Monica Seles vs. Conchita Martinez 1999 highlights

Monica once again showed why she is the queen of clay in this match.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Monica
• Seles
• conchita
• martinez
• steffi
• graf
• venus
• williams
• serena
• jutine
• henin
• kim
• clijster
• martina
• navratilova
• hingis
• rafaek
• nadal
• james
• blake
• roger
• federer

[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

[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 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 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.

[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

[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.

[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 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 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.