Game not over for Sanchez-Vicario at 30

By I Wayan Juniartha and Bruce Emond

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): With her hair braided and decorated with small colorful plastic beads, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario entered the media room after a routine drubbing of Taiwan's Janet Lee at the Wismilak International tennis tournament here on Thursday.

"I had it done on the beach near here," Sanchez-Vicario explained of her new hairstyle. "I thought it would take a long time for them to finish it, but -- boom! boom! -- they finished it quickly. It makes my head lighter."

She was definitely in a light mood as she answered questions from local journalists. She grinned broadly as she talked about her easy win ("first of all you have to play very well to do that") and showed the personality that has made her a crowd favorite around the world since she burst onto the scene by winning the French Open at the age of 17 in 1989.

Wily and determined are the words that people use to describe Sanchez-Vicario on court. Smaller and more compact in stature than her great rival Steffi Graf, she makes up for her lack of a killer shot by being able to mix up her game, driving her opponents to distraction with her perplexing combination of topspin and slice.

She lacked a memorable stroke like the forehand of Graf, that strange inside-out hop which could easily pummel the ball down the line or crosscourt, but she compensated with her ability to run down almost everything. She has always made the best of what she has -- speed, consistency, mental toughness -- to become perhaps the ultimate overachiever in the game. In fact, her greatest achievement was the title she did not win, Wimbledon. On grass, a surface unfamiliar to her, she made it to the final in 1995 and 1996, coming close to beating Graf.

She would also fight to the bitter end, never giving up even when facing almost certain defeat and often, somehow, clawing out a victory. Just ask Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki, her doubles partner in Bali, who held almost a dozen match points against Sanchez- Vicario in Tokyo a couple of years ago, only to lose as the Spanish player got everything back.

Sanchez-Vicario came of age in the era of Graf, the stylish Gabriela Sabatini, an aging Martina Navratilova and the pre- stabbing Monica Seles, who before 1993 looked like she would be the greatest woman ever to play the game. Now, Sanchez-Vicario is 30 and there is only her and Seles left in a game populated by power hitters like the Williams sisters.

She has three French Opens (she also won in 1994 and beat sentimental favorite Seles in 1998), the 1994 US Open, several Olympic medals and millions of dollars from prize money and endorsements to her name. Sanchez-Vicario's playing days are not over yet but, after her marriage in 2000, they are inevitably nearing the end. The following is an excerpt from the press conference:

Question: Tennis has changed so much recently and the power game has really taken over. Do you think that the days of scramblers and finesse players like yourself and Yayuk are over?

Answer: I think the game has changed, it is more powerful right now, but, I mean, power is not everything in tennis. If you move them, and push them out of position, that's when they have trouble. If you do that you can have many chances to beat them, well, they are human beings, not machines, obviously you have to play well, take good chances. There is more power today, but you still can beat them. Obviously, you still have to be in physically good shape to do this.

Q: Do you think the power game has been good for the game?

A: Well, now it is, because we have a lot of different players with different personalities. And they are doing very well, a lot of power, but I think, maybe, the game before, you can see better, you know the quality of the game, because they can turn in different shots. Now it's all only hit, hit and hit, and obviously that's the way it is, they are big and strong. But I think it is a completely different game right now than it was before and you can't compare it. Well, I think the game as it is now is nice, but before you could see it more as a game of the players.

Q: There don't seem to be any Spanish women players coming up to replace you. What went wrong?

A: Oh, that's a good question, but actually we have better players now, five players are in the top 50. It is still better than it was before. Before it was me alone, and then came Conchita (Martinez). Now there are several more players ... but we don't have as many female players as male ones. I look forward to having more gals, I'd like to see more follow my steps. But we put the expectations for them too high, so it's very hard for them to do what I have done.

Q: You are coming to the end of your career -- what is next?

A: It's not finished yet. I can say that it's more fun for me to play tennis now, I can really enjoy it more. I don't have any pressure, pressure is for the younger players. I have the experience, I am still at the top, mentally and physically, to keep playing. As long as I still feel that way I will keep playing, when I don't feel that way I will stop playing. So it is hard to say when (I am going to retire).

Obviously, you know that I am 30, but that doesn't mean you have to stop. I'm probably at the best age for an athlete; 25 to 33 are the best ages in tennis. Why should I retire when I am still feeling on top of the thing, that wouldn't be a good idea.

Obviously, after that I will (keep) involved in tennis because that's my passion.

Q: So what will you do after retiring?

A: I think I will give advice to my country so there will be a lot more young female athletes coming out of my country. Make TV appearances to communicate the ideas, provide ideas and suggestions to the Spanish Olympic Committee to ensure that more and more young talented tennis players, both male and female, will soon come out of Spain.

Q: There is a fine line between great talent and actually becoming a champion. What makes the difference?

A: Tennis is a very difficult sport. But if you work hard, if you train good, 100 percent good, and you think positively, and the most important point -- that you never give up -- you will make it in the end.