TENNIS / EVERT CUP : Obstacle Isn’t So Imposing for Fernandez

Mary Joe Fernandez had this recurring nightmare last year.

Every time she made a semifinal and looked across the net, there was the smiling, baby face of Monica Seles, her disposition like that of a cash register, her eyes lit up like a slot machine.

Well, maybe it wasn’t every time, but it sure seemed like it. In six of the 10 semifinals she reached last year, Fernandez collided with Seles. And it has already happened once this year, when Seles crushed Fernandez in straight sets in Chicago.

So here it is the Matrix Essentials/Evert Cup and another semifinal for Fernandez. But this time, she will be facing the serve-and-volley tactics of Helena Sukova, not the particular brand of misery Seles dispenses from the baseline.

And maybe this time it will be different for Fernandez, who has reached 22 semifinals since 1991, but hasn’t won a tournament since 1990.

Then again, maybe it won’t. After what she has been through, Fernandez is a little skittish when asked about when she thinks about winning a tournament.

“Not until you’re in the final and it’s match point . . . not even then, until it’s over,” said Fernandez, who defeated 16-year-old Lindsay Davenport here Friday, 7-5, 6-2.

Sukova’s 6-1, 7-5 quarterfinal victory wasn’t over until after a rain delay and a volley winner on match point that clipped the top of the net and hopped past Magdalena Maleeva.

Sukova assessed her play thus far: “Serving not so bad, returning pretty good.”

Although succinct, it was the winning recipe for others as well.

Amanda Coetzer delivered a 6-4, 6-0 knockout of Nicole Provis, who double-faulted and lost the first set, then never recovered. Coetzer will meet Stephanie Rottier in the other semifinal. Rottier, who defeated Tracy Austin in the third round, had little trouble with Miriam Oremans, 6-2, 6-3.

The Coetzer-Rottier semifinal will be a study in contrasts, not in style. Both are baseliners, but the similarity ends there. Coetzer is 5 feet 2 and Rottier is 5-11.

Davenport led Fernandez, 4-0, and was serving when she made a tactical error. She began to think too much.

“That’s when it started going bad, when I thought about how good I was doing,” Davenport said.

At least it wasn’t a total loss for the Murrieta teen, who turned pro last weekend. She earned her first paycheck, $7,888.

As for Fernandez, she has won more than $2.2 million in her career, but only two tournaments since turning pro at 14 in 1986.

“It’s just a matter of getting that break,” Fernandez said. “Once I win one or two, it’s going to be easier. It’s mental. It’s all in the head. I’ve got to think, ‘I’ve made it where I’m supposed to be. I’m here to win the tournament.’ Now it’s just two more matches.”

Tennis Notes

Robert Lansdorp, Tracy Austin’s coach, said he doesn’t actually have a contract to travel with her as coach. Said Lansdorp: “I have no arrangements with these women anymore, just with my wife.” . . . Pete Sampras, who is recovering from a foot injury, has asked for and will receive a Wednesday start in next week’s Newsweek Champions Cup, tournament director Charlie Pasarell said.