| Women's Quarterfinals Set at French Open | |
Dateline: 06/05/00
Let's take a look at each women's quarterfinal match in this 2000 French Open.
Top quarter: Martina Hingis (1) vs. Chanda Rubin. Chanda is one of my favorite players to watch. When she's on, she creates some of the most sharply angled groundstrokes in tennis. She is capable of making Martina cover a tremendous amount of court. Martina isn't among the faster players in tennis, but her understanding of court geometry and her anticipation make up for raw speed. The downside of Chanda's style is that she doesn't have much of a safety margin. If she's a little off, Martina will win easily. If Chanda's red hot, she might give Martina a pretty tough match, but Martina is, without question, the most adaptable player in women's tennis, and I expect that she'll adapt to Chanda's game. I pick Martina in straight sets.
Second quarter: Monica Seles (3) vs. Mary Pierce (6). This is the toughest one to predict.
Monica is slow, she hits her forehand not only with two hands, but with them crossed (the upper hand facing backwards), she throws her entire body at every shot despite being off balance half the time, and she has an incredibly small margin of safety. As Nick Bollettieri, who coached her as a junior, points out, Monica is a most unlikely tennis champion. Yet Monica completely dominated women's tennis before she was stabbed in 1993, and she's still competitive with the best of the current players, despite being somewhat out of shape. Underneath the awkwardness of Monica's movement and strokes is an incredible hand-eye, or more appropriately, whole body-eye coordination that enables her to hit deep, hard, and with terrific angles. More importantly, she competes with unsurpassed intensity.
Mary Pierce is another veteran player, who just played the best tennis of her life in the 2000 Family Circle Cup in late April. In that clay court tournament, she beat Monica 6-1, 6-1 in the semis, then Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 6-0, 6-1 in the final. Mary is among the most powerful players in tennis, and she has improved her court speed and her mental toughness considerably in the last year. If she's on against Monica, I think she'll prevail in three sets. If she's a little off, Monica could take her in two. I'll lean toward Mary in three.
Third quarter: Venus Williams (4) vs. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (8). This a match-up of extremes: the ultimate aggressive player versus the ultimate defensive player. No one can hit harder than Venus. No one can run balls down better than Arantxa. If there's any competitor as tenacious as Monica Seles, it's Arantxa. She'll make her opponent hit two or three extra shots on every point. If that opponent starts misfiring, Arantxa's got her. Venus is playing surprising well after a long injury lay-off, though, and my best bet is that Venus will overpower Arantxa in three sets.
Bottom quarter: Conchita Martinez (5) vs. Marta Marrero. I've seen the qualifier, Marta, play for all of about 30 seconds. The standard wisdom would be Conchita in straight sets, and I have no basis upon which to differ.
If my predictions hold up, it'll be Hingis versus Pierce in one semi and Williams versus Martinez in the other. I think Mary would have a shot against Martina, but Martina will prevail by making Mary hit too many different kinds of shots. Conchita's best weapon is her heavy topspin, but I don't think it will bother Venus, who likes the ball pretty high. I pick Venus to meet Martina in the final, with Martina winning in three interesting sets.
Am I totally off the deep end? Post your own predictions in this forum discussion.
