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And the winner is........

© Michael Cecilio

(Results from the fourth round through to the finals for both men's' and women's' draw and also rankings as at June 8 listed below article)

The recipe for a tennis legend:

• A couple of handfuls of power
• A dash of on-court aggression
• Dangerous double handed shot-making ability - angle, power, she's got it all!
• A mind-numbing at times, but often an intimidating and interesting grunt
• Thousands of fans across the world who love her, respect her, and drive her to win
• A 'never say die' attitude
• An endearing work-ethic and a desire to work for her achievements
• Outstanding sportsmanship
• A very open, warm and charismatic personality
• An ounce of maturity well beyond her years
• The end of a troublesome era which has allowed her to redirect and refocus once again on tennis

And most importantly, a hell of a lot of heart. Who is this mysterious person? It's Monica Seles!! I just have to say - WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT! Who would've thought that Monica Seles - stabbed in the back a little over 61 months ago by a psychotic Graf fan, and grieving over the sad passing of her father, her coach and her friend a little over four weeks ago (which only left her four days of practice before the tournament) - would encounter two very important scalps of her career (over world #3 Jana Novotna in the quarter finals and more importantly, over world #1 Martina Hingis in the semi finals) to make the final of a Grand Slam tournament? All this from the former three time French Open champion who was not even intending to enter the tournament this year!! How wrong was she! Thankfully, for all her fans, especially for me, she stayed in the tournament long enough to make the second week, and even through to the final match. No doubt, Seles is back, and back with a vengeance. Watch out, current teenage prodigies, because a former teenage prodigy is back on the road to super greatness!

Unfortunately, Monica lost the final to another "veteran" of the game (isn't it sad how we call tennis players in their mid 20's 'veterans'!). Who was that person who took the glory away from Monica? It was Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. To tell you the truth, I really wished Sanchez would lose the final because I am such a die-hard Seles fan. But you really have to respect Arantxa. She has a great game - she is a great player when put on the defence, and added to that, she will and can run any ball down. She's got great consistency and I think this is especially what Monica lacked in the final. She was definitely not as consistent as she was against Hingis and in addition, she did not appear to be as aggressive (although Monica was always more of the aggressor in the final). It was a great battle from the first point to the last. The first set was really a see-saw battle, where they were taken to a tiebreaker - Monica fell behind 5-1 until she was allowed by a few unforced errors by Arantxa to level at 5-5. And then two points later Monica had lost the first set, after having an opportunity to serve out the first set when she led 5-3. However, the second set was such a one-sided affair, with Monica just in the brilliant form she was in against Hingis, taking the second set 6-0. Unfortunately, she never maintained that momentum as she could only muster two games in the deciding set. In any case, it was an outstanding battle between two legends of the game, between two outstanding personalities, and although the result did not go the way I would have liked, the title went to a highly respected player by fans and players alike, who possesses an outstanding all court game (she even sounded sincere when she said "Monica I'm so sorry that I beat you" in her acceptance speech).

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