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WOW! Steffi's done it again!

© Michael Cecilio

The frenzied and fan-crazy finale
What a finale to the French Open! I think that most people were expecting a good match in a grand slam final between two quality players. But I don't think that anyone was really expecting what they got in the end. And what a thriller it turned out to be!

I have been a casual follower of tennis for a long time, but it's only since 1997 that I really became an avid observer and fan of the game. And if my memory serves me correctly, I would be quite accurate in saying that the 1999 French Open final was one of the most dramatic, intriguing, exciting and, above all, bizarre matches that I had ever witnessed in a grand slam final in recent times. It had a combination of everything you could possibly imagine in a major championship match - zealous determination from both players who had such strong desires to win the tournament, strong crowd participation, some major turning points and momentum shifts, a bag of controversy and most importantly, some good quality tennis.

It was a classic showdown between Martina Hingis - the current world #1 who wanted so much to complete her set of grand slam titles by winning the elusive French Open - and Steffi Graf - the undisputed all-time greatest who came into the match with 21 grand slam singles titles to her name. There was no question that the final was destined to be a great match. Of the eight times they had played prior to the final, four of those matches had gone the full distance (and the last three encounters also went down-to-the-wire, including the five-set marathon at the 1996 Chase Championships final). While Graf led the head-to-head series 6-2, it had to be considered that six of those matches were played before 1997 before Hingis's domination of the WTA tour came about. And as the tournament's top seed, Martina entered the battle as the clear favourite to win the title.

Indeed, this match will go down in the ages as one of the most memorable grand slam final encounters. But for many different reasons. Steffi Graf, a 29 year old veteran who had been written off after experiencing many career-threatening injuries, won perhaps the most memorable title of her 17 year career, defeating the top three players in her path along the way to some more grand slam glory (#2 Davenport in the quarters, #3 Seles in the semis and #1 Hingis in the final). What makes it even more memorable is the fact that she won a major at 29 years of age, after suffering so many set backs. Who would have thought that Steffi could successfully make a comeback?! Finally, she is back with a vengeance!

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