| Venus and Marat Win U.S. Open | |
Dateline: 09/11/00
Here's the formula for a U.S. Open singles champion in 2000: tall, fast, powerful, and 20 years old.
It used to be a tradeoff. If you were big and powerful, you were also a little slow. Venus Williams and Marat Safin have changed the rules.
Safin's victory over Pete Sampras in the 2000 U.S. Open men's singles final was one of the most impressive performances we've ever seen. Going into the match, Sampras was 13-2 in Grand Slam finals; Safin was in his first. The occasion didn't seem to intimidate Safin at all. He won with stunning ease, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. He handled everything Pete threw at him with a striking calmness. Pete has, by most accounts, the best serve in tennis, and he served well, usually opting for serve-and-volley, but Marat was able to return most serves either at Pete's feet, forcing him to volley up, or cleanly past him. At 6'4", Safin was able to reach more of Sampras's famously well-placed serves out wide and up the middle, and he was not at all bothered by the high kick on Sampras's second serves. In baseline rallies, Safin had the speed to run down all but Sampras's very best forehands, and he'd usually return Sampras's shots often enough to eventually draw an error.
For his part, Safin averaged fewer than four unforced errors per set. He out-served Sampras as well, both in first-serve speed and, more surprisingly, second-serve effectiveness. Sampras is widely considered to have the best second serve in tennis, but Safin won a higher percentage of second-serve points. Pete kept trying to chip and charge on Marat's second serve, but his approach shots would land too short, giving Marat an easy setup to pass him.
In the brief, on-court interviews following the match, Sampras commented that he was not fully on his game, but he said he "felt fine." He did look a little sluggish, but he sometimes looks sluggish even when he's winning. Getting outplayed was the main problem. Sampras acknowledged this: "I give him credit. He had all the answers."
Venus Williams's win over Lindsay Davenport in the women's final was much less of a surprise, but still an impressive display. Williams won 6-4, 7-5 in an all-out slugfest between two of the biggest and most powerful players in women's tennis. At first, Davenport was out-slugging Venus. Her basic strategy seemed to be to hit deep up the middle, taking the angles away from Williams, then pounding one into a corner when she got the right ball. This worked well until 4-1, then Venus elevated her defensive play to a level even Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario has never attained.
In the past, the best defensive players have always been short, sacrificing power for their quickness. Venus is 6'1". As she increasingly, during their match, ran down and returned deep and hard, with topspin, shots from Lindsay that most players would never have gotten near, Lindsay's game faltered. Davenport's first serve became shaky, and Williams could attack on her second serve. When Venus would power an angle shot or a deep corner, Lindsay didn't have the speed to get there.
In women's doubles, Julie Halard-Decugis and Ai Sugiyama defeated Cara Black and Elena Likhovtseva 6-0, 1-6, 6-1. The men's doubles saw its first-ever unseeded team take the title, as Lleyton Hewitt and Max Mirnyi defeated Rick Leach and Ellis Ferreira 6-4, 5-7, 7-6. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Jared Palmer won the mixed doubles 6-4, 6-3 over Anna Kournikova and Max Mirnyi.
Our forum members are split on whether Pete played poorly or Safin was "in the zone." In another discussion, Seantra asks, "Do you think Venus will turn out to be the most dominant female player of all time?" What do you think?
