Game, Set, Match … Relief Seles Storms To Canadian Title, Leaving Coetzer, Doubts Behind

In the end, there were tears, a flood of emotions that Monica Seles had held in check until now.

Seles had just completed a remarkable first week back in tournament tennis Sunday, demolishing Amanda Coetzer 6-0, 6-1 to capture the Canadian Open.

And there she stood, crying.

“I just can’t believe it,” she said. “Not playing in such a long time and then playing so well. It’s unbelievable.

“There were so many emotions to get to this point. The two years were so hard. From that day to this day - what a difference.”

Returning to competitive tennis almost 2-1/2 years after she was stabbed during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, Seles dominated the Canadian Open. She seemed to have lost none of the skills that made her the No. 1 player in the world.

Her plan was just to get in some matches before the U.S. Open, which begins its two-week run a week from today. But her game was so strong that instead of a warm-up, it turned into a waltz to the championship.

Seles said she never expected that.

“To be able to come out and play great tennis and enjoy it,” she said. “It’s quite amazing.”

It’s not as if the Hamburg episode has been erased entirely. “There are flashbacks,” she said. “On long points, I start thinking. Then I tell myself, ‘You can’t do this. You’re in a match. Just go out and play.’

“Reality is still there. I can’t forget that. The reality is it happened. It will always be there.”

This tournament was planned as a tentative first step back for her. In a field that included top players like Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Mary Pierce and Gabriela Sabatini, she expected only to use it to get accustomed again to tournament surroundings and conditions.

But her game was surprisingly powerful all week, her serves and returns consistent and strong. She had every shot in her arsenal working to perfection, breezing to the final with straight-set wins over Kimberly Po, Nathalie Tauziat, Anke Huber and Gabriela Sabatini.

As she had all week, Seles dominated the match with Coetzer. The petite South African had simplified Seles’ way to the championship by knocking off four seeded players, including Graf, Pierce and No. 4 Jana Novotna. When she encountered Seles, however, it was no contest.

The closest Coetzer came was to force three break points on Seles’ first service game in the opening set. Each time, Seles won the next point to keep the game going, and finally won it. The game consumed six minutes. The next five took just 22 more as Seles mixed power with touch to take control.

“I didn’t feel intimidated by the hype around Monica,” Coetzer said. “She just didn’t allow me to play my game. She doesn’t give you a lot of time. You have to get used to how fast the ball comes at you. You get to a point where you’re confused. I wasn’t sure what to do.”

When Coetzer managed to hold her serve in the second game of the second set, it ended a streak of 18 straight games won by Seles.

For the tournament, Seles lost just 14 games, never dropped a set and was broken just three times in five matches. She played just 74 games in five matches, setting a tournament record for least number of games played by a champion. The old record was 85, set by Pam Shriver in 1987 and matched by Sabatini in 1988.

Sunday’s match lasted 51 minutes. Only once did Seles require more than an hour to dispose of an opponent. She needed just 4 hours, 41 minutes of total playing time to win the title, averaging 56.4 minutes per match. Except for a sluggish start against Huber, she dominated her opponents.

It was the 41st victory in the last 43 matches for Seles.