Graf Adds To French Collection

With her opponent content to play defense, the most dangerous threat to Steffi Graf was her own nerve. There were moments of doubt, but at the end she was crying in triumphant relief.

She was back as a Grand Slam winner for the 16th time, back as world No. 1, back as French Open champion after a near-perfect final set in a tournament she almost skipped in despair.

Graf had played only 18 matches this year before reaching Paris, only four on clay, as a bad back, then calf problems, then the flu limited her playing time. But she finally wore down defending champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the most dogged shot-chaser in women’s tennis, with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-0 victory Saturday.

The final set took only 20 minutes of playing time, excluding a rain delay. Sanchez Vicario won only six points in the six games, and Graf committed only five errors - compared to 22 and 20 in sets 1 and 2.

But as she accepted the winner’s trophy - her fourth at the French Open - she broke into tears.

“It’s difficult to talk about,” Graf said afterward. “There were times maybe that I thought I couldn’t be playing, during the six weeks that I didn’t play a tournament. Two weeks ago I didn’t expect to be here.”

A bad case of the flu knocked her out her intended clay-court warmup tournament in Berlin in May, and she only resumed regular practices a week before the French Open started.

“Coming into a Grand Slam, you need to feel you’re ready,” said her coach, Heinz Gunthardt. “This is an amazing feat, because she didn’t have enough matches.”

He described Graf’s play in the final set as “perfection,” saying that Sanchez Vicario “collapsed because the workload was just too big.”

Sanchez Vicario had her own physical woes, fighting a stomach virus since early in the tournament. But she had an easy draw, and reached the final without losing a set while Graf had to battle past fourth-ranked Conchita Martinez in a grueling three-set semifinal.

In the first set, Graf dropped behind 1-3, making unforced errors as Sanchez Vicario doggedly kept the ball in play, often with desperate but effective deep lobs. Graf then won four straight games, including a break to draw even at 3-3 that included the first of several net-cord shots in her favor.

Leading 6-5, Graf broke Sanchez Vicario’s serve thanks to another point that combined skill and luck. She went ahead 30-love when Sanchez Vicario slammed a Graf drop shot for a seemingly sure winner, only to find that Graf - also in the forecourt - had instinctively moved in the path of the blast to knock a reflex volley back into the open court.

Graf jumped ahead 2-0 in the second set, but Sanchez Vicario stormed back with four straight games. Twice in the set, Sanchez Vicario held serve thanks partly to banging back overhead smashes that Graf should have put away for winners.

“In the second set I really dictated the points, but I just didn’t finish them off,” Graf said. “Maybe I tried for too much. But I did feel she was playing pretty defensively.”

The second-set struggle seemed to drain some of the energy from Sanchez Vicario, who said the match was decided in the first two games of the third set. Each game featured long, fierce rallies, but Graf won them both - conceding only one point - and was on her way to total domination.

“Maybe if I didn’t make some mistakes at that time, everything would be different.” Sanchez Vicario said. “After that, it was kind of hard, because she was on a roll and not missing much… . She played very well when she needed it, and that was the difference.”

The only third-set reprieve for Sanchez Vicario was a 42-minute rain delay with Graf leading 5-0. Moments after play resumed, the No. 1 ranking had changed hands between the two rivals for the sixth time this year.

It was Graf’s first Grand Slam title since the 1994 Australian Open. Only once since she won first major title here in 1987 had she gone longer without a Grand Slam crown - failing to win five events between the 1990 Australian Open and the 1991 Wimbledon.With 16 Grand Slam titles, Graf

needs two more to tie Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for third place on the all-time list. Margaret Court leads with 24.

Graf’s victory was worth $503,740 and stretched her unbeaten streak to 25 matches.

American Michael Chang, the 1989 champion, battles for the men’s title today against Thomas Muster.