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 U.S. Open Notebook Coetzer-Martinez match crawls, testing patience of players and fans
Posted: Monday September 07, 1998 07:53 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- One game lasted more than 20 minutes. One set lasted 76 minutes. The whole match outlasted two others on another court. "I thought it was a long match," Conchita Martinez said after 13th-seeded Amanda Coetzer beat her 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open on Monday. The match lasted 2 hours, 39 minutes. It seemed longer, with both players content to stand beyond the baseline and send looping shots back and forth for long -- very long -- points. The second game of the second set took 20 minutes, 25 seconds -- longer than an entire set of many other matches. It included 28 points, had 11 deuces and long rallies. It only served to even the set at 1-1. The 1-hour, 16-minute second set was 10 minutes longer than it took Patrick Rafter to beat David Nainkin on the men's side in three sets. Martinez, seeded seventh, had a neck injury that required on-court treatment in the first set, adding more time. It also kept her from playing an aggressive game. "If you would have seen me yesterday, you would have said `There's no way she's going to go on court,'" Martinez said. "I got two injections. I got a lot of treatment." Weather watchThe heavy thunderstorm that stopped play for 2 hours, 20 minutes arrived quickly and sent people scurrying. The skies darkened, causing the lights to be turned on in the middle of the afternoon. The wind came first, sending anything not fastened down flying around the court, causing delays as ballboys tried to chase things down. Then the thunder and lightening came and the stadium cleared in a few minutes as the people found shelter. At least there were no tarps to cover the hard courts, as they have at Wimbledon to protect the grass or the French Open to cover the clay. A few hundred yards away at Shea Stadium, they were having problems keeping things covered. The violent storm with strong winds forced New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine and his coaches and ballboys to kneel or lay on the tarp over the infield when an air bubble under tarp picked up the covering. There was no apparent damage around the tennis grounds, although the temperature dropped 22 degrees after the storm, from 89 to 67. Once the rains stopped, the courts was dried by hand, with more than 25 court attendants with towels wiping down the main court in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Meanwhile, inside the player's lounge, the TVs were turned to another sport -- the Mark McGwire home-run watch. Special delivery for EltinghWhen Jacco Eltingh got a call from his wife, Hellas, he pulled out of the U.S. Open and headed back to the Netherlands. His wife had gone into labor and Eltingh arrived home just one hour before a boy, Lars, was born 12 days early. "I can't believe he's dumping me, his buddy for seven years, for a kid he's never seen before," Eltingh's doubles partner, Paul Haarhuis said, laughing. Haarhuis stayed home from the Australian Open this year because his wife, Anya, was due with the couple's first child in February. Steffi stopped short of money titleSteffi Graf needed to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open to earn the $63,970 needed to pass Martina Navratilova and become the career prize money leader among the women. But Graf was knocked out in the fourth round, which was worth $50,000. Sunrise starsA star-studded doubles exhibition match will be held November 27 in Sunrise, Florida. Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova will team up against Jana Novotna and Anna Kournikova, with the winners will split $200,000 and the losers sharing half that amount. Navratilova and Graf were supposed to be doubles partners at Wimbledon in 1996 when Navratilova was attempting to tie Billie Jean King's record of 20 overall Wimbledon titles. But Graf pulled out of the doubles, citing pain in her left knee. Graf wound up winning the singles, wearing tape on the knee, and Navratilova, commentating for HBO at the time, questioned the severity of Graf's injury, causing a rift between them. Serving aces in record styleWith a week to go, the women players have beaten their record for aces. With 17 aces on Saturday -- none by the top 10 servers -- the women's field has produced 419 aces, bettering the mark of 415 for the entire tournament last year. The men, meanwhile, have 1,737 aces through Saturday, with Goran Ivanisevic leading with 63 in three matches. The fastest serves for the first week are Marat Safin for the men at 135 mph and Venus Williams for women at 117 mph. Woodies again doubles losersFor the second year in row at the U.S. Open, the top doubles team of Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge made an early exit. The Woodies lost in the third round to Cyril Suk and Sandon Stolle, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Last year, the Australians went out in the first round, ending a streak of five consecutive Grand Slam tournament finals. In all they have won nine Grand Slam doubles titles together, including five straight Wimbledons. It will be the first time since 1991 they have not won at least one Grand Slam doubles title, losing in the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals and the round of 16 at the French this year. "We have high expectations, high standards," said Woodforde. "We have to keep them up, otherwise you start sort of shuffling down in the pack."
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