Waging the tough battles before the first Grand Slam of the year

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Jan 18, 1999

Clashes of epic proportions in Sydney

If Sydney was just a lead-in tournament for the Australian Open, just imagine what the first Grand Slam of the year is going to be like! There were so many epic battles fought this year at the historic grounds of White City, where the Adidas International is being played for the last year as it moves to the 2000 Olympic site.

Steffi Graf must be a genuine contender for the Australian Open after her display in Sydney. What tremendous heart and willpower this champion has after defeating not one, but two Williams sisters, and in back-to-back matches! The second time that this has occurred in the short history of the Williams sisters when Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario did the same last year at the same event in Sydney. Her second round match against Serena Williams looked to be a routine win for the holder of 21 grand slam singles titles as she took the first set 6-2. However, there was so much fight left in Serena as she found the range on her groundstrokes and serve to even at a set a-piece. The third set was a battle of wills. Steffi dug deep, as champions have the ability to, to tough the set out and hence the match in a closely fought third bracket 7-5.

In a matter of 24 hours, Steffi was to play the other Williams girl. This time, it wouldn't be so easy, and Steffi knew it from the start. Venus, the #5 player in the world, is the one with more match experience, the one with more consistency and the one with more touch. And it seemed like Venus had gotten Steffi's measure in the opening bracket as she broke Steffi's serve (albeit after a controversial call) late in the set to win 6-4. It appeared as though Venus' big weapon - her serve - was just about at its "aceing" best as she clocked several 180 km/h aces down the T in the first set. But it was apparent that Venus was losing confidence in her trusty serve (the fastest in the history of women's tennis) as she was broken more often than holding in the second set which she lost 6-2. Once again, the third set was decided more on desire and willpower and hunger rather than on power and blistering grounstrokes as in the previous two sets. And again, Steffi had the measure on the Williams in this department. After being down 4-2 and suffering effects from the flu from the previous week, Steffi toughed it out and used her big match experience to win the final 4 games in an absolutely pressure-cooker match!

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