To Garrison, Losing Is a Pain in the Ankle

Zina Garrison’s sore ankle didn’t bother her as much as just thinking about it, but thinking about it hurt a lot.

Garrison choked back tears Wednesday after losing her U.S. Open quarterfinal match to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-2, 6-2.

“I really wasn’t here,” Garrison said. “My movement was OK, I think (but) maybe I just could not forget about it. It kept creeping in my head.”

Garrison, who reached the final at Wimbledon in July, twisted her right ankle while practicing last week and, after taping it, irritated the Achilles’ tendon.

Against the advice of tournament physician Dr. Irving Glick, Garrison took on Sanchez Vicario. Early in the first set, Garrison began to think that she might be making a mistake. She considered defaulting but decided against it.

“I have a very high tolerance for pain,” Garrison said. “I just wanted to stay out there and finish. I wanted to at least make her work for the money she is getting in the next round.”

The next round for Sanchez Vicario is the semifinals, where she will meet a familiar opponent, top-seeded Steffi Graf.

Graf, whose 6-3, 6-1 quarterfinal victory over Jana Novotna required only 53 minutes, was upset by Sanchez Vicario in last year’s French Open final.

Against Novotna, Graf was one point away from 0-3 in the first set but saved a break point with a second-serve winner.

“I didn’t have the best start, that’s for sure,” she said.

Graf won that game, won the next two at love, then broke Novotna again for 4-2.

Graf rolled swiftly on. She made only one unforced error in the second set and wilted Novotna’s serve with pressure. Novotna won 42% of her first serves and 30% of her second serves.

Graf’s victory assured her a 16th consecutive appearance in a Grand Slam semifinal. The 21-year-old West German has won nine of the 14 Grand Slam events since her first major title, the 1987 French Open.

To reach her second Grand Slam semifinal, Sanchez Vicario blocked out any impressions of how Garrison was playing. In fact, she claimed to be unaware of Garrison’s injury.

“I only thinking to win the match,” Sanchez Vicario said. “I am concentrated. I didn’t know that she was hurt.”

For Garrison, ice massage, electric stimulation, anti-inflammatory pills and tape may have helped her ankle, but nothing seemed to ease the hurt of losing.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” said Garrison, who had to withdraw from the doubles with Patty Fendick. “I had an opportunity, (but) that’s the way things fall sometimes. I just have to forget about it now.”