Epic Game, Set, Match To Graf

One game, lasting 20 minutes with 32 points worth of lunging volleys, topspin passing shots, wicked forehands, with shrieks and howls and sweat falling to the grass, exposed the heart and the soul of Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

In this one game, perhaps the greatest single game played by two women at Wimbledon, Graf and Sanchez inspired greatness from each other, greatness that so seldom is exhibited in women’s tennis.

And when the game was finally over, after Graf had walloped a leaping forehand deep into the corner and - finally - Sanchez couldn’t get another ball over the net, the exhausted crowd at Centre Court stood and cheered and wished together for only one thing - that there would be no loser.

But there was a loser.

Graf won that 11th game of the third set Saturday, breaking Sanchez’s serve - and her heart - and her inexhaustible supply of creativity. Graf needed only to hold serve in the next game to close out the match.

Graf’s power became too much for Sanchez. And so Graf, hampered for a year by a fragile and unhealthy body, rounded up the energy to serve one more time and hit bullets deep into the corners, and Sanchez couldn’t do more than swing wildly.

After 2 hours, 2 minutes of enthralling, draining tennis, the top-seeded Graf won her sixth Wimbledon championship with a 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory over the second-seeded Sanchez.

Graf kissed Sanchez on both cheeks and whispered into her ear at the end of the match. Then Sanchez put her head on Graf’s shoulders. Each appeared to be propping up the other. There was no emotion left, no moisture there to produce even a tear.

Sanchez called herself unlucky, then said: “I have to be very proud.”

It was a well-deserved pat on the back.

Graf was more emotional.

“I was fighting out there,” she said. “From the beginning, I felt a little tired mentally, and maybe my legs weren’t moving so well. But what I couldn’t believe is that I stood out there and came back. To fight in this one game, when Arantxa had so many chances to win it, to always keep coming back, that I never gave up. I think that is probably what I am most proud of.”

Graf, 26, a professional player for almost 13 years, has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles, 92 titles overall.

She has won easily. She has fought deep into the night and long into third sets. But she has never played a game so long and tense, so fraught with danger and daring, against so tenacious an opponent, as the next-to-last game of this 1995 Wimbledon final.

Sanchez was the server, Graf the receiver in that game. Sanchez was the creator. She had to be, because Graf is bigger and stronger and can make her run until there is no more court to cover, then hit the ball somewhere that Sanchez didn’t know existed on a tennis court.

But there was the sense that this would end like so many of Graf’s matches, with the German beginning a giant roll that would end with a pitiless pounding of the victim in the third set.

That is why Graf is 32-0 this year. She pounces.

That is what made the 11th game in the third set so wonderful.

It was unexpected. It was unexpected that Sanchez would still be in the match. It was unexpected that Graf and Sanchez would still be playing good tennis. It was unexpected that Graf would doggedly keep coming to the net, even when Sanchez was taking perfect aim with her passing shots.

Game 11 started innocently, and Sanchez hit a daring crosscourt drop shot for a winner to go ahead by 40-30. She needed just one more point to put the pressure on Graf, to make Graf hold serve to stay in the match. But Graf came up with one of her forehand cannon shots, the ones you can’t see, but only hear.

That was the first of 13 deuces.

“I think,” Graf said, “that game definitely produced the best tennis from both of us. I think neither of us played any loose points. Nobody gave up. We both tried, and both of us, we weren’t really nervous. We were going for it.”

When the game ended, both players fell into chairs and gulped long and hard from water bottles.

“I was so tired after that game,” Graf said.

“The game took energy from both of us,” Sanchez said, “and then maybe I went for too much.”

In the final game, Sanchez couldn’t score a point.

“It would be ridiculous to be upset,” she said. “I am very, very happy. I just tried - that’s all I can say. And I almost won this tournament.”

MEMO: Changed from the Regional edition.

This sidebar appeared with the story: AT A GLANCE Women’s singles: No. 1 Steffi Graf defeated No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the final. Men’s doubles: No. 2 Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde defeated Rick Leach and Scott Melville in the final. Women’s doubles: Final suspended at 4-4 in third set. No. 1 Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva won the first set 7-5. No. 2 Jana Novotna and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario won the second set 7-5. Today on Centre Court: Pete Sampras vs. Boris Becker; Jonathan Stark and Martina Navratilova vs. Cyril Suk and Gigi Fernandez. Quote of the day: “It’s a game that will stand out for many, many years.” - Steffi Graf, about the 11th game of the third set of her victory over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the women’s final.