For many different reasons, the Steffi-Jana match ups, always produced great tennis between the two, that was a pleasure to watch. Both were superb athletes.
While Graf's tennis improved a ton in 1994 due to her new racket, she also made some key changes to her game that made quite a bit of difference. She seemed to be more willing to go for aces, she was hitting more topspin on her second serve, and she seemed to be taking her forehand a bit earlier than usual. But the most important difference is that she finally fixed the extension issue on her slice backhand that had plagued her since 1990. A lot of people noticed that in 1990, she was hitting her backhand much closer to her body than before. And her down the line slice backhand kind of disappeared at around that time as well. Mixing it up with crosscourt and down the line slice backhands made a big difference in her game IMO. Because in the early 90s, her backhand was way too predictable.
Graf is the GOAT, obviously.
Both are great to watch. Thank you both, ladies!
And RIP Jana Novotna. 😢
I miss Graf. Wonderful to watch her style of play.
Loved the aesthetics of the rallies in this one. Thanks jtc
For many different reasons, the Steffi-Jana match ups, always produced great tennis between the two, that was a pleasure to watch.
Both were superb athletes.
Steffi was on fire... That last serve was a rocket... Love her and miss her so much.
Jana with her superb unconventional groundstrokes dominated Monica seles
Jana didn’t played bad in the match, but Steffi was at her personal best level since 1990s.
While Graf's tennis improved a ton in 1994 due to her new racket, she also made some key changes to her game that made quite a bit of difference. She seemed to be more willing to go for aces, she was hitting more topspin on her second serve, and she seemed to be taking her forehand a bit earlier than usual. But the most important difference is that she finally fixed the extension issue on her slice backhand that had plagued her since 1990. A lot of people noticed that in 1990, she was hitting her backhand much closer to her body than before. And her down the line slice backhand kind of disappeared at around that time as well. Mixing it up with crosscourt and down the line slice backhands made a big difference in her game IMO. Because in the early 90s, her backhand was way too predictable.
Steffi's game was so tidy in 1995....she seemed to take some pace of the ball and really cut down on the errors.
Who was the #1 seed? Arantxa?
Steffi. Arantxa didn't play in this tournament