1st RD vs IVA BUDAROVA
Top seed Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia soundly trounced her countryman unseeded Iva Budarova 6-1 6-1 in the second round of the Avon women’s tennis tournament in Detroit
Budarova who managed to hold her own serve only twice was constantly frustrated by Mandlikova’s well-placed shots The match was over in less than 1 12 hours
2d RD vs LISA BONDER
Hana Mandlikova is accustomed to playing people named King, Turnbull, Navratilova and Austin. Thursday, she played Lisa Bonder for the first time, and though she later praised the Ann Arbor Huron sophomore Mandlikova wiped out the 15-year-old in just 43 minutes, 6-1, 6-1;
MANDLIKOVA simply had too much of everything for Bonder. She won the first three games before Bonder finally held her serve to make it 1-3. Then Mandlikova effortlessly reeled off three more wins to end the first set in just 20 minutes.
After Mandlikova easily took the first four games of the second set, the fifth game went to deuce and she netted a couple of halfhearted returns that gave Bonder her second game of the afternoon.
Mandlikova then shifted her game back into high gear and forged back-to-back wins to end the match.
“She killed me,” Bonder said afterward with a hint of a self-conscious smile. “She just overpowered me with her forehand.”
Though Bonder had never played world-class competition before this tournament (she defeated 65th-ranked Nina Bohm in straight sets Tuesday), Mandlikova said she did not regard her less-experienced opponent lightly. “I try to take every player the same. She can be a very good player, but she had no consistency.”
UNDER CONTINUED questioning, however, Mandlikova admitted, in broken English: “If I lose, I kill myself.”
QF vs CLAUDIA KOHDE
Mandlikova, the 18-year-old top seed in the tournament, had little trouble in her first two matches, disposing of Iva Budarova and Lisa Bonder by identical 6-1,6-1 scores. And Friday proved she could win the tough ones, too, struggling past Claudia Kohde, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
Mandlikova finished Friday’s match against Kohde with a numb middle finger on her right hand, an injury that occurred mid-Way through their first set.
“I was worried about it,” she admitted. “For a moment,” she said she even considered retiring from the match. ; Instead, she went on to win that game, and the next three, and take the first set.
Kohde broke Mandlikova’s serve in the second game of the second set and that was all she needed to take that set.
Mandlikova won four of the first five games in the final set and won going away.
The injury was diagnosed as a “spasm in a blood vessel in the middle finger, that effected the flow of blood,” according to Avon publicist Shep Goldberg.
“The doctor says it’s nothing serious,” Mandlikova said in response to questions about her ability to play Saturday. “I will be playing … I finished the match today.”
SF vs PAM SHRIVER
In a second match, Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia easily upset Pam Shriver, 6-0, 6-2 for their first meeting ever, in a match which lasted only a half-hour. Mandlikova defeated Shriver, who seemed distracted, with strong first service and passing shots. Shriver consistently double faulted and was not able to return several of Mandlikovas shots. Shriver jokingly told the press, I guess you want to know what the turning point was.
She said she was not mentally prepared and was “very tired”. Shriver said Mandlikova is : “the type of player that if you’re not all together out there you will be taken apart.”
In her 1 hour 59 minute SF, despite the closeness of the score, Allen said she never thought of losing against Barbara Potter
In the other semi, Mandlikova defeated Shriver in their first career meeting, in just 50 minutes, with the first set taking only 10.
Finals vs LESLIE ALLEN
World No. 45 Allen pulls off a big upset, becoming the first African American woman in 23 years, since Althea Gibson, to win a title of note. ”Now, I’m no longer just another name in the draw”, she said after winning.
Allen broke Mandlikova once in the first set (third game), and three times in the second set (in the first, fifth and seventh, after giving up her own at 1-2) during the 75 minute final.
Mandlikova led 40-15 in the fifth game on her own serve when the match turned against her, and despite breaking back from 2-5 down to hold a breakpoint for 5-all, the Czech was unable to prevent Allen from picking up the biggest win of her career when Hana’s backhand slice down the line drifted wide.
“I didn’t want to read about being up 5-2 and gagging, so I went out and got it,” was how Leslie explained she secured the last game.
Mandlikova said the key to the match was the fifth game of the second set, in which Allen broke her service after the Czech had broken Allen’s serve the game before. “She was serving very good and was coming quick to the net, so it was hard to pass her,” said Mandlikova.
The two players last faced each other in a tournament at Tokyo last year, and Allen upset Mandlikova before losing in the semifinals.
6,323 watched the final, 8,000 the semifinals, for a week- long total of 38,566
