20130731

TENNIS

Steffi Graf won her 75th then her 76th tennis titles in August 1993.
 
Theodor Fontane believed, "Happiness, it seems to me, consists of 2 things: first, in being where you belong, and second – and best – in comfortably going through everyday life, that is, having had a good night’s sleep and not being hurt by new shoes." At the 1993 U.S. Open championships, it was decided the tennis electronic line (TEL) would not be used. The tournament director explained, "Based on the number of matches we were able to run TEL and the extensive data we did on it, we encountered the normal start-up problems. We also had new problems we had not seen before." It was discovered the K-Swiss tennis shoes often caused the mechanical line judge to beep. "The only thing we identified was a woman's shoe, with a particular pattern of metal eyelets that would set TEL off. When a racket, a shoe, the ball, crosses the line, it sends TEL a signal. Usually TEL can identify the signal as something other than the ball, so it can reject it. But this shoe would get a false out."
 
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario recognized, "I have to play more matches to get to the final to play against Graf...It is hard when you play one way all your life, it's hard to try to change and do something else. But I am trying to put that (serve-and-volley) in my game. I do it a couple of times and it feels pretty good. It takes time...I'm a player who can mix it up...Not many players can play different ways like I can, and that gives me an advantage over the others."
 
At the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in 1993, Natalia Zvereva, suffering from a flu, defaulted her match against Arantxa after 10 minutes and 3 games. Natalia recounted, "I was praying, praying for it to be raining at 7:30, which didn’t happen, unfortunately, I thought that if I would come out (the next day), I have a better chance. But it didn’t rain, so I guess I had to just go out and try...If it could have rained for one more hour." Arantxa recalled,"...I never waited so long – 8 hours – and I just play 3 games." It was reported the waiting time was 8 and a half hours and 8 minutes. "I just wait here in the locker room and listen to music. I listened to 3 tapes, I read 8 magazines, 2 books. I could not read anymore. My eyes were tired and my hearing was going, so much music." For Natalia, it was the humidity not the rain which had bothered her, "This is the most humid Grand Slam ever. It can get hot at the French or at Wimbledon. The Australian is hot but dry."

 

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