UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, September 6, 1995
3B
Tennis player has high hopes for season, team
Competitive road take Vissepo from family, home in Puerto Rico
By Dan Gelston
Kansan sportswriter
Every afternoon at the Allen Field House tennis courts, J.P. Vissepo reads himself for the coming season by doing what he loves. He smashes 90-mph serves and stings ground strokes with a rejuvenated attitude and commitment.
Vissepo, San Juan, Puerto Rico senior, is try-
Visssepo is trying to do more than practice his game. He is trying to smash away the problems — including homesickness and injuries — that plagued him last year.
"Last year was a difficult year for me," Vissepo said. "I had some personal problems. I really got homesick. Also, the team didn't play as well as we could have, myself included."
At 13, Vissepo was shipped off by his parents to a tennis academy in Florida. There, he learned the game and graduated from high school.
While Vissepo said he enjoyed the first two years at the camp, the last two were not as pleasant.
Those final two years triggered the homesickness that has distressed him until now, he said. Despite that, he chose to move farther away from home after he was recruited by former Kansas men's coach Scott Perelman.
Perelman was replaced by current men's coach Michael Center during Vissepo's freshman year. That year, Vissepo had a Big Eight Conference 7-2 singles record and went 8-0 in doubles action.
He was named the Big Eight singles champion, but Vissepo said he thought he performed badly.
Vissepo said he had always been his toughest critic. That has held him back, he said.
"He's capable of playing great tennis at times," Center said. "There was a lot going on in his life last year and he never really got into it and put his game together."
Vissepo admits throttling his emotions
The Vissepo File
CAREER RECORD
Singles
1992-93 14-12
1993-94 21-8
1994-95 10-9
Doubles
1992-93 11-3
1993-94 16-8
1994-95 15-5
1992-93 Big Eight Conference individual champion 1991 and 1992 U.S. Open Juniors competitor
remains very much a work in progress.
"My attitude has been fairly negative on the court," he said. "I get down on myself. But that's all behind me. I'm going to be very positive this year."
Vissepo was a five-time Puerto Rico Junior Champion, competed in the 1991 and 1992 U.S. Open Juniors and was a member of Puerto Rico's first Davis Cup team.
In the coming months, he will compete in an exhibition with former teammate Manny Ortiz as they take on top women star's Gigi Fernandez and Conchita Martinez. He also has practiced with Jimmy Connors.
Vissseo said he had professional aspirations. "I'm going to play professional for two years after I graduate," he said. "I'll give it my best shot, and if I'm not going as well as I'd like, I plan on going to law school back in Puerto Rico."
For now, though, the only courts Vissepo has in mind are the ones he'll be playing on this fall.
"I plan on contributing a lot to the team," Vlsepo said. "I won't be enough this year to make it to the first round of the NCAA tournament. We have to have think we can win it all. We have to have the right attitude."
Sabatini defeats Fernandez in U.S. Open quarterfinals
Men's winners include Agassi, Chang and Courier
NEW YORK — Gabriela Sabatini, attempting to recapture the magic of 1990, moved into the semifinals of the U.S. Open yesterday by defeating 14th-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez 6-1, 6-3.
The Associated Press
In men's fourth-round matches, unseeded Bryon Black of Zimbabwe upset No. 8 Michael Stich 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3; No. 5 Michael Chang ousted Australian Michael Tebbutt 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, and No. 14 Jim Courier beat No. 3 Thomas Muster a 6-3, 6-0, 7-6 (7-4).
Sabatini, seeded ninth, won the tournament five years ago, the biggest triumph of her career. Her only titles in the last 2 1/2 years came in New York last November at the Virginia Slims Championships and in January on hardcourt at Sydney, Australia.
In Friday's semifinals at the National Tennis Center, Sabatini will take on the winner of last night's quarterfinal between top-seeded Steffi Graf against unseeded Amy Frazier.
Against Fernandez, Sabatini played deep and steady, making only 15 unforced errors. And while Fernandez hit nearly twice as many winners as Sabatini — 30 to 16 — she also made 46 unforced errors.
It is the second straight year she has reached the semifinals, losing last year to eventual winner Arantha Sanchez Vicario.
In Women's fourth round play, No. 2 Seles defeated No. 11 Anke Huber 0-1. 6-4: No. 4 Conchita Mar-
with two hands from both sides, a la Monica Seles,
jumped all over Stich's second serve as the German hit
only 52 percent of his serves.
tinez stopped Zina Garrison Jackson 7-6 (7-5), 7-5; No. 5 Jana Novotna downed Katarina Studenikova 6-4, 6-3; and No. 10 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy defeated No. 7 Kimiko Date 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.
"I was a little mad at myself," Seles said. "I had control of the match, but then I let the control out of my hand. It could have been closer than it was.
Chang appeared to be sailing past his unseeded foe when he began missing seemingly easy shots. He hit only 45 percent of his first serves and Tebbutt, an unseeded Australian, took advantage by jumping on the second serve and returning winners.
Michael Stich, runner-up last year to Andre Agassi, appeared to never be in sync against Bryon Black, who won the NCAA double title in 1989 when he was the University of Southern California. Black, who hits
Andre Agassi also won.
Huber kept Seles on the court for 71 minutes, the first time anyone has pushed Seles past one hour in the tournament. And after Seles broke Huber to start the second set. Huber broke right back.
Both players hit 42 winners in the two-hour, 15-minute match, but Tebbutt had 57 forced errors, 31 more than Chang.
As it was, Huber was able to get only three more games as Seles yielded only three points in her last two service games.
In the quarterfinals, Chang will play No. 14 Jim Courier who beat No. 3 Thomas Muster to reach the quarterfinals.
A year ago, Agassi came into the U.S. Open unranked and known more for his flash and hype than his game. This year, he's the defending champion and seeded No.1.
"I have been pretty focused for a year now," Agassi said after defeating Palmer 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 Monday to
"I had control of the match, but then I let the control out of my hand."
"I just did a very weird service game. My mind wandered off, I felt I let the momentum slip away from me a little bit. That made the second set much harder than if I had won that second game."
Monica Soles
Winner of quarterfinal match
against Anke Huber 6-1, 6-4.
advance to the quarterfinals. I am not only coming in playing real well, but I have the confidence that I can win it because I did last year." The victory also makes Agassi the only male player to reach the quarterfinals in all four Grand Slam tournaments this year. He will face rejuvenated Petr Korda, who eliminated Petr Spadea 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 in a battle of unseeded players.
"Last year I went into the Open with not a lot of matches, and this year I'm going in playing a lot over the summer and winning a lot." Agassi said. "So there are two different levels."
ferent levels there, you know. Palmer, Agassi's former Davis Cup teammate, briefly raised the level of his play to challenge Agassi in
the latter stages of the opening set. But Agassi's game was just too much, as was his intensity.
"You can hit a big serve or a big groundstroke right at him and he has got such good hands that it is like he grabs it and throws it back on the other side of the court," Palmer said. "He is the best in the world at the moment."
While every eye has been on Agassi, Boris Becker, the 1989 U.S. Open champion, has been quietly working his way through the draw. Agassi and Becker are the only seeded players left in the top half of the draw and could meet in the semifinals.
If he gets to Agassi, Becker will find an ever-progressing player, who has reached the final of every hard-court tournament he has entered this year. Agassi is 92-10 since he began his run to the Open title a year ago.
In other men's fourth-round matches Monday, fourth-seeded Becker defeated No. 13 Marc Rossett 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3 and Patrick McEnroe ousted Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (10-8), 6-3, 6-4. The winners will vie in the quarters.
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