FULL VERSION Graf vs Sukova 1993 US Open

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Copyrights - CBS (US) and United States Tennis Association (USTA)
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Thank you for your gracious use of this classic match!



PertSnergleman's Review:



The questions have been asked for most of 1993 and will follow Steffi Graf until Monica Seles returns to women's tennis. They might even haunt Graf, if Seles doesn't recover from the tragic injury that has sidetracked her career and their growing rivalry.

Would Graf have won three straight major championships, including this year's U.S. Open, if Seles had not been stabbed on a court in Hamburg, Germany, in April and forced to miss the past five months? Would Graf have won even one? Will there be an invisible asterisk attached to Graf's accomplishments?

Graf's 35-match winning streak, and her victories at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open have coincided with Seles being sidelined. The specter of Seles' absence hung over the National Tennis Center before, during and after Graf's anticlimactic 6-3, 6-3 victory over 12th seed Helena Sukova of the Czech Republic.

Even Graf seemed to acknowledge it -- something she was criticized for not doing at either Roland Garros or the All England Club -- after she dismantled Sukova in 65 minutes at Louis Armstrong Stadium. In accepting the silver urn and the $535,000 check she received for winning her third Open title, Graf seemed to be reaching out to Seles.

"I just want to say that there's one player who hasn't been around the last few Grand Slams, and that's Monica," Graf told the crowd. "I just hope she'll be soon back."

Not only does women's tennis need Seles, but apparently so does Graf.

While duplicating what Seles did in each of the past two years by winning three of the four Grand Slam events in 1993, the top-seeded Graf certainly showed that she is back to the level she was at in 1988. That was when Graf became only the third women's player to win all four majors in the same year.

In winning her first Open title in five years and her 14th Grand Slam title, Graf had little competition. After extending her career record to 18-0 against Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere in the semis, Graf continued her dominance over Sukova... it was the 24-year-old German's 20th straight victory over Sukova, who won the first match they played in 1983.

"I think it is a great achievement to have been able to win three Grand Slams and be in the final of the other one," said Graf, whose only loss at a Grand Slam tournament this year came to Seles in the final of the Australian Open." Asked whether she needed Seles back in order to keep improving, Graf said: "After winning these six tournaments in a row, I am not quitting or not letting go to try and improve. But sure it helps if you have a player who pushes you more. Obviously you are trying harder and you work harder. But I am not necessarily a person who needs it too much because I like to push myself."