Graf Makes It Four in a Row With Australian Open Win

Steffi Graf, back to her dominance of yore, blasted forehand winners at will to defeat Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-0, 6-2, Saturday to win her fourth Australian Open title.

Graf, who won her fourth consecutive Grand Slam title, finished the match in 57 minutes. She lost only 12 points in the first set as she overwhelmed Sanchez Vicario, much to the delight of Graf’s kazoo-tooting fans.

“If this is the way that I’m playing, I don’t care about the score or the length or whether it’s a final or the first round,” Graf said. “It’s such a great feeling to be able to play that way.”

It was her 15th Grand Slam title and her most overpowering performance in a Grand Slam final since defeating Natalia Zvereva, 6-0, 6-0, in 32 minutes at the 1988 French Open. She earned $322,000 with Saturday’s victory; Sanchez Vicario got $161,000.

“It’s my fourth Grand Slam in a row and I’m pretty proud of it,” Graf said.

The victory made it 13 straight Grand Slam titles that have been won by Graf or Monica Seles, a streak stretching back to the 1990 U.S. Open. Seles, who had won the previous three Australian Open titles, is recovering from being stabbed in the back by a spectator last April in Germany.

Since Seles was injured, Graf has won all four of the Grand Slam tournaments that have been contested. She needed three sets to win the French Open and Wimbledon last year, and dropped six games to Helena Sukova while winning last year’s U.S. Open.

On Saturday, Graf was on the attack from the start. The 24-year-old German breezed through the first set in 24 minutes, finishing it with a powerful cross-court winner on a service return.

When Sanchez Vicario finally won a game early in the second set, she slammed a ball high in the air in celebration. But Graf soon finished out the match, pumping her left fist in the air after completing the match with a backhand passing shot.

“I’m very proud to finally make it into the final here, but it was not my day,” said Sanchez Vicario, a 23-year-old Spaniard who had lost in the semifinals the previous three years. “I made a lot of errors and I didn’t play well. My legs were not working today. I was late every time to the ball.”

Pete Sampras--trying to become the third man to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open consecutively--plays Todd Martin Sunday for the men’s title in an all-American final. The last triple was accomplished by Roy Emerson in 1964-65. Before that, Don Budge did it in 1937-38.

Sampras has won both of his previous meetings with Martin, including a five-set victory at the 1992 U.S. Open. Sunday’s match will be the first all-American final at the Australian Open since 1982, when Johan Kriek defeated Steve Denton.

Jim Courier, seeded third and ousted by Sampras in the semifinals, failed to become the first man to win three straight Australian Open titles since Emerson won five straight from 1963-67. But he now has a 2-9 career record against Sampras.

“He was tough,” Courier said. “He didn’t make any mistakes.”