AUSTRALIAN OPEN : Fernandez Wins With Her Inside Game

Scorching dry heat one day, chilly rain the next, the Australian Open ducked under the cover of its retractable roof today as two-time finalist Mary Joe Fernandez won the week’s first indoor match.

Fernandez outlasted a surprisingly tough baseliner, Shi-Ting Wang of Taiwan, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, attacking her at the net in the style taught by a coach who rarely played that way, Harold Solomon.

Runner-up to Monica Seles last year, to Steffi Graf in 1990 and a semifinalist in between, Fernandez’s improving volleys paid off against Wang’s strong ground strokes after trailing 4-2 in the first set and 4-1 in the second.

Fernandez won 16 of 25 approaches to the net, compared to two by Wang, a 19-year-old in her second year as a pro.

“I hung in there,” said Fernandez, a Floridian who is still getting over a virus, fever and throat infection that kept her out of a tuneup tournament in Sydney. “I started hitting the ball harder and more aggressively. “This is the first time I’ve played with the roof closed. It’s totally different. There’s no wind. It feels like it’s night time, and the ball sounds different.

“Conditions are much easier indoors, but I think it should either be one or the other. It can change matches around. For a serve-and-volleyer who is aggressive, they’d like to play inside. I think it should be the same for everyone. It definitely benefits some players more than others.”

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, seeded fourth, followed under the roof with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over mistake-prone Laura Gildemeister, who committed 43 errors and seven double-faults in 13 games.

No. 13 MaliVai Washington defeated David Vacek of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 7-5, 6-1.

Players scheduled on 14 outside courts had to linger in the locker rooms while the rain continued.