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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sanchez Vicario, Graf Pave Way For Colossal Final

Robin Finn New York Times

The favorites punched in, the challengers punched out; the two leading ladies of tennis prefer not to have it any other way.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the French Open’s business-like defending champion, and Steffi Graf, a three-time champion fixated on ending her yearlong Grand Slam drought where in 1987 she claimed the first of 15 Slam crowns, once again had their way on the clay.

“I’m absolutely ready for it,” Graf said of the prospect of a rematch with the woman who took away her 1994 United States Open title the last time they tangled and has twice prevented her from defending titles here.

The duo, already in a tussle over the No. 1 ranking, Thursday earned the right to fight to the finish at the French Open after muscling their way through two distinctly different semifinals.

Graf, who sent out for some restorative bananas midway through the third set, clawed a meandering path into her seventh final here by defeating the fourth-seeded Conchita Martinez, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3. Their 2-hour-33-minute confrontation pitted the German’s powerful serve-and-forehand combination against the mixed bag of playmaking the Spaniard has used with increasing proficiency since winning her first Grand Slam title last year on unlikely territory at Wimbledon.

“Today, my balls were too short, and she was on top of them with her forehand, and I’m sure she has, if not the best serve on the tour, one of the best, and it’s quite difficult to return it,” said Martinez, who converted just 5 of the 17 break points she earned against Graf’s backup weapon.

While Graf had to survive some tremulous moments, Sanchez Vicario methodically ground the ninth-seeded Kimiko Date, the first Japanese semifinalist here in two decades, 7-5, 6-3. Sanchez Vicario, looking none the worse for wear for her weeklong bout with a stomach virus, reached her fourth French Open final.

Date was staked to a 2-0 lead in both sets but visibly wilted after Sanchez Vicario broke her in the last game of the opening set.

“It was not an easy match, but maybe I am much more the specialist than her on clay,” said Sanchez Vicario, who performed flawlessly on all six of the break chances she received. “But what counts, on the important points, I probably played my best.”

Graf’s performance was far from unflawed; she committed 67 unforced errors, more than half of them backhand slices that found the net. But Graf was pleased that, when it most counted at the end, she was obviously the fitter and more ferocious contestant.

“I haven’t been on a court for two and a half hours since last summer,” said Graf, who is 24-0 in 1995 and hadn’t dropped a set this year until Martinez won the middle set. “I was real happy to go the distance, and I fought till the end. I think I won this time because I fought.”

Martinez’s inability to persevere along the comeback trail brought her 24-match undefeated streak atop clay to a halt and also marked her first loss since hiring a new coach, Carlos Kirmayr, after her last defeat - which happened to come against Graf in March at the Delray Beach final.

xxxx French Open Winners: Defending women’s champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated No. 9 seed Kimiko Date to advance to the final, along with three-time champion Steffi Graf, who beat fourth-seeded Conchita Martinez. A look ahead: In men’s semifinal action Friday, two-time defending champion Sergi Bruguera meets 1989 champion Michael Chang, seeded sixth, and No. 5 Thomas Muster faces Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov, seeded ninth.