one’s inner demons and the other’s stage fright, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles have arrived on time at the meeting that was set for them, Saturday September 9, in the final of the US Open. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the US Open organizers and the sponsors can pat themselves on the back, they have won their bet.

Entire days of negotiation were necessary to make sure the show went on smoothly. Put at the two opposite ends of the draw, the two players could only meet in the finals, unless they were beaten prematurely. Fate simplified their job: Graf, after a difficult first round against South African Amanda Coetzer saw her road to the final clear out after the defeats of Mary Pierce, seeded #6, and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, seeded #3.

Meanwhile, Monica Seles, has been cruising, spending more time on the court signing autographs than trouncing her opponents. She who had the very rare privilege of always being programmed on center court was tested for the first time Wednesday in the quarterfinals. Against number five seed Jana Novotna, the American had to go to a tiebreak and – what an event – spent over an hour on the court.

The semifinals were uneventful. The fortieth meeting between Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini was routine: two somewhat tight sets, the power of the former, the anxiety of the latter who once again missed her match.

A heavier serve

The other semifinal could have surprised us. The last meeting between Monica Seles and Conchita Martinez dated back three years, before the Spaniard won Wimbledon, in 1994. She is today solidly inside the top five. An hour and a minute were sufficient for Seles to deny Martinez’s dreams of glory.

Away from the tour for two and a half years after her attack in Hamburg, in April 1993, Monica Seles came back slightly stronger. Her serve is heavier, her footwork is still inconsistent, as is her consistency in her groundstrokes. But she has improved. Unlike the others. It is what has made her comeback easy, and reveals the weak level of women’s tennis. In men’s tennis, have we ever seen a tennis star come back to full form after a layoff of several months? This sort of “miracle” has not happened in any other sport. While the world of tennis is happy about it, Monica Seles’s comeback could in fact appear as a real sleight to women’s tennis: many players admit that “it is a race to the bottom.”

During Seles’s absence, Jennifer Capriati left the game, the victim of the pressure of a star-hungry tour. Lindsay Davenport has not come of age. Australian Open champion Mary Pierce’s season has been sloping down. Lastly, Martina Hingis still needs to grow.

The attack against the former Yugoslavian came at the worst possible time. After a lengthy struggle following Chris Evert’s retirement, the women’s tour was glowing again. In 1991, as Monica Seles burst onto the tennis scene (sic), WTA chief Jerry Smith, who prepared the 1995-1997 tour calendar, wanted to auction off the television rights and main sponsor title to the highest bidder. Mark McCormack, who offered $20 million, was eliminated from the competition.

Which sponsor?

But without Chris Evert, and especially without Seles, women’s tennis lost its mojo. By the end of the 1994 season, the WTA had no main sponsor anymore. For months it was not being led. IMG-McCormack, who manages, among others, Mary Pierce, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Monica Seles, took matters into his own hands. While waiting to find a main sponsor, he injected money necessary for the survival of the tour, which, to a promoter, did not make things easy. After failed negotiations with Diner’s Club, the WTA declined, in February, to be sponsored by Tampax. Since then, no serious client has appeared.

For the WTA, the comeback of Monica Seles, who is sponsored by Nike, is a godsend. The only unresolved issue is that Steffi Graf will never be at her best again because of her back pain. The highly anticipated rivalry may well come up short. After the hoopla around Seles’s hyper-publicized comeback, the WTA will have to count on Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. Sanchez-Vicario, ranked number one in the world at the beginning of the year, had to play second fiddle at the US Open.

The defending champion and number three seed because of Seles’s comeback, she did not take well to the American’s co-ranking with Steffi Graf. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario share the same agent at IMG, who ruled in favor of Seles. Arantxa felt betrayed. After months of uncertainty, the Spaniard revealed herself, beating Steffi Graf at the US Open in 1994, as a player capable of threatening the German outside of clay. She was runner-up in 1995, in Australia against Mary Pierce, and at the French Open and Wimbledon against… Graf. Eliminated in the fourth round by Mary Joe Fernandez, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario was not allowed to participate in tour discussions. Her presence will be indispensable to the survival of the tour.
 
#5,455 ·
''Steffi's problems are very different,'' Seles said. ''Hers are taxes, mine's a stabbing. I hope Steffi's life doesn't depend on winning the U.S. Open. Mine certainly doesn't".

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I don't understand what Monica meant by this declaration. Can someone explain me ? Thank you ! All this makes me laugh today when we think how the US Open 95 ended and who was the winner. I hope Steffi will write an autobiography and will tell about her version of the story, her feelings about this stabbing and how she handled the fact of being considered directly or indirectly guilty of the situation. We can dream since we know she's a private person and we will have to wait before she decides to write a book.
 
#5,460 ·
''Steffi's problems are very different,'' Seles said. ''Hers are taxes, mine's a stabbing. I hope Steffi's life doesn't depend on winning the U.S. Open. Mine certainly doesn't".

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I don't understand what Monica meant by this declaration. Can someone explain me ? Thank you !
It was an answer she gave to "Do either you or Steffi or both of you need to win the tournament?" Of course, her answer was part diss and part bravado; Monica was much more uptight and wanted to "show" Steffi who was the best. And Steffi merely stood back and roped a dope by letting Monica punch herself out in the second set

All this makes me laugh today when we think how the US Open 95 ended and who was the winner.
It's extra funny when you understand that the Seles camp really, really, really did not think Monica could lose.

I hope Steffi will write an autobiography and will tell about her version of the story, her feelings about this stabbing and how she handled the fact of being considered directly or indirectly guilty of the situation. We can dream since we know she's a private person and we will have to wait before she decides to write a book.
Never going to happen.
 
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