Seles Struggles Into Finals

Unable to lift her arm the day before, Monica Seles flirted with defeat today until she imposed her will on indefatigable Chanda Rubin to reach the Australian Open final.

Seles, who will go for her fourth title at this Grand Slam event against Anke Huber on Saturday, pulled a muscle in her left shoulder lifting weights.

“I was lucky that I could serve today, compared with yesterday when I couldn’t lift my arm,” the left-handed Seles said after beating Rubin 6-7 (7-2), 6-1, 7-5 in a rain-interrupted match of brilliant rallies. “Yesterday, I had to stop (practice). It will be OK. I tried to keep it warm and just tried to keep moving.”

It was more in a series of injuries that have beset her recently. She started the tournament with a groin pull, and strained a tendon above her right ankle in the quarterfinals.

Huber, a 21-year-old German who has never played in a Grand Slam final, beat Amanda Coetzer 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Seles trailed 5-2 in the third set, then took over with sheer resolve to win five straight games and end the match.

“Chanda’s such a fighter, I’m very lucky to be in the finals,” Seles said. “I just pulled it out by luck. I still can’t believe it.”

Rubin, a 19-year-old coming off an epic victory over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, seemed to have Seles under her spell as she served for the match at 5-3. But the nerves that Rubin kept under control to that point suddenly appeared.

“I was thinking, just take my time,” said Rubin, who did that while also trying to put more power in her serves to close out the match. “I felt like I needed first serves. I made a decision to go for it.”

That decision, though, proved her undoing.

Rubin double-faulted for the fourth time, then drove an easy volley wide to fall behind 30-40. Rubin saved one break-point but not the next, netting a backhand approach.

“Maybe I went for a little bit too much,” said Rubin, who added that she wasn’t fatigued from the Sanchez Vicario match two days earlier.

Seles could hardly believe how well Rubin ran.

“I was very surprised at Chanda,” Seles said. “She was the one who was supposed to be tired after a marathon match against Arantxa. She was running down balls that other people don’t run for. I got nervous.

“She ran down so many balls, I’m thinking, ‘When are you going to stop running?”’