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Journalism of Courage
NEW YORK, NOV 17: Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez are road weary at the ripe old age of 26. Both seeded Spaniards cited fatigue from an overly long tennis season as explanation for their uninspired, downright sluggish performances in opening-night losses at the season-ending Chase Championships yesterday.
In performances that mirrored each other, the Fed Cup team-mates lost tough first-set tie-breaks and had nothing left to give in the second set.
Martinez, who fell 7-6, 6-2 to Belgium’s Dominique Van Roost, said it was just too late in the year to hold such an important tournament. The fourth-seeded Sanchez Vicario lost 7-6, 6-1 to Romanian Irina Spirlea.
Martinez and Sanchez are clearly burned out. Venus Williams pulled out of the tournament with a recurring knee injury, Steffi Graf is coming back from yet another surgery, Jana Novotna missed three recent tournaments with a back problem, Martina Hingis skipped three with an ankle sprain and world number one Lindsay Davennport was nursinga sore elbow all summer.
STOCKHOLM: The chill of a Swedish winter warms the heart of American Todd Martin, heading back to his hot-weather base in Florida after taking the title at the $825,000 Stockholm Open.
Martin, who returned into the top 20 at number 16 from position 21 courtesy of his second 1998 and seventh career title, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, over home hope and seventh seed Thomas Johansson. Though it snowed off and on during the November tennis week in the Swedish capital, everything was cosy for Martin inside the Kungliga Tennishallen.
“I love that it gets dark early (around 3:30 p.m.),” said the American. “It provides lot of atmosphere in the hall. The Swedish fans can also get started with a beer a little earlier also.
“The weather here is a lot like where I grew up (in the Chicago suburb of Evanston). I like seeing the snow in the morning, having to wrap up to go outside. The people here are as friendly as any place in the world — and it doesn’t hurt that they speak English,” hesaid.
Both protagonists in the Stockholm finale also played a role in determining the shape of the lineup for next week’s ATP Tour World Championships in Hanover, Germany.
That eight-man Hanover field was only completed on Sunday when Yevgeny Kafelnikov won the Moscow tournament to claim the last spot. Martin’s semifinal win in Stockholm over Tim Henman was academic for the Hanover entry, as Henman had already qualified the night before with a quarterfinal victory over Swede Magnus Gustafsson.
But when Johansson beat Briton Greg Rusedski on Saturday, it opened the door for Kafelnikov to move in — providing he came through in Moscow and beat Goran Ivanisevic — which he did.
MIAMI: Steffi Graf’s victory in Philadelphia on Sunday lifted her into 12th place in WTA rankings released here yesterday, a gain of five places for the former world number one from Germany.
American Lindsay Davenport maintained her place atop the list despite falling to Graf in Philadelphia final, stretching her lead over worldnumber two Martina Hingis to 446 points going into season-ending Chase Championships in New York.
