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Twenty-somethings swing back
Posted: Wednesday June 03, 1998 03:41 PM
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Monica Seles is going for her first French Open title since 1992 (AP) |
PARIS (Reuters) -- After all the hype and talk about the arrival of a new teenage generation on the women's tennis scene, the French Open semifinals on Thursday will be dominated by twenty-somethings.
World number one Martina Hingis will be the only teenager in a final four, which will feature a trio of battle-hardened grand slam veterans -- Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Lindsay Davenport.
Between them, they have visited Roland Garros on 22 occasions and have claimed the title five times.
Hingis, a losing finalist here last year, will meet a rejuvenated Seles who three times has won the French trophy the 17-year-old Swiss covets.
Seles arrived in Paris wrestling with the grief over her father's death last month. But the Yugoslav-born American has seen her spirits and game lifted by the Parisian crowd, who cheered her to three consecutive titles from 1990 to 1992.
While the 24-year-old Seles has been displaying glimpses of the form that carried her to eight grand slam titles, Hingis has looked every bit her world number one ranking.
She has strolled into the semifinals without dropping a set, determined to claim the one grand slam title not in her possession.
The other semifinal will pit Olympic champion and second seed Davenport against twice French champion Sanchez Vicario.
Davenport, the only semifinalist without a grand slam title to her name, has gone about her business at Roland Garros relatively unnoticed, moving quietly into the final four with a win over defending champion Iva Majoli.
"I'm an American girl who plays tennis well, is relatively quiet, modest and it must be boring for people," said the 21-year-old American, who would like nothing better than to celebrate her birthday on Monday with her first grand slam win.
Sanchez Vicario, champion here in 1989 and 1994 and three-times a runner-up, has also received scant consideration as a potential winner.
But in typical fashion the 26-year-old Spaniard has clawed and battled her way into the last four.
The fourth seed was at her feisty best in the fourth round when she battled back from a set and 5-2 down to steal a tense three-set win over American teenager Serena Williams.
"I never give up, and my opponents know that," cautioned Sanchez Vicario, whose 270 clay court wins are second only to Chris Evert's 328 since 1971.
"They know they have to close the match out if they are going to beat me."
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