What an impressive match from Steffi. She didn't need to do more than play her natural game. Unlike the previous three years, she had regained consistency in the rallies.
This was the time when Gaby's downfall started. I mean she was never the old Sabatini after this. A few weeks after the Family circle cup, she loses to Mary Joe Fernandez at the French after being up like 6-1, 5-1. Nevertheless, she is a legend. She has troubled Steffi like no other player. 1988 belonged to Steffi as she won just about everything. However, she lost to Gaby 2 times that year
@@mervinfernandes8763 Sure but Graf was also playing utter crap for her standards at times in the early 90s, especialy 1991 which was by far her worst year of tennis ever, other than maybe 1997 when she was badly injured for the 5 months she even played. Even if Sanchez, Sabatini, Seles, Navratilova, Novotna fans would probably all deny this obvious true for an obvious reason., LOL!
@@grantgoffin4774 Agree Steffi was at her worst from 1990. I mean she was so used to winning the moment the balls came back the errors started. Only Steffi can explain her loss to Sanchez in the 89 FO final. Steffi matured as a player from 1995. She could not achieve success in 1997 and 1998 on account of injuries. Her 1999 FO victory displayed her maturity. She came back from the jaws of defeat again Hingis.
@@fuckurbodyShe is a legend in the sense that she isn‘t forgotten yet even though she won only one slam and that 34 years ago. Will anyone still remember Wozniacki in 2051? Gauff in 2057?
Interesting that this was one of the last green clay tournaments Steffi played. She didn't play any in 1994, only played the much smaller Houston tournament in 1995 for match practice, and then no more.
It looks like Gabi had flattened out her strokes a bit and was trying to out slug Steffi at times here. Probably not the best strategy against Steffi - Gabi had usually beaten Steffi on the green clay by getting the ball up really high with heavy topspin.
I totally agree. She was at her best hitting heavy, def topspin and mixing in really well placed angles to open the court and attack. Here she was almost too robbed of time and couldn’t even use her defensive skills. Interestingly, when she came back to force the tiebreak, she came in quite a bit which was always a great play of her’s against Graf’s backhand.
@@williamadams5384 I remember reading somewhere that in the early 90s, you could game the ranking system by not playing. There was also a time when some players got a lot of criticism for skipping tournaments to play exhibitions.
@@TheNathanj2009 yup, but the Houston tournament was very small by comparison. The big points and money were to be made in Amelia Island and Hilton Head, and pretty much all of the other top players were there in the early 90s (except Martina Navratilova although she did play in 1990 and 1994). I wonder what changed because in the late 90s Monica did start playing.
What an impressive match from Steffi. She didn't need to do more than play her natural game. Unlike the previous three years, she had regained consistency in the rallies.
This was the time when Gaby's downfall started. I mean she was never the old Sabatini after this. A few weeks after the Family circle cup, she loses to Mary Joe Fernandez at the French after being up like 6-1, 5-1. Nevertheless, she is a legend. She has troubled Steffi like no other player. 1988 belonged to Steffi as she won just about everything. However, she lost to Gaby 2 times that year
@@mervinfernandes8763 Sure but Graf was also playing utter crap for her standards at times in the early 90s, especialy 1991 which was by far her worst year of tennis ever, other than maybe 1997 when she was badly injured for the 5 months she even played. Even if Sanchez, Sabatini, Seles, Navratilova, Novotna fans would probably all deny this obvious true for an obvious reason., LOL!
@@grantgoffin4774 Agree Steffi was at her worst from 1990. I mean she was so used to winning the moment the balls came back the errors started. Only Steffi can explain her loss to Sanchez in the 89 FO final. Steffi matured as a player from 1995. She could not achieve success in 1997 and 1998 on account of injuries. Her 1999 FO victory displayed her maturity. She came back from the jaws of defeat again Hingis.
@@mervinfernandes8763 no gaby is not a legend
@@fuckurbodyShe is a legend in the sense that she isn‘t forgotten yet even though she won only one slam and that 34 years ago.
Will anyone still remember Wozniacki in 2051?
Gauff in 2057?
Sadly, this tournament starting going downhill fast when it left Hilton Head Island and moved to Charleston!
Interesting that this was one of the last green clay tournaments Steffi played. She didn't play any in 1994, only played the much smaller Houston tournament in 1995 for match practice, and then no more.
It looks like Gabi had flattened out her strokes a bit and was trying to out slug Steffi at times here. Probably not the best strategy against Steffi - Gabi had usually beaten Steffi on the green clay by getting the ball up really high with heavy topspin.
I totally agree. She was at her best hitting heavy, def topspin and mixing in really well placed angles to open the court and attack. Here she was almost too robbed of time and couldn’t even use her defensive skills. Interestingly, when she came back to force the tiebreak, she came in quite a bit which was always a great play of her’s against Graf’s backhand.
1993 the year when gaby started fall down & arantxa rise up... and monica got stabbed so that steffi ruled the world again
Upload graf vs novotona
Interesting that in her prime, Monica Seles never played the main green clay tournaments. Wonder why that was.
Here they said she had a virus. Players are very suspect when they claim injuries and illnesses.
@@williamadams5384 I remember reading somewhere that in the early 90s, you could game the ranking system by not playing. There was also a time when some players got a lot of criticism for skipping tournaments to play exhibitions.
@@williamadams5384 Yes but she opted out of it every year of her career until around 98 and 99 or so when she played a few for the first time.
She did play in Houston 1989, 1991 and 1992 winning each time
@@TheNathanj2009 yup, but the Houston tournament was very small by comparison. The big points and money were to be made in Amelia Island and Hilton Head, and pretty much all of the other top players were there in the early 90s (except Martina Navratilova although she did play in 1990 and 1994). I wonder what changed because in the late 90s Monica did start playing.
And yet again Bud Collins win the award for annoying commentary.