20170902

US OPEN

From the birth of the Open era in 1968 to 1977, the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York had played host to the US Open championships. Between 1968 and 1974, the surface was grass. From 1975 to 1977, the surface was clay. Since 1978, the surface was hardcourt. Steve Flink informed followers, "In that elegant setting at a storied private club, the tournament thrived in many ways and established a sharp identity as the face of American tennis and a place where every emerging great player wanted to perform."

However, "with the passage of time, Forest Hills could no longer accommodate so many fans. And so the US Open moved on to Flushing Meadows, and from the inaugural year of 1978, for 19 years, Louis Armstrong Stadium was the showcase court, and the fans grew accustomed to the new arena housing about 18,000 spectators. To some, the larger size was a difficult adjustment, but for many it became a symbol of the modern tennis era and a place where blue collar people could feel comfortable."

"1996," Steve Flink reported, "was the end of an era for the Open, as the new Arthur Ashe Stadium would be unveiled in 1997, and that soaring structure seated 23,000. Fittingly it all came down at the end to a battle between Steffi Graf and Monica Seles for the women's singles crown, followed by the all-American duel featuring Pete Sampras and Michael Chang.

"The two finals were both scheduled for Sunday afternoon, and the lineup could hardly have been better. The curtain thus closed on a stirring era in Louis Armstrong Stadium as the main show court at the biggest sporting event in America. To have four players with the stature of Sampras, Chang, Graf and Seles out there for the last two finals on that court was just the way it should have been."

For a generation, "Steffi Graf's impact on women's tennis worldwide has been universally acknowledged. But her own contribution to the game in her country has been incalculable," according to a 'WTA Tour Tennis' report in 1995. Jens-Peter Hecht of the German Tennis Federation stated, "Steffi Graf has done a great deal for German tennis. Before she came along (before 1987), women's tennis wasn't very important because Boris Becker was becoming very successful and everyone was talking about men's tennis.

"When Steffi Graf arrived, women's tennis received more attention. If it hasn't been for her we wouldn't have so many first class women's tournaments in Germany like Hamburg, Filderstadt, Essen, Berlin." Four years before Steffi Graf retired in 1999, Jens-Peter Hecht made the observation, "It will certainly be the end of an era but it won't be the end of tennis. I'm convinced that new young players will emerge who will achieve very good results. Maybe there won't be a new Steffi Graf but there certainly will be very successful players and interest in tennis will remain very high."

In a Grand Slam event there would be 5 draws (2 singles, 2 doubles and the mixed doubles). To capture the interest of the casual fan from the non-tennis world, each of the singles draw would feature 128 players with 32 top players seeded so they would not meet until the third round. Of the 96 unseeded players, there were said to be 8 wildcards and 16 qualifiers.

1994: Interviewer: Where you were in the draw; I mean, you have to look down there and maybe think that if you are feeling good, that there was a tremendous - not a tremendous, but a good opening - if you had been feeling good and can pick up?

Ivan Lendl: Well, you can always say that.

Interviewer: But  a couple of guys are gone from there.

Ivan Lendl: Yeah, you can say that, but first of all, the guys lost and the people who beat them are obviously no pushovers. No. 1, No. 2, it is always easy to say, yeah, well, if this felt better, that felt better, it would have been good. It is just not the way to go about it. You either play good, doesn't matter what you have or what the draw is. Of course, if you play medium, and you get one lucky break or so and the guy took someone out and plays bad, you've got lucky break, that is not the way to look at it and is the way to expect it. You either play good; create your own draw or you play bad and it doesn't matter.

In 1994, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario became the first Spanish woman to win the singles title in the then 108-year history of the US Open when she defeated Steffi Graf in 2 hours and 7 minutes. Before her 7th match, Steffi Graf's serve had been broken only 4 times. For the first 5 matches, Steffi Graf defeated Anne Mall in 45 minutes; Sandra Cacic in 55, Radka Bobkova in 52, Zina Garrison-Jackson in 53 and Amanda Coetzer in 55 minutes.

Between 1989 and 1998, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario reached 12 Grand Slam finals (4 in a row between 1994 and 1995) and winning 4 Grand Slam titles (from 264 matches played). In all, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario won 29 singles titles from 1,054 matches played. "Now I can say to everybody that I can also win on hardcourts. Winning here (at the US Open) is very special for me. I am very proud. I don't have much words to say. I am really excited,'' Arantxa Sanchez Vicario told the press.

Against Steffi Graf, it was reported, "Arantxa Sanchez Vicario's strategy going into the singles final was to play to Graf's backhand. Soon she began simply playing to Graf's brace-supported back." The following year, Brazilian coach Carlos Kirmayr took on the other Spaniard, Conchita Martinez, then 23-year-old. "Coaching a Wimbledon champion (in 1994) is not a problem in itself because, obviously, all the technique is already there," Carlos Kirmayr told the UK 'Indepedent' in July 1995.

As reported, "This rite of passage, from the production-line school of coaching to the more free-range style which Kirmayr exemplifies, seems to suit Martinez and her close friend, the American player Gigi Fernandez. In the nonstop road show which tennis has now become, tensions in any entourage usually find their way out in disappointing play on court."

Heinz Gunthardt maintained, "You don't have to spend a lot of time together to have a successful working relationship. She (Steffi Graf) has her family with her. I have a lot of time with my family with me. You practice and then go different way. Tennis is a game that you can never play perfectly and there's always room for improvement." Steffi Graf elaborated, "You usually spend quite a bit of time during the year. I think it's probably like 25, 26 weeks that you spend together so you have to have a good relationship."

Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario played 36 times between 1988 and 1996. Twenty five times they met were in the final of a tournament (16 finals in a row between 1993 and 1996). Pam Shriver told the 'WTA Tour Tennis' in 1995, "You see women's tennis is tough because the comparison is always going to be Martina (Navratilova) and Chrissie (Evert) and that's a very special rivalry that probably comes around once every 50 or 100 years.

"So let's sort of just knock those two out and just these two players who are so close in the rankings. I think Steffi has the bigger game and she has the higher potential to play just the more devastating kind of game. You can play Arantxa and sort of feel like you're in the match – you might still lose easily because she doesn't miss much – whereas against Graf, the match is sometimes taken out of your hands."

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