Graf Wins but It’s Not Easy : Top-Ranked Player Comes Back to Beat Garrison in Final

Top-ranked Steffi Graf knew she was in a match Sunday against Zina Garrison.

She argued line calls. She shouted to the heavens in anger. She mumbled to herself between points. Twice she trailed by two games or more in a set.

Of course, she came back to win. Anything else would have been unthinkable after the way she swept through the rest of the tournament. But at least she had to work for her 6-4, 7-5 victory in the championship of the $200,000 Great American Bank tennis tournament at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club.

The sixth-ranked Garrison made sure of that. The first three times Graf served, she lost--the first time the West German’s serve had been broken in the tournament.

“When you win the first game off of Steffi,” Garrison said, “you have a chance because when she is in tune in her game, you know you won’t get a chance to touch her serve, or a lot of the balls she hits.

“The main thing about me is, I am not afraid of her. A lot of people fear her, fear the shots she hits. She is a great player, but it is a game, and you have to challenge.”

Garrison’s challenge was a calculated risk, booming her first serve and coming to the net after Graf’s second serve. The frequent charges unsettled Graf.

“She kept coming to the net and didn’t let me get into rhythm,” Graf said. “When somebody comes in, it is hard to make the point.”

After losing only five games in four matches to advance to the final, Graf lost almost twice that many in the 1-hour 36-minute match.

Garrison had her down, 4-2, in the first set, but Graf won the last four games to take the set, twice fighting off a series of break points. She held after a double break point in the eighth game and a triple break point in the deciding 10th game.

“That was horrible,” said Garrison, who had an even better opportunity in the second set. She led, 4-1, but Graf won six of the last seven games to take the match. Graf said the key was breaking Garrison after Garrison led, 5-3, 30-0, in the second set.

“(At that point) you do not think about losing, but usually the set is over,” Graf said. “Then, some great passing backhand shots came out of me. That is the best point about my game, when I am down I am not afraid to hit them. I went for the shots; I am not afraid of losing.”

That is something she has done only twice in 59 matches this year and only once in six career matches against Garrison. The title, for which she earned $40,000, was her ninth of the year.

Graf will take a week off before entering a $200,000 tournament in Mahwah, N.J., her last tuneup before the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 28. But while she left San Diego with her 38th career singles title, she was not entirely pleased.

“It is OK if you win, still you want to always do well,” she said. “I didn’t play bad, but not (as well as) I wanted to play.”

Her perfectionist nature aside, the only real downside for Graf might have been the crowd. They were sellouts of 4,400 for her semifinal and final matches, but most of the encouragement was for her opponents.

“Everyone was saying afterward, ‘We like you that much; that is why we want to see you (play) longer; that is why we cheer for the other one,’ ” Graf said.

Just another part of being No. 1.

Tournament Notes

Ros Fairbank of Rancho Bernardo and Elise Burgin of Baltimore won the doubles championship over Gretchen Magers of San Diego and Robin White of Del Mar, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. It was the first victory in three finals this year for Fairbank and Burgin, who have been regular partners since 1986. It was the first tournament for Magers and White as a team in several years. “Elise made some great shots on some key points, and that was the difference,” Magers said.. . . The presence of top-ranked Steffi Graf helped push attendance to a record 37,269 for 13 sessions, more than three times last year’s total of 12,000. Graf said she planned to return next year.