Helgeson Follows Right Idea

In her mind, Ginger Helgeson started winning her match against Conchita Martinez way back on Thursday, Aug. 4, during the women’s tour event in San Diego.

Helgeson’s chance, 29 days in the thinking, took 2 hours 7 minutes in the doing here Friday in the third round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

The Californian, ranked 40th, shocked this year’s Wimbledon champion and third-seeded player here, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, a major breakthrough for the 25-year-old former Pepperdine star, who joked afterward that, among her other big moments was “a set over Martina (Navratilova) in TeamTennis.”

The mental seed of victory was planted for Helgeson that Thursday last month in a 6-4, 6-3 defeat by Martinez in the round of 16 at the Toshiba Classic at La Costa, Helgeson’s sixth consecutive defeat without a victory against the Spanish star.

“I played her really well in San Diego . . . and I felt that if her passing shots at that point were just a percentage off, I would have won that match,” Helgeson said. “So I knew, going into this match, that I was going to play the same way.”

She played the same, with slight modifications.

“The thing that was happening in the San Diego match was that I was making the first volley, but it was sitting up,” she said. “You either have to drop-volley it against her, or really get your feet in position and volley it deep.”

Friday, Helgeson avoided the mid-depth volleys that create easy passing shots for a player of Martinez’s caliber. And after a crucial moment in the second set, Helgeson was in such complete control that Martinez appeared to drift aimlessly, from point to point, talking to herself or her courtside friend and rooter, Gigi Fernandez.

Martinez was rolling along at 6-3, 3-3, and had a break point against Helgeson. She ran Helgeson wide, then set up to hit an overhead for 4-3 and a crucial service break up.

And she missed.

“It was a really important point,” Martinez said. “It would have been 4-3 for me, and my serve, which I wanted, so it would be 5-3 for me and the match is nearly over. But then you miss that shot, and you think the match, maybe. . . . “

Helgeson was asked what she had thought at that moment.

“I thought it was deuce,” she deadpanned.

Although Helgeson will turn 26 on Sept. 14, she appears to have a chance for considerable success on the women’s tour, with serve-and-volley skills that might carry her far against opponents who, for the most part, seem to stick to the baseline game and frequently come apart when confronted with something other than that. She approached the net 79 times against Martinez, a statistic seldom seen in matches not involving Navratilova on the women’s tour.

Helgeson, the first three-time Minnesota state high school champion, still is eight classes short of a degree at Pepperdine, but she spent four years there and was an All-American from 1988-90.

She lives in Alpine, a community of about 11,000 in the mountains about 25 miles east of San Diego.

“It’s up, about 2,000 feet, and there’s lots of land out there and the houses aren’t on top of each other and you wake up to the birds,” said Helgeson, who will be married in 23 days to Todd Neilsen.

Helgeson’s quick feet and volleys are nicely complemented by a quick sense of humor. A tour press handout listed her answers to the following questions:

Question: What kinds of things annoy you?

Answer: Lufthansa airport personnel.

Q. What phrase do you say most often?

A. Another round, please.

She was asked about a line in the media guide that said she enjoys working with pottery.

“Pottery?” she said. “I’m not that earthy.”

And she was asked if Alpine was where they had the famous bakery.

“Yes,” she replied. “And I try to stay away from it.”

Helgeson’s next match will be against Fernandez, who pulled hard for Martinez at courtside on Friday. Martinez, a few hours after she had lost the chance to play her friend, sat in the photographer’s box courtside, rooting Fernandez on to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Shi-Ting Wang of Taipei.