4B
Wednesday, January 24, 1996
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Marathon tennis match ends in upset
The Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia —Sweat flooded down Chanda Rubin's face, soaked her shirt and skirt and formed a puddle at her feet as she towed off. Rubin was craftily making Arantxa Sanchez Vicario wait and worry.
Rubin will face Seles in Australian final
They had played for 3 1/2 hours.
They hit more than 3,000 shots. They ran each other ragged for 325 points.
And now, with Sanchez Vicario serving at 0-40 in the 30th game of the third set, Rubin paused for a final moment of gamesmanship.
It wasn't the kindest way to treat a doubles partner, but as Rubin said,
"Anything I can do, I'll do it."
Rubin, seeded No. 13, did exactly what she had to do two points later. She lunged for a volley winner on her sixth match-point to upset the third-seeded Spaniard 6-4, 2-6, 16-14 last night to reach the Australian Open semifinals against Monica Seles.
This epic-match thing is getting to be routine for the 19-year-old American, who is halfway to a career Grand Slam of the longest matches at all the majors.
She won the longest in Wimbledon history last year, and now she has won the longest in Australian history. Watch out for her at the French and U.S. Opens.
Last June at Wimbledon, Rubin beat Patricia Hy-Boulais 7-6, 7-15 in a duel that set a women's Grand Slam record for most games
A few weeks before that, Rubin put on one of the greatest comebacks ever as she fought off seven match points and a third-set deficit of 0-5, love-40 to beat Jane Novotna at the French Open.
This time, Rubin and Sanchez Vicario broke Australian women's records for most games in a match and set. At 3 hours and 33 minutes, it also was believed to be the longest ever in the Australian. The third set alone lasted 2 hours and 22 minutes — 18 minutes longer than the final set at Wimbledon.
in a match and set.
Rubin flashed back to that Wimbledon marathon during this one, "but it was more like disgust because I couldn't put it away," she said. But it also gave her a boost.
"I was thinking I can hang with her for however long," she said.
When she finally did end it, she knew she had accomplished a lot more than winning another long match — she'd reached her first Grand Slam semifinals.
"It's huge." she said.
For all its drama and brilliant play, the match delayed until nearly 11 p.m. the one most of the crowd of 15,000 had come to see -- defending champion Andre Agassi against two-time champion Jim Courier in the quarterfinals.
Courier led 5-4 with Agassi serving when a cloudburst drenched the court. Though the roof was quickly closed and the court dried, the players and officials agreed at midnight to finish the match today. That decision angered many fans and threw off the scheduling of the men's semifinals, which now will be played Friday instead of tomorrow.
"It would not have been appropriate in a Grand Slam event to resume a match that potentially still had several hours left in it after midnight," said Geoff Pollard, president of Tennis Australia.
"It was funny," Rubin said of the fans shouting for the men during her match. "I felt a little bad, because I knew everybody was waiting for Agassi and Courier. I felt the same way. It was like, somebody please finish it. But she didn't give it to me, and I wasn't willing to give it to her. So we were going to be out there regardless of what the crowd was saying."
As unhappy as fans might have been at the end, they saw a women's match of the highest caliber by two players famous for their stamina.
On Australian television, a Nike commercial during the match showed Agassi and Pete Sampras playing an endless point, with John McEnroe in the broadcast booth, all of them growing beards as the months go by. There were times when Rubin thought her match might never end.
"A lot of times," Rubin said. "Especially on the second of two match points that I had at 30-40 (in the 28th game). The ball she hit, it was clearly out, and it was so hard to come back after that.
"I was thinking, 'God, I can't win this. It's just going to go on all night."
Sanchez Vicario punched a backhand volley on that point, and the ball drifted several inches past the baseline near Rubin's feet. But the linesman's view was blocked by Rubin, and the umpire said he didn't see the ball clearly enough to make
that call on match point.
Rubin, who let two match points slip away in the 10th game, tried to stay calm after seeing the match snatched from her grasp by that missed call. She held serve to take a 15-14 lead, then quickly jumped on Sanchez Vicario's serve to push her to 0-40.
"I wanted to slow it up a little and give myself time to think, not just rush," Rubin said. "She has a tendency to rush a little, but I just wanted to get my thoughts together."
Instead of going straight to the baseline to receive, Rubin paused to towel off by her chair and make Sanchez Vicario wait.
Rubin was the aggressor the whole match, attacking at the net twice as often. She made twice as many unforced errors (96 to 48), but also hit twice as many winners (68 to 34).
She acknowledged that the tactic may have made Sanchez Vicario think a little more about the pressure situation she was in, saying, "That's good."
Of all the things that went through her mind during the match, the strangest had to do with the bugs flying around.
"I kept wondering if, when I went to hit an overhead, one of them would fall in my mouth," she said.
Sanchez Vicario accepted defeat gracefully.
That was one of the few things that didn't happen in this match.
"I am a little sad," she said, "but I am very happy with myself, because I played a very good match and I gave everything."