From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Subject: US Open - Wednesday play (spoilers)
Reply-To: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles C. Lin)
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 05:12:24 GMT

   Trying to get the early early report.

   Yeah, it was Shaun Stafford.  Thanks folks.  Also, I made
a little mistake.  I think Alex O'Brien was down 6-2, and won
3 points not 4, before Courier closed it out.

   OK, I caught bits and pieces of the late afternoon play.
One match I didn't catch was Edberg v. Mattar.  Edberg wins
in straight sets 7-5, 7-5, 6-2.   He claims that he will need
to play better to win, and I agree.

   Michael Chang played Ellis Ferreira.  No, he's not related
to Wayne (doens't look like him either).   This was a strange
match.  Chang won the first set (I didn't see this) 6-4, then
fell behind 4-0 in the second.  Then, Chang won 9 games in
a row, but ended up playing a tiebreaker in the third to win.
He won 6-4, 6-4, 7-6.   Chang actually pegged the situation
saying that Ferreira was a shotmaker.  He reminded me a lot
of Leconte (perhaps in the early days).  He's a leftie and
can hit the shots, but also makes lots of unforced errors.
His errors basically did him in.   He also went for a lot
of second serves and had numerous double faults.   Ellis
played for Alabama (University of) so I guess the collegiate
players are making their presence known.

    Seles had a tough match for a set against Lisa Raymond,
winning the first set 7-5 before cruising in the second 6-0.
Sabatini almost had an easy time of it against Julie Halard.
I haven't seen Gaby play in a long time, and now I notice
here versatility, topspin, slice, approach shots, and
an ability to run shots down.  Everything Halard tried
seemed not to work.   Still, when she fell behind 5-1, Halard
started taking more chances on her groundstrokes, and
I started thinking that while Sabatini has very good strokes
and is very capable of winning lopsided matches,  it isn't
because she overpowers her opponents, but hits shots that
are uncomfortable for her opponents to deal with.   Halard
was able to use some power to get her back to 5-4, but Sabatini
then serve out the set at 6-4.

   By late afternoon, the Lendl-Yzaga match began, and coverage
went off after a few games.  Lendl himself thought that Yzaga
would play him tough, and though Lendl has never lost to Yzaga,
he had played close matches.  This was no exception.  This match
went five sets (most of it not televised).  Lendl won 6-7, 6-1,
6-3, 4-6, 6-3 (or something like that).   Yzaga doesn't have the
kind of power to bother Lendl, but he can place the ball pretty 
well, moving Lendl around.  Also, Lendl, despite his good run
as of late, still plays a more error prone match.  He is making
mistakes in his game that never used to happen, and it happened
here a lot more than usual.   It has been said that Lendl is now
a little slower than usual.  He has a hard time getting winning
shots on the forehand when driven wide.   It was mentioned
that Lendl played hot and cold throughout the match, and was
constantly complaining to the umpire.  In fact, up 5-2 (I think)
in the third with Yzaga down 15-40, Lendl was content to rally
hoping Yzaga would make the mistake, and yet it was Lendl who
was making the mistakes.  I think even in the game he served
for the match, he went up like 40-0 and had Yzaga come back to 40-30
before he finally made a second serve ace to close this match
out.   Afterwards, Lendl said he hadn't played a bad match like
this in a while.

   This match lasted four hours plus, and when I came to see
the night coverage at 7:30, I was surprised this match
was still going on.  The following match was Capriati (who
just played yesterday) against Testud.   Testud was actually
doing pretty well trading groundstrokes with Capriati, but
Capriati was just a bit better tonight, winning with a score
like 6-2, 6-3.   Capriati complained that she didn't like to
play under the lights, but it was a more solid performance than
yesterday.

