Craig Kardon told me a story about how he helped coach Martina Navratilova to an upset win vs Monica Seles on the slow Paris indoors carpet in 1993. The Open de Paris tournament.
“Paris Indoors 1993 Martina vs. Monica, so we were in Paris at night, we go to work to just have a quick hit on the court to test it out. And it’s slow. And Martina starts crying, “There’s no way I can beat Monica on this court.” Martina had lost to Seles in three finals in a row in Oakland, Virginia Slims New York and Chicago.
I said, “We have five matches to get there, you’re going to have to wait to find that out.” So she wins. Her friend flew in KD Lang, who she was trying to see. And we’re sitting in the box and KD with her Don Martens, chains and sweatshirt, cheering wildly, amongst the Paris crowd – it was pretty cool [smiles]. Anyway, Martina gets to the final. And I built the beautiful gameplan. I put it on paper and I said, I know you can beat her on this court. Just do this, play this way. And she did, brilliantly beat her in three sets 64 36 76. And one of the prizes was a car. Martina made her speech, thanked everybody, thanked me. Then she came over – I was the only one there with KD – Martina asked me, ‘Do you think I should give the car to KD?”
“Why would you do that?”
“She’s been here all week.”
“And eating vegetarian and I gave you this brilliant gameplan and I get nothing? So that’s my story [smiles].”
About the gameplan… “One particular side, the right side, the approach for Martina, hit down the middle to her right side where she crosses her hands over, the other side she doesn’t cross over, she hits the two-hander lefthanded. Keep the ball in the middle and don’t let Monica use angles. And hit low slice low in the court so Monica had to come up. And not try to hit through Monica.”
This match was the final time Martina and Monica battled in WTA, with Seles finishing the rivalry 10-7 in her favor. At the time Monica was 19 and Martina was 36.
Check out Craig Kardon’s web site www.craigkardon.com. He currently coaches ATP player Mitchell Krueger.
Craig Kardon · KD Lang · Martina Navratilova · Monica Seles · WTA
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