Monica Seles vs. Conchita Martinez 1999 highlights

[amb817]

I think that year at the french was just weeks after her father had passed away and yet she played so great getting all the way to the final i think.Monica's had it so rough since her stabbing,i wish her the best and she will always be one of my favorite players

[beavertown2006]

seles is so fat

[er9804]

The Queen of Clay?? That title belongs to Chris Evert!!

[juju1305]

I would say both were queens on clay :) monica was so good at the French and so was Chris :)

Chris has most titles at the French, Seles is the youngest to win and the first in almost 70 years to win 3 in a row :)

[grafgirl27]

@juju1305 Chris would have won 10 French Opens had she played the French in 76, 77, and 78. She also won 125 straight matches on clay at one point, a streak that none of Henin (by far the greatest clay courter of the current crop), Seles, or Graf ever got even close to. There are many other great clay courters in history- Graf, Seles, Court, Lenglen, Henin, even Sanchez. However there is only one Queen on the surface- Chris. The best of the rest are princesses of clay by comparison. :)

[juju1305]

@grafgirl27 I agree. Though I doubt evert could have beaten FO92 Seles or FO96 Graf

[grafgirl27]

@juju1305 well Sabatini and even Kijumuta nearly beat Seles FO92, and Sanchez Vicario very nearly beat FO96 Graf. So I would have to respecfully disagree on that. Sanchez is a great clay courters mind you, but on clay Evert would do everything better except maybe scramble.  On clay the winner is often decided by who makes fewer errors. There Evert was the queen. Of course she could be vurnerable to being overpowered on clay all the same, as Navratilova showed a few times.

[juju1305]

@grafgirl27 It's true. But neither were at their best in the matches you mention, i was ore refering to their peak performance in these tournaments overall. To me, at their very best, the only one to beat Graf is Seles and the only one to beat Seles is Graf... (well, maybe a top Serena but it never happened) :)

[grafgirl27]

@juju1305 True, I see your point. The games of Graf and Seles were much higher risk on clay than Evert so it was alot easier for her to play her A-game consistently so to speak. Pierce at her best on clay was also scary good but inconsistent. I cant imagine Serena never played her best on clay in so many matches. Probably the best she could do on clay was what you saw, she simply isnt as great as the other surfaces. Henin is actually a better clay courter than Serena I feel.

[juju1305]

@grafgirl27 I agree, Serena played great at the FO the year she won, otherwise, her clay court game lacks the bite it has on other surfaces. Indeed Henin is the best on that surface since the great clay players of the 90 (Sanchez Vicario, Graf and Seles) left the game. Hingis was really good on that surface, weird she never managed to win the French...

[grafgirl27]

@juju1305 Hingis blew the 99 final of course. 97 she simply was short on fitness after the layoff and too tired after some hard matches to the final, and Majoli who lucked out to make the final played out of her mind that day. By 2000 and 2001 I think it was a mental block. The thing is also on clay you still need enough power to be able to hit through the clay. The clay made her less penetrating shots and serve especialy sit up more. That is why hard courts was her best surface.

[juju1305]

@grafgirl27 agree. Majoli played the best match of her life that day against a tired Martina (marathon v Seles and in doubles). In 99, Hingis blew it herself indeed. She payed the price bigtime for her homophobic comments against Mauresmo at the Australian open in front of the French crowd and acted stupid in a final she was dominating. After that, she was mentally out of it and was overpowered by Capriati and Pierce.

[grafgirl27]

@juju1305 I agree with all of that. I also think Hingis losing 3 slams to Capriati in 2001-2002 shows how out of it mentally she had gotten. Capriati hits the ball no harder than Pierce or Seles whose power she could handle most times and definitely not as hard as the Williams and Davenport. So losing regularly to Capriati to me shows how fried mentally she was by then.

Hingis should have realized the French crowd were going to look for any excuse to got on her in 99 and been very careful.

[juju1305]

@grafgirl27 I agree. She was in her bubble feeling unbeatable and was perceived as very arrogant. She had crushed all her opponents on her way to the finals and handed the press some more nasty comments (about novotna's age being the reason why she wasn't teaming in doubles with her anymore, a shame given novotna helped her win the grand slam in doubles 1 year before).

It's sad though, because her game was a great alternative to the power-only era that was about to start...

[grafgirl27]

@juju1305 Yeah it was sad since while I found it hard to ever be much of a fan due to her attitude, her game was refreshing and as you said a much needed contrast to all the power hitters. It was sad how she self destructed and as she found out in her comeback try it too late to resurrect things now.

Some say Henin is in the Hingis mold but I dont entirely agree. She started off that way but grew frusterated being stuck at 5-7 and became more of a Williams clone with a power game herself.

[juju1305]

@grafgirl27 Agree. There was a clear change in Henin's game around 2004/2005 (probably after the virus). She still has the best technique, but probably relies too much on power. It backfired in the AO finals this year. Beating Serena playing with variation, serve and volley, guile and technique is one thing. Beating her at her own game is nearly impossible in a slam final. Though i love henin's game, her gamesmanship in the past has made her very unappealing to me.

[russianskatingfan]

@juju1305 I thought Henin played very well in the Australian Open final. Yeah she could have played tactically a bit better and might have won but she still played at a very high level. She would have beaten anyone but Serena that day and nearly beat Serena. It was the best womens match of the year so far probably. Plus I remember when we were arguing you called it a lovely final. However she has fallen off since then, probably in large part with sticking to her new warped game plan.

[juju1305]

@russianskatingfan Oh I still think it was a lovely final, I really enjoyed it :) As for Henin, I think that her problems are probably a mix of wrong game plans but also a mental issue. She was probably expecting more successes on tour, especially on clay. But both in Madrid and the FO, she had sobering losses. She would have these matches pre-retirement. And the 3 losses to her arch-rival and countrywoman Clijsters, all in really tight matches might have taken some of her confidence away.

[russianskatingfan]

@juju1305 the injury that is going to force her to miss the U.S Open is probably good for her. She needs a break to reaccess and re-evaluate. I think she will be back stronger next year and regain the French and possibly win 1 of the hard court slams.

[juju1305]

@russianskatingfan I don't know. Some rest may help for sure, because she looked a bit burtn out in some matches. But I'm not sure she can regain her dominance. She's not a fear factor for some players anymore. Even on clay this year, despite a great run in Stuttgart, she was trounced by Rezai and Sharapova nearly got her scalp at the French, so I d'ont know... we'll see next year. I doubt she'll ever win wimbledon btw