From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Subject: US Open - Tuesday comments (spoilers)
Reply-To: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles C. Lin)
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 04:50:50 GMT


   The early match that I thought Becker would have an easy time
with apparently wasn't so easy.   Final score was 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
over Kevin Curren.   I didn't see the match past the first few 
games.

   Upsets were confined to the women's draw.   Conchita Martinez
lost to Ann Grossman.  Conchita recently made it to the finals
of the Mazda Classic against Jennifer Capriati.  However, either
her arm or wrist has been bothering her (tendinitis) the last
few months, so that may have played a factor.   Speaking
of Capriati, her opponent (Jagerman?) took a 5-1 lead before
Capriati took the set either in a tiebreaker or 7-5, then 
took the second 6-2.   Capriati has been this a lot lately.
Getting behind then coming from behind to win.  I think
she did against Anke Huber.

    Speaking of Anke Huber, she lost in straight sets to
Appelmans.  This seems to be a big surprise because she
made it to the semis last week losing to Capriati.  Jana
Novotna also lost to Roz Fairbanks.   Again, a big surprise.

    On the men's side, Agassi won fairly easily over Pernfors
in straight sets.  I am almost sure that he is using a new
racquet.  Look closely, and you won't see that familiar
bright orange which he used during Wimbledon.  I first
noticed this during the AIDS charity event when Agassi
was playing Sampras.   Paul Harhuus beat Matsuoka of Japan
in straight sets.   There seems to be confusion as to how
to pronounce his name, and I don't know either.  The
announcers are pronouncing it like Har-house.  At one point,
some fan (the commentator was near the court) said it
was Har-hoose.  However, I would guess the first is correct
since it sounds nothing like the way it is spelled.  

   I caught some of the night matches.  I wish I could
remember who Martina was playing.  Her name has slipped
my mind.  Anyway, she is a baseliner, and all throughout
the match she kept smiling and smiling, and I couldn't
figure out why (other than her good play).  Then it
dawned on me that she may have kept on smiling at her
group of supporters.  It seems to include Scott Davis,
or someone who looks a lot like him.  Boyfriend?  Husband?
I dunno.   Martina looked shaky in this match.  She lost
the first set 7-5.  Her opponent was able to pass her enough
and press her enough with the groundies to bother Martina
who has hitting poorly, making lots of errors.

   Martina turned things around in the second set,  reducing
her unforced errors and won that handily 6-1.  She then
went up 5-1 on two service breaks (I think) and looked
to have the match in hand.  Yet, she let things slip, and
her opponent started passing better and hitting well,
while Martina faltered.  The match was tied up at 5-all.
Martina finally broke once again and was able to hold and
prevent the upset.   She mentioned how it was unnerving to see
her opponent smile so much (I mean she smiled a lot, any
point she won passing or whatever made her happy).  Her opponent
was a qualifier ranked about 160.

   In the meanwhile, Henri Leconte was playing out on stadium
court against Richey Reneberg, who is noted more as a doubles
specialist.   Leconte won this in four sets.  He seems to have
started off well in the last three Grand Slam events.

   McEnroe finally took the court at 10 pm against Michiel
Schapers.  Schapers, I was surprised to learn, is 32, and
is one of the older competitors.  Anyway, McEnroe had a 4-0
lifetime against Schapers, and thought they hadn't officially
met since 1989,  McEnroe again proceeded to dominate
Schapers.  This was one of those matches where McEnroe
didn't have to play great.  He played at a decent level, making
the shots when he had to, but nothing too spectacular.
This was essentially a blah match.  Schapers didn't have firepower
on the serve, nor enough on the passing shots or volleys
to give McEnroe much to worry about.

    Schapers is quite tall (6 feet 7 inches, or so, compared
to McEnroe at 5 feet 11 inches.  He is almost 20 cm shorter)
if I recall the bio correctly, but couldn't really use this
to his advantage.  It almost seemed like Schapers wasn't into
the match.  He basically played the serve, came into net,
tried to pass when he could, made a few errors here and
there, but had no weapons, nothing in reserve that was
bothering Mac.   The final score was 6-4, 6-0, and something
like 6-3 or 6-4.   Mac was reasonably calm, but made a
complaint late in the match on a line call.

    Tomorrow (today) Edberg, Chang, Lendl, Seles, and Connors
will play.   Seles takes on NCAA champion, Lisa Raymond,
which makes me think that for this US Open, they pair
up the number one seed with the NCAA champion.   The NCAA
is the governing body in collegiate sports.  Each sport
(except football) has a playoff of sorts, and tennis is
one of them.   

    Keep posting them results!

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