This US Open run is the highlight of Hana Mandlikova's 1982 season : she's back to compete on top of the game after an invalidant back injuries which held her out from the tour for almost half a year. On her way to the finals, she beat US Open 1981 Champion, Tracy Austin, and Pam Shriver who made the other big event of the tournament, by defeating the newly Invincible Martina Navratilova.
US OPEN
Flushing Meadows, NY - Aug. 30-Sept. 12,1982
$632,000 - Hard - National Tennis Center
R1 | Susan LEO | W | 5-7 6-3 6-1 |
R2 | Anne WHITE | W | 7-6 6-2 |
R3 | Manuela MALEEVA | W | 6-2 6-3 |
R4 | Vicky NELSON | W | 6-4 6-2 |
QF | Tracy AUSTIN | W | 4-6 6-4 6-4 |
SF | Pam SHRIVER | W | 6-4 2-6 6-2 |
F | Chris EVERT-LLOYD | L | 3-6 1-6 |
1st RD vs SUSAN LEO
Australia's Sue Leo looked capable of toppling Hana Mandlikova when she won the first set 7-5 with steadiness and judicious aggression. Initially, Mandlikova was nervous and erratic, but found her ' range and streaked away with the next two sets 6-3 6-1
2d RD vs ANNE WHITE
Hana Mandlikova still struggled to get into the match against Anne White who pushed her to the tiebreaker in the first set. Hana comes out 7-4 then rolls out in the second set, having finally found back her game.
3rd RD vs MANUELA MALEEVA
Top-seeded Martina Navratllova, defending champion Tracy Austin, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander and Hana Mandlikova advanced in straight sets, but two other seeds experienced some problems.
In night match on Stadium Court, , fifth-seeded Hana Mandlikova, suddenly improving after two unimpressive matches, routed Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-3,
4th RD vs VICKY NELSON
For Jaeger it seemed too easy "Another match another day” she said. Which was about the way Mandlikova and Navratilova approached it Mandlikova seeded fifth beat Vicki Nelson 6-4 6-2 and will play Austin. Navratilova defeated Andrea Leand 6-1 6-2 moving into the next round against her doubles partner.
QUARTERFINALS
Upset of the year : Pam Shriver, wasn’t expected to trouble her doubles partner, Martina Navratilova in the quarterfinals though she created the upset of the year, beating Martina 1-6 7-6 6-2. Martina was leading 6-1, 5-4 30-15 on her serve, and suddenly the match turned around.
Shriver held for 6-5, won the tiebreaker and from 1-2 in the third, broke twice in reeling off the last five games against an increasingly tired opponent.
HANA vs TRACY AUSTIN
As if one upset weren't enough, Hana managed to create another one in the quarterfinals.
Tracy, seeded third, and Hana, seeded fifth met only once this year. Mandlikova won in three sets at the French Open. But prior to that, Austin had never lost to Hana. When they faced each other at FlushingMeadows, the match was postponed at 5-4, Tracy, because of rain.
On the following day, Tracy quickly finished off the set, 6-4. But Hana played well enough not to get discouraged. She stayed back a while on the baseline in order to gain steadiness. The maneuver worked. At 4-4 in the second set, Hana served extremely well to hold, and broke Tracy's serve to win the set.
The third set might have gone either way except for three events. Hana was down love-40 on her serve, but managed to win the first game anyway. At one-all, Mandlikova fell, divinTg for a ball at net. Yet, she got right back up, positioned herself, and frustrated Austin with another stab-volley. This time, Tracy had no second chance a clean winner by Hana, which gave the Czechoslovakian a 2-1 lead.
Hana suddenly found herself receiving serve at 5-2, but Tracy held her serve and broke Mandlikova in the next game. In earlier days, this would have been the downfall for Hana; for Tracy, it would have been a piece of cake to hold serve for 5-5 and eventually win the match. But at 15-30, Tracy displayed the lack of match toughness that everyone had diagnosed: She double faulted. At double match point, Hana quickly finished off a high volley and put on a "comeback" smile.
"I think she must have been nervous” Mandlikova said "You don’t expect Tracy to double fault at match point” That put Mandlikova in the semifinals against Shriver tomorrow.
In the other semifinal Jaeger will meet Evert.
SF vs PAM SHRIVER
Hana Mandlikova claimed the fourth game of the third set and all but ended Shriver’s chances in a 6-4 2-6 6-2 semifinal victory yesterday.
Many of the 18,477 who paid their way into the National Tennis Center had pleaded, "Pam Pam”, and Shriver couldn't help but hear them. She simply could not satisfy them.
Handling Mandlikova on the stadium court would have represented a big victory after a big victory and Shriver knew that better than anyone.
She broke Mandlikova three times in the second set, reversing the early flow Mandlikova had gained, and charged into the third set.
She was broken in the first game then trailed 2-1 when she had Mandlikova at break point in the fourth game. But Mandlikova twice came back to deuce and began unleashing powerful serves.
Shriver had hoped Mandlikova’s serve would be her weakness but Shriver netted a backhand return and Mandlikova had the advantage. Mandlikova served again, faulted, and than slammed a second serve that Shriver reached but could not control. It sailed wide, taking more than just the game with it.
"Usually she just kind of pops that second serve over” Shriver said "When I came back to the lockerroom after the match Billie Jean King told me : "I couldn't believe that second serve’ Neither could I”
Mandlikova had a 3-1 lead and went on to break an exhausted discouraged Shriver the next game leaving her to squeeze the ball in frustration or occasionally boot it away.
F vs CHRIS EVERT-LLOYD
The final was a repeat of the 1980 confrontation at Flushing Meadows. Chris, with concentration in full gear, again managed to edge Hana for the title. Each woman held her serve easily for the first three games. Then Lloyd withstood a break point to even the score at 2-2. Hana wasn't as lucky in the seventh game when three forehand winners by Chris marked the first break of serve.
Mandlikova could have tied the set during the following sixteen-point game, which see-sawed back and forth until Hana hit a backhand wide. The match was essentially decided then, as Hana began to make more errors and Chris played even better. Lloyd hit five unforced forehand errors and only one backhand error throughout the match compared with Mandlikova's 18 backhand errors and eight forehand errors.
Hana didn't believe that she gave the match away: "I don't think anything affected my concentration because I was concentrating very well and she played very well; it was very difficult to do something. Chris plays very long, deep balls, so it's difficult to come to the net that often...she was running well. I tried to play a couple of drop shots but she just got them."
Concentration certainly wasn't a problem for Evert Lloyd, either. When asked about specific points of the match, she said, "I was concentrating so hard that I have to really think to remember the match. I was in a kind of trance out there because I wanted it so badly. In the second set, I started hitting the ball and I played better. In the first set, we were both a bit nervous. She is very hard to play. After the fifth game I still didn't feel like I was warmed up."
In assessing Hana, Chris commented, "She has all the shots, let's face it. But it's just a matter of picking and choosing which shots to use on certain points. She could develop that a little more. When you look at the past champions, men and women, they basically all had simpler games. They were very strong mentally. But she's so gifted physically that she's had to work a little harder on mentally concentrating. When you have five different ways to hit a ball, you can't decide which way to hit the ball. It's a lot easier when you have a game like Tracy or myself or Jimmy - people who are secure and really concrete and hit the ball one way".
Compiled from : Inside Women's Tennis, Newsday, The Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday News, Joh Dolan's Women's Tennis 68-84
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