QF vs GABRIELLA SABATINI
Unexpected easy win for Hana Mandlikova in 45 mn against young Argentinian teenstar, Gabriella Sabatini. Hana was impressive, at her more consistent game we’ve seen her for a while. She seems to want the victory here so badly!
SF vs CHRIS EVERT-LLOYD
Defending champion Chris Evert Lloyd battled from a one set deficit Saturday to defeat Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 and advance to the final of the $280,000 Canadian Open Tennis Championship. Evert Lloyd, the No. 1 seed, will meet fifth-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany in Sunday’s final.
Evert Lloyd, 30, squandered a 3-0 edge in her final set against the third-seeded Mandlikova. The 23-year-old Mandlikova held serve in the fourth game, broke Evert Lloyd in the fifth and won the sixth game Without surrendering a point to battle back to 3-3. At 4-4, and with Evert Lloyd up 30-15, Mandlikova returned a forehand volley cross-court that was called long, and Evert Lloyd went on to go up 5-4 in the set.
Mandlikova said she thought the call was questionable. “It was bad luck. I think if I had made the shot, I could have had a chance,” said Mandlikova, who won the U.S. Indoors and the Virginia Slims of California this year. It was Evert Lloyd’s and Mandli-kova’s third encounter this year, with Evert Lloyd now enjoying a 2-1 advantage.
Mandlikova broke Evert Lloyd three times in the first set. The final game of the set went to deuce six times, with Mandlikova unable to put the game away until her fourth set point opportunity. “She knows how to play me,” Evert Lloyd said. “I felt she couldn’t get much better after the first set, and I felt I could raise the level of my game. “
At 3 0 in the third set, I thought I had the match, but she dug herself out. At 3-3 in the third, it was anybody’s match. If Hana could keep up two sets like the way she played that first set, she’d deserve to be No. 1.”
Mandlikova, who is 3-18 against Evert-Lloyd, said she was bothered by the 102-degree temperature. “The heat had an effect on me,” she said. “I was tired in the second set, but I think I played a good tactical match against her. My coach (Betty Stove) told me not to come to the net all the time because Chris . would pass me. She has one of the best passing shots in the game.”