Spirlea and Novotna Reach WTA Semifinals

A cool and calm Irina Spirlea of Romania survived an upset bid by Mary Joe Fernandez on Friday to join Jana Novotna in the semifinals of the WTA’s season-ending Chase Championships in New York.

Spirlea, seeded No. 8, fought off three match points in 10th game of the match before defeating Fernandez, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, at Madison Square Garden.

Earlier, second-seeded Novotna of the Czech Republic ousted Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Spirlea and Novotna play each other in one of today’s semifinals, while No. 7 Mary Pierce takes on her French Fed Cup teammate, Nathalie Tauziat, in the other.

Novotna and Sanchez Vicario are two veterans who know each other’s game well. They are old friends who once were doubles partners. And they are old foes, facing each other for the 18th time. Novotna, who has won the last four meetings, has beaten Sanchez Vicario 10 times overall.

There were no surprises when they took to the bright blue carpet, no new strokes they could unveil. As always when these two face each other across the net, it was whose game was on, who was moving better, who could dig deeper.

“You always try to come up with something new, and that’s sometimes not good,” Novotna said. “The most important thing is just to know and remember how you beat the player and just stick to your game.”

Novotna did just that. After breaking Sanchez Vicario twice to win the opening set, she saw the Spaniard fight back to tie the score by chasing every ball in the second set.

Novotna then raised her game another notch and charged into the semifinals, losing only one game in the decisive third set.