Manhattan Beach Tennis Tournament : Sabatini Struggles Past Garrison, Faces Evert

Six times, Gabriela Sabatini had the match right on her racket. But six times, Zina Garrison managed to prolong this already wacky contest of nerves.

Finally, 2 hours 40 minutes into their semifinal, the match slipped into Sabatini’s hands. She certainly didn’t seize it. On the seventh match point against her, Garrison punched a low forehand volley long to give Sabatini a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 victory in the $300,000 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles tournament at Manhattan Beach Saturday night.

“When you play a top-five player, you go for it,” said Garrison, who is ranked No. 12 to Sabatini’s No. 5. “They’re not going to give it to you. We both went at each other in a good match.”

Garrison was correct in calling it a good match, especially if you like things like extra innings and overtimes. Or a game decided on a wild pitch. If the Sabatini-Garrison match can be compared to a baseball game, that’s how it would have ended.

Sabatini, the third-seeded player, will meet top-seeded Chris Evert in today’s final at 2 p.m. at the Manhattan Country Club. Evert defeated No. 8 Stephanie Rehe, 6-3, 6-3, in the first semifinal. That match really wasn’t as close as the score might indicate. Evert, playing her first tournament since her marriage last month to Andy Mill, hasn’t lost any more than four games in one set this week.

Now, Evert is in the same situation Martina Navratilova found herself in last April. At a tournament in Amelia Island, Sabatini defeated top-ranked Steffi Graf in a long and difficult match and had little left against Navratilova the next day.

That time, though, Sabatini didn’t squander a handful, no, make that two handfuls, of match points. She could have put Garrison away much earlier, way back in the second set.

Sabatini’s first match point came at 5-4 in the second set with Garrison serving. On the first one, at love-40, Garrison finessed a forehand half volley. At 15-40, Sabatini hit a lob out. On match point No. 3, Garrison hit an excellent second serve and completed the point with an overhead.

Particularly daunting for Sabatini was the fact that Garrison had double-faulted twice in that 10th game to fall behind, 0-40. Yet, she still climbed out and took the second set.

“I don’t know what more Sabatini needed,” said tour liaison Ted Tinling. “Santa Claus wasn’t just climbing down the chimney. He was walking in the door.”

Afterward, Sabatini was asked about her inability to finish it off until the 12th game of the third set. She started laughing.

“I just couldn’t win it,” she said. “She was serving well and I just tried to return the ball and see what would happen.”

With these two, anything is possible. They played a three-set match at Wimbledon, which Garrison won as Sabatini looked painfully uncomfortable on the grass. Although Garrison won, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, she also had a struggle with converting match points as she squandered her share there, too.

Saturday’s match, however, was in another category of strangeness. Garrison hadn’t played a night match this week and said that it took some time to get adjusted, which led to her dropping the first set.

It wasn’t until Garrison really found herself in trouble--an understatement in this match--that she found her range and started getting aggressive.

“When you play Gabriela, you have to go for everything,” said Garrison, who was seeded fifth. “A lot of the time my speed can make up for something other players don’t have.”

A lot, too, don’t have Garrison’s flair for the dramatic. If fighting off three match points in the second set wasn’t enough, Garrison pulled out three more for some extra emphasis, if that was even needed.

Down, 6-5, with Sabatini serving this time, Garrison saved her fourth match point--behind, 30-40, with a smash. Two points later, came a winning forehand volley. On the sixth match point, Garrison hit a forehand cross-court winner in the corner.

But it was not to be on match point No. 7, as the semifinal finally slipped away to the grateful Sabatini.