Tennis at Manhattan Beach : Sabatini Finds Mental Control to Defeat Byrne

Here is what has happened to Gabriela Sabatini since Wimbledon:

First she went to Tokyo to play an exhibition. Then she went to Argentina to meet her country’s new president, Carlos Saul Menem, and promised to play tennis with him.

After that, she joined family and friends at a motivation seminar. There, she made a discovery.

“We have too many things on the mind,” Sabatini said.

Yeah, well, that’s always trouble. Things such as winning a Grand Slam maybe?

Many people expect such results from the No. 3 player in the world. And although Sabatini has made only one Grand Slam final--last year’s U.S. Open--that same event is coming up again.

“I am looking forward to it,” Sabatini said. “We’ll see. If not this year, next year.”

Because she is only 19, time is on Sabatini’s side even though Grand Slam victories are not. But first things first.

Sabatini played her first match since Wimbledon at Manhattan Country Club, where beneath a half moon Tuesday night, she totally eclipsed Jenny Byrne, 6-0, 6-2, in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles.

Byrne grew up in Perth, one of the hottest spots in Australia, which may have prepared her for the roasting she received.

The hard surface was particularly friendly to Sabatini’s looping topspin and she sent waves of the high-bouncing shots at Byrne, who was forced to hit balls at the level of her eyes.

“It was really biting off the court,” Byrne said. “I was on my back foot all the time.”

Sabatini recognizes the feeling. She has won three tournaments this year--Lipton, Amelia Island and the Italian Open--but no majors.

And this was supposed to be the year where she put her best foot forward to break through in a Grand Slam or two. Even she thought so.

Because it hasn’t happened, Sabatini decided she was putting too much pressure on herself, so that’s when she decided to work on “mental control,” as she called it, at the motivation clinic.

“I think it helped me very much,” she said. “Not to put too much pressure on me. This year, I expect to win a Grand Slam. But they are the only tournaments I didn’t do very well in.”

Zina Garrison, who led No. 1-ranked Steffi Graf in both sets before losing in the final of a tournament in San Diego last week, won her first match, 6-3, 6-2, over Amanda Coetzer of South Africa.

Garrison said she was more confident about her game since playing Graf.

“I knew this before, but it let me know again that I could play with her,” Garrison said. “I did what a lot of people can’t really do . . . I have a chance to beat her.”

Tennis Notes

After struggling with her singles all year, fourth-seeded Pam Shriver of Baltimore has decided to get involved again and she anticipates that this week’s tournament and next week’s event at Mahwah, N.J., will help her at the U.S. Open. “I hope I can go to the Open as some kind of factor,” she said after winning a second-round match, 6-2, 6-4, over Stacey Martin, 19, of Largo, Md. Shriver, who was ranked No. 3 only 13 months ago, is No. 9. “I’ve been seeing my ranking slip and I just wasn’t doing anything about it,” she said. “I hope I’ve started to catch it.”