From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.tennis
Subject: Hardcourts, Volvo
Date: 24 Aug 92 02:43:14 GMT
Reply-To: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles C. Lin)
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park


   More tennis on tv.  This time, NBC carried the finals of
the Hardcourt Championships held in Indianapolis.   ESPN
carried one of the semifinals of the Volvo International.
And both were televised at about the same time, so I was
basically flipping back between the two.  Not the best
way to watch tennis (actually, if I had a VCR and the
inclination, I would probably watch the match twice
so I wouldn't forget the details).

   The Hardcourt Championships featured Courier and Sampras
in the finals.   Sampras has been playing well as of late,
winning the tournament in Cincinnatti last week while Courier
has been in something of a slump, not reaching a final since
Wimbledon.   This is the best result in a tournament that
he's had since Wimbledon.   Sampras beat Courier in this
tournament last year, I believe.  Or perhaps the year before.
Anyway, he did it again by beating Courier 6-4, 6-4.  Vitas
Gerulaitis was commentating with Bud Collins.   They mentioned
that Sampras had went over to play the claycourt events in
Europe and so his groundstrokes were honed.  I've always felt
that Sampras had very good groundstrokes though consistency
and determination have often been problems for him.   While,
Courier had maybe a few more points where he hit better than
Sampras,  Sampras could go to net or stay back, and have a fairly
decent chance of winning in either place.

   Sampras can pressure Courier, who seemed to not be hitting
at his best today.   His formidable groundies made it difficult
for Courier to push him around as he might a lesser player.
Also, by taking the net, he puts additional pressure on
Courier.  Courier may be relatively fast, but seemed to have trouble
running down those shots that a Chang might get to.   Still,
they both kept moving despite the 100 degree (Fahrenheit) weather.
(about 37 C).

    Over in New Haven, Lendl and Edberg were facing each other
in the semifinals of the Volvo International.   The semifinals
are being held on a Sunday since play was called on Wednesday
due to court damage from rain.  ESPN will carry the finals on
Monday at 11 pm eastern time.   Despite the fact that Edberg
has only won one tournament this year (Hamburg?) he is
still ranked number 2 behind Jim Courier.  Lendl, meanwhile,
has been playing well reaching two finals in recent weeks,
but not having enough to win either one.  This was the 26th
meeting between Lendl and Edberg.  Prior to today, Lendl
had lead the series 13-12, though I suspect more wins have gone
to Edberg as of late.   They had most recently played in the
Australian Open with Edberg winning in 5.

   The first set began with both men getting their serves
broken.  They then held on until 4-all when Lendl went down
0-40.  He aced to get to 15-40, then there were some
errors by Edberg (if memory serves) and some 6 break
opportunities before Lendl finally held.  However, this
was for naught, as they both went into a tiebreaker, and
Edberg went ahead early, to win, 7-6.  In the second set,
Lendl turned things around and won 6-4.  Things didn't
get so much better for Lendl in the third though, when he
fell one break behind and down 5-2.  Lendl held for 5-3.
Edberg then attempted to serve it out, when Lendl
managed two break opportunities, but couldn't convert on
either one.  Edberg finally served out the match when
Lendl netted the return.  He faces either Washington or
Santoro(?) in the final on Monday.   Score Edberg d. Lendl
7-6, 4-6, 6-3.

    In this match, both were playing pretty well though
I still have complaints about Lendl's go-for-broke return
style which made him flub up some second serve returns.
Lendl is more ideally suited to return Edberg's serve since
he doesn't have the kind of pace of an Ivanisevic.  It's
Edberg's superior volleying skills and good placement on the
serve that keeps his opponents guessing.  This match might
have gone either way, but Lendl has been having a great
deal of trouble closing out three set matches this year
(Having a 12-11 record compared to an 11-4 for Edberg),
so this may have played a factor.

   One thing that may have disrupted Edberg was the
numerous foot faults called on him.  There were some
6 foot faults called.  While 4 or so were on good serves
and 1 was on a bad serve, he had a very lucky foot fault
where Lendl had just sliced a return for a winner.  With
the second serve, Edberg won a point at a crucial point
in the third set.  It was pointed out that Edberg could
have tried to stand some four or five inches back,
and this should affect very little of his game.  Still,
like McEnroe, he comes very close to the line when serving,
and so foot faults are pretty common for Edberg.

    If form continues to the US Open,  Edberg and Samrpas
ought to be the early favorites, with Lendl possibly
posing a challenge.  Courier will need to improve a bit
if he wants to win the Open.  Haven't seen Agassi play
as of yet, though he hasn't had such a bad summer.  He
seems to be having the week off, and I think he is scheduled
to play in next week's Hamlet Cup in Jericho, NY, the last
hard court event in the US prior to the US Open.  Other top
players are taking that week off to train.

   By the way, the showed the rankings with Chang at number
4.  How did this happen?  Must have been his two wins earlier
in the year.   Courier is 1, Edberg 2, and Sampras 3.

--
Charles Lin
clin@eng.umd.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.tennis