AUSSIE HEAT TAKES TOLL ON TOP SEEDS FINAL Edition

Down the women went, like dominos in wilted tennis whites, an Australian Open runner-up here, a Wimbledon champion there, even an Olympic gold medalist. And then, just when the upsets were becoming anticlimactic, down went Steffi Graf, the only certified icon in the bunch. By its end, when the upset...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSun-sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Main Author ROBIN FINN The New York Times
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Fort Lauderdale Tribune Interactive, LLC 20.01.1997
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MELBOURNE, Australia
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Summary:Down the women went, like dominos in wilted tennis whites, an Australian Open runner-up here, a Wimbledon champion there, even an Olympic gold medalist. And then, just when the upsets were becoming anticlimactic, down went Steffi Graf, the only certified icon in the bunch. By its end, when the upset syndrome engulfed even the top-seeded Graf, a player renowned for letting nothing interfere with her pursuit of Grand Slams, this scorching summer day had created an aberration where four seeded women saw their Australian Open hopes expire. It also set a record of sorts: With the second-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario already out in the third round, Sunday's demotions of Graf and the third-seeded Conchita Martinez made Grand Slam history of a negative kind. Never before in the open era had any slam lost its top three women's seeds before the quarterfinals.