Serving notice
Graf powers past Novotna to move into Chase quarters
Posted: Tuesday November 17, 1998 11:25 PM
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Since undergoing wrist surgery in September, Graf has won 11 consecutive matches and two tournaments AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- Steffi Graf continued her remarkable resurgence Tuesday night, advancing into the quarterfinals of the Chase Championships with a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-1 victory over third-seeded Jana Novotna.
After suffering a series of injuries and surgeries, Graf is playing again like the woman who dominated women's tennis for a decade.
Since undergoing wrist surgery in September, Graf has won 11 consecutive matches and two tournaments.
The top three players in the world have been among her last four victims. And she has won her last nine matches in the season-ending Championships at Madison Square Garden, having won the title in both 1995 and 1996 before missing last year while recuperating from knee surgery.
Also advancing into the quarterfinals Tuesday were second-seeded Martina Hingis and No. 8 Nathalie Tauziat. Hingis beat Swiss Fed Cup teammate Patty Schnyder 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, while Tauziat ousted Natasha Zvereva of Belarus 6-3, 6-1 earlier in the day.
Novotna became the Championships' first defending champion to lose in the first round. But she ran into one of the best players in history. Graf, because of a lack of matches, wasn't seeded. And she suffered cramps in both calves, taking an injury timeout in the opening game of the final set.
With the Garden crowd solidly behind her, cheering loudly every time she won a point, Graf put her feared forehand on display, spraying winners all around the court.
But Novotna, who captured her first Grand Slam tournament title this year when she won Wimbledon, was up to the task, matching Graf stroke for stroke, point for point.
She won the first-set tiebreak when her forehand down the line hit the top of the net and bounced over Graf, landing just inside the baseline. Novotna blew a kiss skyward as she walked off the court.
Graf didn't delay letting Novotna know she was in a battle. The German broke Novotna to begin the second set. It was the only break of the set, but the only one she needed.
Then came a long and decisive game to begin the third set.
Hingis lost a hard-fought first set before defeating Patty Schnyder in three sets AP | |
Graf won the first point with a perfectly placed forehand down the line. She followed with a fault on the next point and immediately walked to umpire Mike Morrissey and requested an injury timeout. A trainer came on the court and worked on both calves.
The Czech Republic right-hander held serve, raising her arms in mock triumph when she won the final point on an overhead. It was the last game she would win.
Schnyder and Hingis engaged in long baseline barrages. Hingis pulled off the first service break, in the fifth game of the opening set when Schnyder made two forehand errors. But the second-seeded Hingis gave the break right back in the next game when she double-faulted on the last two points. Both struggled to hold serve before Schnyder finally did in the 10th game to close out the first set, much to the displeasure of Hingis. When a shot by Schnyder that appeared to hit the baseline was not called long, Hingis whined, "Come on."
The loss of the set was like a wakeup call. Hingis ripped through the next set as her penetrating groundstrokes kept Schnyder back on her heels behind the baseline.
She was only getting her second wind.
The third set produced excellent tennis as both players found the lines. Schnyder broke Hingis in the second game after the two battled through three deuces. On the final point of the game, both were at the net when Schnyder lofted a perfect lob volley over the head of Hingis.
The Madison Square Garden crowd roared its approval.
Hingis broke right back, then won the next three games for a 4-2 lead, and after Schnyder held at love in the seventh game, Hingis wrapped up the first-round victory by losing only three points in the next two games.
The last time Tauziat and Zvereva played was at Wimbledon, with Tauziat coming from behind to earn a hard-fought, three-set victory.
Their match Tuesday had little excitement as Zvereva couldn't do enough with the ball to create problems for the French veteran. Tauziat kept hitting to Zvereva's backhand, a tactic that worked repeatedly.
Tauziat pulled off the first service break in the match in the sixth game of the first set for a 4-2 lead. That was followed by two more breaks of serve, giving Tauziat a 5-3 lead. She closed out the set when Zvereva's backhand down the line was wide.
It only took 37 minutes for Tauziat to wrap up the opening set, and she sailed through the second set in 31 minutes.
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