Youth Is Served as Gavaldon Upsets Fairbank in 3 Sets

Angelica Gavaldon was all giggles. What else to expect from a 15-year-old high school junior-to-be from Coronado who had just upset a Wimbledon quarterfinalist?

So there Gavaldon comfortably sat Monday night after her 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over eighth-seeded Ros Fairbank in the first round of the Great American Bank Tennis tournament in front of 3,452 at the La Jolla Tennis and Racquet Club.

“I was a little shaky at the beginning,” said Gavaldon, a student at Our Lady of Peace. “But I just concentrated really hard and I started to get more balls in.”

Gavaldon’s victory supplied all the suspense that had been lacking from an evening session that began with No. 1 Steffi Graf’s 6-0, 6-0 victory over Rene Simpson.

It was the second year that Gavaldon, an amateur who was allowed into the 32-player field as a wild-card player, had won her first-round match. Last year she defeated Masako Yanagi of Japan, now ranked 190th.

But this victory was more shocking. It was just a month ago that Fairbank of Rancho Bernardo was in the Wimbledon quarterfinal against eventual finalist Martina Navratilova. Minutes after the victory, the achievement was just sinking in with Gavaldon.

“I was concentrating on the court,” Gavaldon said. “I didn’t think about it. But now I’m really happy. I realize this is great.”

Fairbank, 28, said her biggest problems against Gavaldon were own making.

“I was just tired,” Fairbank said. “I have been working on transferring my grass-court game onto hard courts and I haven’t been able to do that.”

Fairbank, ranked 29th in the world, was the second seeded player to lose in the first round. No. 3 Susan Sloane lost to Del Mar’s Robin White, 7-5, 6-3, in an afternoon match.

As for Simpson, it was a short end to a long day.

Simpson was in the Pittsburgh airport on her way from her Toronto home Monday afternoon when she heard the worst news. The bad news she already knew: Her first-round match was against Graf.

Then came the kicker. The match was Monday night, not tonight as she said she had been told originally.

It might have been understandable if Simpson turned around right there. But Simpson, the 80th ranked women’s player in the world, is not one to run away from Graf.

The last time they played, Simpson ventured halfway around the world to meet her in the first round of the Australian Open. This time, all it took was a seven-hour, 3,000-mile trip.

But, as even Simpson herself admitted, the results were predictably the same, a whitewash in a match that took 41 minutes.

“It is hard when you play Steffi to realistically believe you can win,” Simpson said. “When players hear you are going to play her, it’s, ‘Oh, too bad.’ And you haven’t even played your match.

“I have played other top players like Chris Evert. When I played her, I felt like I was in the match. I had some long rallies with her. I won a couple of games.”

But, Simpson said, Graf is different.

“She just abuses me,” Simpson said.

Graf used her powerful forehand to hurtle baseline winner after winner past Simpson. The shots were so strong and so accurate that many times Simpson could not even get herself in position to make the next shot before Graf sent a return whistling past.

“The way she hits the ball makes it easier for me,” Graf said. “She doesn’t try to slow it down. I can use my power more.”

And it wasn’t as if Simpson did not know she was playing to Graf’s strength. When Graf opened the fourth game of the second set by returning Simpson’s serve for a winner, Simpson shouted to no one and everyone: “I wonder if I can serve it any more perfect for her?”

Probably not on this night. Graf, playing for the first time since her Wimbledon victory July 9, was no worse for the layoff.

“It didn’t seem like it,” Graf said. “There wasn’t much I could do wrong.”

Graf allowed Simpson only seven points off her serve and only once was in danger of losing a game. That came with Simpson serving for the fourth game, but Graf ran off the next three points to take the game.

The match ended when Simpson double-faulted for the only time.

The tournament is the first of two on hard courts that Graf will play in preparation for the U.S. Open. Graf is hoping to use the tournament as an opportunity to work on her volley game. But she did not have much of a chance for that against Simpson.

“It was difficult to get to the net because the points were over so quickly,” Graf said.

Maybe she will have better opportunity in her second-round match tonight at 6:30. The opponent will be Betsy Nagelsen of Kapalua Bay, Hawaii. Nagelsen, the 55th-ranked player, advanced with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Liz Smylie of Australia.

Sloane was the first seeded player to lose one of the seven first-round matches played Monday.