Manhattan Beach Tennis Tournament : Rehe Gets Win, Will Face Evert

There were two ways to look at Lori McNeil’s typically sporadic progression through the draw this week in the $300,000 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles tennis tournament at Manhattan Beach.

Her first two matches at the Manhattan Country Club went the three-set limit. No surprise there. She once won consecutive matches in the 1987 U.S. Open, 7-6 in the third set. Saving match points? McNeil seems to do it with ease.

So, on the one hand, in the later rounds with higher stakes, it might seem as though McNeil would be steeled from the previous tests of nerve. Or, conversely, would the law of averages finally catch up and halt this unusual run of luck?

The No. 4-seeded McNeil met No. 8 Stephanie Rehe and, you guessed it, played a three-set match in Friday’s quarterfinals. Only this time, McNeil’s shots floated long--and into the net--on the critical points as Rehe defeated McNeil, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

For Rehe, the victory merely continued her own winning streak. She took the Slims of San Diego championship over a weaker field, beating amateur Ann Grossman in the final Sunday. Now, she’ll meet Chris Evert in today’s semifinals.

As for McNeil, true to form, she didn’t go down easily as Rehe was forced to chase a lob back to the baseline and then hit a desperation lob on match point, which caught the wind and fell just inside the corner.

McNeil looked stunned. So did Rehe.

“I thought it was going out,” McNeil said. “There was nothing I could do.”

Said Rehe, giggling: “I don’t know what to say about match point. I ran so hard. I just thought I was going to hit that shot, do or die. I think the wind helped, and it caught right in the corner.

“I’m just really excited about (winning) it. I think I’m going to enjoy it today, but I still have to concentrate on my match. It’s not over for me.”

Evert didn’t count on playing Rehe instead of McNeil in the semifinals. The top-seeded player struggled some with No. 6 Patty Fendick as she squandered a 4-1 lead before winning, 6-4, 6-0, in another quarterfinal match.

“I guess I was looking ahead to playing Lori because on a good day I think she’s still a better player,” Evert said. “I think Stephanie has great groundstrokes. She’s young and there’s no pressure on her. I’m going to have to work hard against her. I think she’s going to keep me out there for a long time.”

The other semifinal will pit No. 3 Gabriela Sabatini against No. 5 Zina Garrison. Sabatini, despite looking shaky in spots, defeated No. 7 Anne Minter, 6-2, 6-4, and Garrison played a smart, tactical match as she stopped the run of 15-year-old amateur Amy Frazier, 6-1, 6-2. Garrison trailed, 2-0, in the second set before taking six straight games.

Earlier in the tournament, Frazier beat Susan Mascarin, No. 4-ranked Pam Shriver and 12th-seeded Gretchen Magers. And several people were making comparisons between Frazier and the 18-year-old Rehe. At 15, Rehe had already made herself a player to watch, just as Frazier did at Manhattan Beach this week.

“There isn’t anybody else in this country,” tour liaison Ted Tinling said of Rehe. “Tell me who else to look for? Frazier is down the line. I think she (Rehe) is much more intelligent than most people her age.”

In her relatively short pro career, Rehe has suffered a variety of injuries and has already made a coaching change.

“She got a lot of those problems behind her already and she came through them,” Tinling said. “It’s better to have been through that now than at 22.”

Tennis Notes

So far, Gabriela Sabatini has had more trouble in the workout room than on the tennis court here. Earlier in the week, she stepped on the treadmill machine, turned it on and promptly fell off, backwards. What came out of the encounter was one scraped leg and one embarrassed 18-year-old. “I think you’re supposed to push another button,” Sabatini said, laughing. . . . Today’s semifinal schedule: Chris Evert vs. Stephanie Rehe at 1 p.m. and Zina Garrison vs. Sabatini at 7 p.m.