Wait up....The clay court season hasn't finished yet!© Michael Cecilio
Jul 20, 1999
It has been a rather quiet two weeks in the world of women's tennis. Sandwiched in between the thrilling events of Wimbledon and the pressure packed situations of Fed Cup, the WTA tour enjoyed a quiet two weeks by hosting a number of small clay court tournaments in Europe.
Yes, the clay court season has once again revived itself in the form of three Tier III/Tier IV events in Austria, Sicily and Poland. Given the fact that the players had just gotten off the fast grass courts in England and were conditioning themselves for medium-paced hard courts for the next few months or so, going back to the clay was not something many of the top players wanted to do. Yet, some top players did go back to the clay, mainly to get back into the swing of matches and to get some good results on an agreeable surface to them. However, there were some discouraging results. Patty Schnyder continued her season's decline at Portschach where she was top seed and the only entrant in the top 20. That in itself did not help Patty's Austrian clay court campaign as she fizzled out to Lenka Nemeckova (who??) in the opening round. The same fate lay in front of Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, who was bidding for a second clay court title of the season as the top seed at Sopot. Sanchez-Vicario was one top player who desperately needed to get back into match-toughness after some poor grass court results. She also knew that getting that match toughness and confidence would be more conducive on the clay courts, her favourite surface. So why she lost to Marlene Weingartner (a player who, at Wimbledon, lost 6-0 6-0 in the second round to Monica Seles and again lost 6-0 6-0 in the opening round of doubles) on the clay in straight sets was something strange. True, it hasn't been a great season for the seasoned veteran, but she has posted some strong results on clay this year to make herself a threat every time she steps out on the dirt. Unfortunately, the presence of time has kept Arantxa from playing to her potential, moving half-a-step slower than she did in her hey day and also sporting a left wrist injury which has kept her from hitting out on her backhand. As we know, the champion's strengths lie in her foot speed and her backhand. So when both are out of kilter, she is left vulnerable to such unheralded opponents like Marlene (with no disrespect to her game), even on her favourite surface.
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