Women’s Tennis Tournament at Indian Wells : Injury Doesn’t Stop Victorious Maleeva

No, said Manuela Maleeva, just because she won the Virginia Slims of Indian Wells after twisting her ankle, that’s not a good reason to try the same tactic again.

“I hope it’s not going to happen ever,” Maleeva said. “But since it did, maybe it helped me.”

Sunday’s final at Hyatt Grand Champions was one of those events that are decided by a foot. Actually, Maleeva won by an ankle, which she insisted was causing her pain throughout a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Jenny Byrne.

Many in the crowd of 3,681 sensed they had seen something like this before. The 69-minute match was eerily similar to Maleeva’s semifinal victory over Helena Sukova.

Once again Maleeva’s left ankle was taped tightly for her match. Once again she was supposed to be too hurt to get to shots. Once again she surprised everyone.

And also, once again, Maleeva’s opponent was slightly incredulous she could play so well being so hurt. Byrne, like Sukova, wondered if it was Maleeva’s ankle or the truth that was actually twisted.

“I knew she had a sore ankle--supposedly--but she was moving quite well, actually,” Byrne said.

Maleeva was prepared for such a line of questioning.

“I had the feeling that this was going to happen,” she said. “If you asked me, I would not have believed that I could play in this condition. And I am not surprised that they think this.

“But it just happens that I could forget about it on the court. I was just fighting more than ever.”

OK, fine.

So the finest women’s tennis player Sofia, Bulgaria, ever produced, the 22-year-old daughter of a national women’s tennis champion and an electronics engineer, added $50,000 to her career earnings of $1.4 million.

Ranked No. 9 in the world, Maleeva may be the least-known of the top players, but she survived and prospered where such players as Chris Evert, Sukova, Pam Shriver and Lori McNeil did not.

Maleeva’s victory was her 11th in an eight-year career in which her most noteworthy achievement so far is a victory in the 1984 Italian Open final against Evert.

Byrne, who earned $22,500 in defeat, was the first qualifier in four years to make it to a Virginia Slims final. Once she got there, though, Byrne played about the same as Sukova had against Maleeva.

The temperature on the court Sunday was 108 degrees, and Byrne’s game wilted in the hot sun. She committed 30 unforced errors and won only one game after taking a 4-1 lead in the first set.

“I was trying different things, but nothing seemed to work,” Byrne said. “I watched a bit of Helena playing yesterday and she made an incredible amount of unforced errors. Manuela must do that to people.”

Maleeva broke Byrne at 4-4 in the first set, which was made easier when Byrne double-faulted on break point. Given the chance, Maleeva served out the set, although Byrne made it difficult by holding two break points.

But the set went to Maleeva, 6-4, when Byrne sandwiched two forehand errors around a Maleeva service winner.

By then, Maleeva was relieved.

“I was glad she didn’t hit any more drop shots,” she said.

Byrne’s early tactic of using drop shots in order to make Maleeva run was only partially successful. Maleeva ran enough of them down to hit winners to make Byrne think twice, but even so, Byrne made too many other mistakes for the drop shots to be an effective threat.

In the second set, Maleeva broke Byrne in the third, fifth and seventh games. She finished with a flourish.

At deuce, Maleeva placed a forehand winner just inside the baseline and caught Byrne leaning the other way. At match point, Maleeva’s backhand passing shot was the last winner she needed.

Maleeva wore a huge ice pack on her injured ankle after the match. If there’s anything that makes her Bulgarian blood boil, it’s people saying she was overplaying her ankle injury.

She said she heard comments that she might default before playing Sukova and that she could hardly walk before the match. Maleeva was not happy about these comments.

“No, this made me very mad and I said, ‘OK, let’s show them who cannot walk.’ I was very motivated.”

Pam Shriver teamed with Hana Mandlikova to win the doubles championship Sunday with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory over Gretchen Magers and Ros Fairbank.

The victory continued an unusual streak for Shriver. She has had four different partners in her last four doubles tournaments and won them all.

Shriver teamed with Martina Navratilova to win the Australian Open, with Betsy Nagelsen to win at the Virginia Slims of Washington and with Katrina Adams to win the U.S. Hardcourts in San Antonio.

Shriver’s next partner? She said it will be Elise Burgin, if she wants to play in the Lipton International Championships at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Tennis Notes

There is no contract guaranteeing a second Virginia Slims of Indian Wells, which existed on a one-year contract between Hyatt Grand Champions and International Management Group (IMG), which owns the tournament. Total attendance for the seven days was 20,644. Both Barbara Perry of IMG and Charlie Pasarell of Grand Champions are optimistic a long-term agreement can be reached to continue the tournament. “Anytime I don’t fill up a stadium, it’s disappointing, but it takes time to build an event,” Pasarell said. Perry said IMG moved the tournament from New Orleans, where it was also a Virginia Slims event. “We’ve been encouraged by the attendance,” Perry said. “The first year of any event, it takes a while to build it up.”