Graf v. Seles 1992 FO Final - on Tennis Channel right now.

[Lionheart392]

Originally Posted by Mustard

Because Graf was the underdog. It was a different story in 1989 and 1990.

I disagree. Seles was never particularly popular pre-stabbing. The French crowd always had Graf's back.

[Moose Malloy]

^I agree with Mustard, the crowd support in '92 was more about Seles being a huge favorite, & Graf being a big underdog, than Graf being a French favorite(which she eventually became, but she certainly wasn't in '88 or '89, crowd seemed behind Seles & Sanchez in '89 - this was a time when Graf was barely losing games & barely looking at opponents when she shook hands after, so you can see how that was not exactly endearing to fans. Plus the French weren't generally that into womens tennis then either. Crowd was also behind Sabatini vs Graf at '87 French - now Sabatini, that was someone who was basically always the crowd favorite no matter where she played. If she ever reached a French final, I'm sure the crowd support would have been quite high)

Underdogs always get more support when most fans are neutral. It was a little uncomfortable just how against Seles the crowd was at '92 FO & '93 AO, I guess she was considered close to unbeatable, the way they reacted when Graf just won the 1st set at the AO you would have thought she won the tournament or something. I also found it weird how much the crowd seemed against Venus & Serena(even at the USO!) during some matches they played at majors when they ended up playing each other in 4 straight major finals.

Originally Posted by dannykl

Should Steffi come in more and volley more in that match?
Or should she use her topspin backhand a bit more in that match?

I find she could come in and close the net in some points but she didn't, especially after hitting a powerful forehand she didn't back it up with a volley. If she did, she might be able to win more points.

Seles that year defeated Martina the greatest serve volleyer on fast grass. How high percentage would it have been for Graf a reasonable but not great volleyer to attempt to come in against Seles on clay? I have no doubt that if she could have done more of this , that is exactly what she would have done. imo the real problem was that Graf had to hit a high volume of UFE in this match because she had to keep getting the ball deeper and angle ever sharper to force the pressure back against a super opponent. Graf had lots of experience playing Seles on clay, anything slightly shorter would get killed straight away by Monica. If you are going to lose the point either way, it had better be on your terms, with a possible payoff if your risk worked. If Graf had managed to keep her UFE down just a little bit more until it went to 10 all, 11 all... she would have won the war by overall strategy with superior fitness and speed finally coming through, just look at Monica in the last few games, she was already very low on gunpowder, but Graf wouldn't have won by trying to volley more or changing her battle tactics which I thought were the best she could have used with the cards in her hand at the time. It was a bit of a gamble against a stronger opponent that day, which was the only reasonable one.