1978 Berri South Australian open

“Hana Mandlikova’s Breakthrough Performance at the 1978 Berri South Australian Open”

Hana Mandlikova, at just 16 years old, impressed throughout the 1978 Berri South Australian Open with dominant wins. After a tense quarterfinal win against Anne Hobbs, she faced tournament n. 1 Kerry Reid in the semifinals. Despite Mandlikova‘s brilliance, Reid outlasted her in a thrilling match, winning 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, amidst a late-night atmosphere and controversial crowd behavior.

2d round : Hana Mandlikova vs Cynthia Doerner

Mandlikova Dominates at 1978 Berri South Australian Open

The quickest victory of the day went to young Czech girl Hana Mandlikova who dispatched former Victorian Cynthia Doermer in embarrassing fashion 6-0 6-2.

3rd Round : Hana Mandlikova vs Renata Tomanova

Hana heading for stardom

By Peter Stone, The Age

“Hana Mandlikova, the 16-years-old schoolgirl who seems destined to win Wimbledon, breezed delightfully into the quarterfinals of the $50.000 Berri Classic

As she swept to a 7-5, 6-3 victory over fellow Czech Renata Tomonova on Memorial Drive’s centre court, those around started making predictions about her future.

Triple Wimbledon champion John Newcombe said they can inscribe her name on the All-England trophy in 1980.

Australian Davis Cup captain Neale Fraser was fractionally more conservative.

“She will win Wimbledon within three years,” he said. “She has all the shots and a great service action.”

Even now, young Hana is possibly the most exciting player on the women’s circuit. She has a full range of shots, a top spin forehand and sliced backhand being her main weapons.

But it’s her athletic ability and speed around the court that stands her apart plus the fact that she shows no sign of nerves.

At Wimbledon this year she was beaten in the Junior Championship final by American Tracy Austin, 10 months her junior. Their next meeting will be something to look forward to.

Hana‘s victory over Miss Tomanova was her second in a week, but far more impressive than her 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 win in the third round at White City last Thursday.

“It’s good she is going home after this week,”

said Renata, who could lose her No. 2 ranking in Czechoslovakia to her young opponent in the New Year.

The only time yesterday when Miss Mandlikova lost concentration and her composure -albeit briefly- was in the seventh game of the first set when she dropped service but still led 4-3. The problem? Her bra-strap had become unfastened and she was self conscious for the rest of that game.

The two girls left the court at the break and went behind a courtside box to make necessary adjustments to the young Czech’s apparel.

Miss Mandlikova now meets British girl Anne Hobbs, who beat Regina Marsikova, seeded 4, 6-4 6-2.

Miss Hobbs played intelligently to beat the No. 1 Czech Miss Marsikova, chipping and angling the ball short, then volleying for winners, her opponent’s rushed return shots..

The Czech girl did, however complain of an injured elbow. Later she and Miss Mandlikova forfeited their doubles when leading 4-1 in the first set against Italy’s Sabina Simmonds and West German Katja Ebbinghaus.”

Quarterfinal : Hana Mandlikova vs Anne Hobbs

Hana Mandlikova Fights Past Anne Hobbs to Reach Semi-Final of 1978 Berri South Australian Open

Hana Mandlikova took 88 minutes to shake off the determined opposition of young British girl Anne Hobbs before taking her place in the semi-final of the Berri South Australian Classic with a 7-6 6-4 victory.

The exciting Czech girl looked like she would breeze through when she led 5-1 in the first set, but her concentration would rival that of Evonne Cawley (Goolagong) on one of her bad days and Miss Hobbs fought back into the match.

But when the pressure was on in the tiebreaker, Hana Mandlikova produced the magical strokes that we have seem from her this week.

Again in the second set, she led 5-2 only to lapse in concentration and drop the next two games before winning 6-4.

Twice she let shots go which landed well in the court.

She now meets top seed Kerry Reid in the semis. The Victorian Reid scoring an impressive victory 7-5 6-1 over West Australian Lesley Hunt.

Although Kerry Reid regard’s tonight’s match against the 16-year-old Hana Mandlikova as a real danger, she didn’t watch the Czech Girl in action last night. Instead she went to the movies.

“I’ve seen her play and we also played her in the doubles in the Federation Cup. I know what is needed to beat her” Ms Reid said.

Semifinal : Hana Mandlikova vs Kerry Reid

The match between Hana and Kerry Reid was called “a classic” by Australian Medias.

Reid said :

“ I’ve never seen anyone so brilliant at that age, not Chris, not Tracy. She reminds me very much of Maria Bueno. She has a tremendous future.”

Mrs. Reid played brilliantly in a semi-final to defeat Czech teenager Hana Mandlikova, who is surely destined to win Wimbledon and anything else she cares to cast her eyes upon.

As if stirred by the brilliance of young Hana, Kerry reached great heights on Saturday evening to defeat her 16- year-old opponent 5-7, 7-5, 6-1.

Saturday’s semi-final was worthy of a full house on a fine summer’s day, but Kerry and Hana were asked to perform in the chill night air to just a few people.

Because exhibition of a men’s match in Sydney, television and Australian tennis officials demanded of the South Australians that the girls’ semi-finals be played at night. This was male chauvinism at its worst.

The LTAA had wanted the men in Sydney to appear on TV and the Berri tournament, a Grand Prix event, was pushed into the background.

When Mrs. Reid finally defeated the young Czech girl, it was 11.34 pm and the temperature had dropped to 13 degrees.

It’s a wonder neither pulled a muscle and who could blame Kerry for her tired and rather life- less performance in defeating Miss Norton yesterday.

Kerry must have thought she was playing in a foreign country as the small crowd put its vocal weight behind her opponent on Saturday evening.

They clapped her mistakes and even booed when Mrs. Reid broke the Czech girl’s service in the fifth game of the first set.

Umpire Phil Read, the patriach of Adelaide umpiring, warned,

“if there is any repetition of that booing the offenders will be removed”.

All that succeeded in doing was to incite the crowd more Kerry‘s husband Raz Reid, who was seated in a courtside box, rushed to the stands behind him and offered to take out-side one or all three of the youths who were at the heart of the booing.

Also, during the 10-minute break between the second and third -sets, Reid suggested to referee John Mehaffey that Mr. Read be quietly removed from the umpire’s chair. The referee declined to take action.

The excellence of the tennis, however, transcended any nastiness and it would not be going too far to suggest that if you never saw another women’s tennis match you could rest contented having seen this one.

As young Hana‘s coach Vera Sukova said:

“Once in your lifetime, if you are lucky, you see a truly gifted athlete. Hana is such.”

Hana Mandlikova, whose tennis vocabulary knows no fear, displayed all the skills and artistry of a great player in the first two sets and was beaten in the end only by the sheer professionalism and determined play of Kerry Reid.

What a shame the match was played so late at night (doubtless it thrilled many TV viewers) and that it was marred by poor line calls and crowd behavior.

“I didn’t like the crowd tonight because they did not act in a very sportsmanlike manner. I don’t mind if they support a player, but it is not right to clap other people’s mistakes.” said Mrs Reid

If Miss Mandlikova can find a plane out of the country, she is heading back to Prague where she plans to go skiing over Christmas.