Tennis medal assured for Garrison

Press, 28 September 1988, Page 31

Tennis medal assured for Garrison

NZPA-Reuter Seoul The American Zina Garrison swept away her room-mate and doubles partner, Pam Shriver, yesterday to secure an Olympic medal and a probable shot at the West German Grand Slam champion, Steffi Graf. The No. 8 seed Garrison, who reached the semi-finals of the United States Open earlier this month, took 67 minutes to beat Shriver 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the singles tournament at the Olympic Park. “I just got on top before she realised what was happening,” said Garrison, who has beaten Shriver only twice in eight previous meetings. “I was a lot more relaxed than she was.” In tomorrow’s semifinals, where she will probably meet Graf, both losers will be given bronze medals. Garrison won 15 straight points at the end of the first set and the start of the second and sealed her victory on the fourth matchpoint when Shriver made another double fault. Italy’s Raffaella Reggi, the woman who defeated the No. 2 seed, Chris Evert, was unable to repeat her success against

the Bulgarian Manuela Maleeva, the No. 7 seed. Maleeva reached the semi-finals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the unseeded Italian on the windy centre court. Reggi battled gamely, saving two match points but lost the final game to love when she failed to return a volley from Maleeva. Graf trailed 3-1 in the final set against the Russian Larisa Savchenko but then • sharpened up her famous forehand to stay on course for the Olympic women’s tennis title. The world No. 1 Graf, looking for a gold medal to add to her Grand Slam win, beat Savchenko, the No. 11 seed, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to go through to the semifinals. Graf pulled back to 3-2 in the deciding set by holding serve to love. She then took advantage of two double faults by Savchenko, who until then had been serving well, to level at 3-3 and broke the Russian again to go 5-3 up. Graf, who has lost only two matches this year — both to Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina who she could meet in the final — said: “It was hard and I could have lost it. I haven’t had that feeling for a long time.”