    Of course, the main attraction was Jimmy Connors against
Jaime Oncins.  Oncins had upset Lendl early in the French
and it was thought that this could be a tough match for
Connors.  Connors was celebrating his 40th birthday today, and
had not lost in four previous times playing on his birthday.
When the first point started, and Jimmy looked in control after
hitting an overhead, but lost the point when Oncins retreived
the shot and hit it down the line for a winner.  But, it was
not to be.   Connors played a very solid match, making very few
unforced errors.  He played characteristic Connors, moving
Oncins around the court, attacking short balls, and coming
to the net to put the volley away.  It wasn't that Oncins
was playing SO poorly.  However, Connors was able to keep
in the rallies, and Oncins would either make an error,
or Connors would pressure him by coming to net.

    I was actually surprised at how well Connors played.  The
eventual score was something like 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.  It wasn't 
supposed to be this easy, and yet Oncins didn't have the
serve to keep Connors at bay (he hit a few good ones, but
not enough), and though he didn't look it, nerves may have
creeped in.   The crowd, expecting to have to pull for Connors
to win, actually was pretty subdued since Connors seemed
to be winning easily.   After the match,  Connors had a cake
brought out to him, and then spoke to the crowd (which
included Bart Connor, Nadia Commeneci (?), and various
other stars eager to watch Connors) thanking them for supporting
him over the twenty years, but especially this year and the
previous year.   I think Nuprin (from the looks of it) sponsored
a birthday party last week for Connors (though today was
his birthday), where a lot of celebrities came to wish Connors
a happy 40th.   

   I may have to retract my comment about Lendl winning in
a cakewalk (match to be played Friday night).  Lendl looked
shaky while Connors was playing pretty decently.  Still,
Lendl should be the overwhelming favorite, and I'm sure
Lendl plans to move Connors around and try to outhit
him.   Connors looked fatigued very early in the match,
and while this never became a factor, you could see
him huffing and puffing even after three games.  Jaime
didn't seem tired at all.

   By the way,  the announcers pronounced Jaime as "Hi - Me",
but that turned out to be incorrect (if he were from almost
anyplace in South America, it probably would be correct), since
Jaime is from Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken.  His coach
pronounced his name something like "JI-ee-mee"  where JI rhymes
with "pie" or "sky".

    However the real thriller of the match sounded like it
was going on next door in the Grandstand Court.  Petr Korda,
arguably the hottest player coming into the Open next to
Pete Sampras, had the misfortune of facing someone as highly
ranked as Emilio Sanchez.   Sanchez doesn't have the really
big weapons like a Korda forehand, but he plays smart.
He volleys pretty well for a baseliner, his serve is decent
for a baseliner, and he smartly moved his shots around,
trying to play more to the Korda backhand.  Sanchez won
the first set, then Korda the next two, then Sanchez the
fourth, and then went up 4-2 and a break.  Korda held and broke,
and eventually this match headed to a tiebreaker.  The
crowd was (according to announcers) pro-Sanchez, and Korda
appeared to be angry for one reason or another.  They showed
Sanchez going up 3-0, before Korda tied it up 3-all, and
eventually a good serve by Sanchez won the match.

    They had a stat displayed showing Korda hitting some 70
winners in this five setter to Sanchez's 24 or so.   My guess
is that Korda made a lot, and missed a lot, while Sanchez
was able to make Korda hit a lot more backhands than Korda
wanted to.  Another first round exit for Petr Korda.  This
makes it two years in a row.   The match was close enough
to have gone either way.  In any case, Korda is the first
male seed to fall.  I think he was the sixth seed.  This
match ended a little after Connors won, but had started
perhaps just before the Capriati match.

    Other results (from memory).  Sukova beat Date 7-5, 6-2.
Wayne Ferreira won his match in four sets.  Fernandez struggles
again to win in three sets (Mary Joe).  Zvereva beat Li in
two easy sets.  Patrick McEnroe won his match in four
sets and faces Michael Chang next.   Chang says that he
and Patrick have had tough matches in the past, and he
expects a tough one again.

    Anyway, that's the way I see 'em.

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