Sabatini’s Victory Over Meskhi Provides Quantity, Not Quality

In one of the most tedious two-set U.S. Open women’s quarterfinal matches, Gabriela Sabatini defeated Leili Meskhi, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 in 2 hours 29 minutes Tuesday night.

There were six service breaks in the first set, which Meskhi lost after leading the tiebreaker, 5-2. There were seven more breaks in the second set and a total of 73 unforced errors, 42 by Meskhi.

Sabatini will play Mary Joe Fernandez in the semifinals. Fernandez defeated Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, in an unevenly played match. Fernandez had 36 unforced errors and Maleeva-Fragniere had 34.

Maleeva-Fragniere, who upset second-seeded Martina Navratilova in the fourth round, said she wasn’t sure what went wrong.

“I’m not sure if it’s the win against Martina that was a problem, but I was a little bit nervous,” Maleeva-Fragniere said. “It seemed I couldn’t win.”

Zina Garrison, who will play Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the quarterfinals today, received treatment Tuesday after her right Achilles’ tendon became inflamed during Monday night’s mixed doubles match.

Garrison and partner Rick Leach, the Wimbledon mixed doubles champions, lost to Liz Smylie and Todd Woodbridge.

There is a chance that John McEnroe will play singles if the United States reaches the Davis Cup final.

“You want the party line?” U.S. Capt. Tom Gorman asked. “OK, we have a very difficult match with Austria coming up. We have to get by them first.”

The U.S. Davis Cup squad of Andre Agassi and Michael Chang and doubles team of Rick Leach and Jim Pugh will play Austria in the semifinals later this month in Vienna.