TBH I am not sure at all Wade is a better player than Novotna. In fact I kind of doubt it. As things are she is the greater and more accomplished player because of what she achieved, but if you putu both in the same era I dont think she is better or a tougher opponent for most to face. It is easy to just say Wade has 3 majors and Novotna has 1, but Wade played in an era where 3 of the 4 majors were on GRASS. How incredibly fortunate for her. Novotna was playing in an era that was faster than today but already with a 3 week grass season. Imagine how many slams Jana would win in an era with 3 majors on grass during her time, considering she was pretty unlucky to win Wimbledon only once and is clearly the 2nd best grass courter of her own era. Most likely 4 or 5 atleast. Meanwhile in an era of slower surfaces, barely any grass tournaments, and far superior baseliners like Graf, Hingis, Seles, Davenport, Sanchez, Pierce, Capriati, Sabatini, Wade would be very very lucky to win 1 major (and if she did it would be 1 Wimbledon just like Jana). We can see by her record against Evert, or even Goolagong (who wasnt a pure baseliner but played at the baseline often) how well Wade generally did against a top baseliner. I do think in Navratilova's era and Navratilova/Evert dominance that Novotna would be lucky to win even 1 major, but the same is true of Wade, maybe even moreso. Just compare Wade to Jana as players, taking into account their eras and equipment. What is Wade better in? Better serve? Better volleyer? Better ground game? Better mental game? I just don't see it. Jana has anything in her game Wade does, and Wade has all the weaknesses Jana has and is mentally ever weaker for the most part, even if she isn't as prone to quite as bad of chokes (although nearly as bad) but is weaker mentally in other aspects. Wade's only edge I could see is she is probably more comfortable hitting a topspin backhand pass if she has to (marginaly that is, as neither fit the bill here). BTW I would be willing to bet lots of money no way in hell Wade would ever reach world #2 in 1998 which was the start of the deepest womens field in history (1998-2003). Wade only reached #2 once briefly, and that was in 1977, with Court and King retired (though old King came back in late 77), Goolagong taking a pregnancy leave for the year, and the age of Martina Fatrilova. Jana was close to reaching #1 at one point in 1998, something Wade would never have done.
BTW it is a myth to say Novotna had the edge in head to head matchup with Sanchez, and that any assumption related to Wade can be made from that (not that Wade and Novotna are even that similar as players and style of play, despite both being known as net players). Yes she has 1 more head to head win, but in slams Sanchez was the heavy favorite if they were to play, apart from Wimbledon. If they played at every slam from 1989-1998 Sanchez would probably win 30-32 of the 40 matches, with Jana winning 5-7 at Wimbledon and only the very rare win anywhere else. Yet saying all that I tend to believe Novotna does better against Sanchez than Wade would too. Also saying Sanchez would do well against Wade only on clay and maybe hard courts, well that covers most of the tour not only today, but even already in Sanchez's era, which some of you seem to forget. The days of a predominant grass and carpet tour are so long in the past. So if Sanchez wins all day on clay, and wins often on hard courts, she already wins the hypothetical matchup.
I do feel funny typing all this as this is almost becoming more of a Novotna vs Wade thread than Wade vs Sanchez.
I do agree Sanchez Vicario has lots of trouble with a true 100% all out attacker. However that is someone like Navratilova, Billie Jean King, and maybe Margaret Court. People that made her pass immediately and gave her no time to set her bearings. That is not Wade who stayed back half the time on her serve, and rarely even came in off her opponents serve. She spent a fair bit of time at the baseline, biding her time to attack, which would be suicide against Sanchez Vicario when her ground game isn't even as good as Novotna or even Sukova, and as I have already explained there is nothing I see that indicates she did poorly vs Sukova or Novotna, except for Novotna on grass (and to a degree Jana on carpet). Add to that Wade wasn't exactly known for her smart approach shots, which would also be suicide vs Sanchez Vicario, especialy in todays (or more to the points even 90s) slowed conditions. The only record vs Sanchez that would be troubling in this topic as far as how she does vs an attacker is her record vs Navratliova, but Wade is no Navratilova, not in any sense of the word. Anyway every players besides Graf, Evert, and Seles has an awful head to head with Navratilova.
I also laugh at making such a big deal of Sanchez losing to Sukova at the 93 U.S Open. Yeah it was a bad loss, and a bit of a rare choke from Sanchez and she had the match and should have closed it out in 2 sets, but there have hundreds many worst ones for a top 2 seed (hello Navratilova-Horvath, McNeil-Graf, Hingis-Dokic, Hingis-Ruano Pascual, and Serena Williams-too many people to list just for starters; heck Navratilova-Sukova at the 84 Australian was a much worse loss considering this was peak all conquering Martina vs a then 17 year old nobody).
