Just wanted to offer a little inspiration for both Jana (if she
occasionally reads this club) and the rest. I would love to see it go
back to its original best. It was an article written in the British
Telegraph newspaper that I read (on the net, because I lived in
Iceland) after Jana's Wimbledon win.

Novotna sails to victory on a tide of belief
By Neil Harman
(Filed: 05/07/1998)

The exorcism of the demons that had dogged Jana Novotna for five
years came courtesy of a brutish, sweeping forehand down the line.
She was a winner with a winner and Wimbledon cherished a real
grasscourt champion yesterday.

It did it all the more because of what had gone before, because the
Centre Court crowd cast their minds back the summer of 1993, when
Novotna was ahead 4-1 in the final set against Steffi Graf, only to
be consumed by self-doubt and a sudden inability to raise her right
arm above head height.

Last year, dogged by injury but uncomplaining, she lost in the final
to a confident young pup, Martina Hingis. This time it had to be
Novotna, her semi-final victory over the world No 1 had emboldened
her, made her believe that nothing could stand in her way. She knew
that beating Nathalie Tauziat would not be a breeze, but it was now
or never.

It was an exasperating experience, a final memorable for its
nervousness, its mis-hits, its unguided missiles, but it was,
eventually, Novotna's to win and she needed only one of the four
match points in the second set tie-break, when the cynics in the
press box were certain she would need all of them.

A wonderful forehand winner - maybe the truest shot she had struck
all day - brought the 29-year-old from Brno the title, 6-4, 7-6. Hers
were not the only tears, and her dash into the players' box, escorted
by servicemen acting as stewards - Pat Cash didn't have the Army and
Navy on either arm when he patented the action in 1987 - was the
inevitable moment when all of her dreams came true.

She dedicated the victory to her coach of nine years, Hana
Mandlikova, who reached the final of Wimbledon twice, losing both
times in straight sets, to Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Like
Mandlikova, Novotna was one of the great unfulfilled talents, at the
biggest championships of them all. But they stuck together,
Mandlikova always believing that her prot?g? had the winning of the
title in her.

Novotna said: "This is what I have been working for for so many
years. It is important to believe in yourself, you have to go out and
work every day, do a lot of planning, keep working and this is the
result. I wouldn't have made this without Hana, definitely.

"This was an extremely difficult match, it didn't bring the best
tennis out of either of us. My record against Nathalie wasn't good [4-
4] and I knew it would be hard to beat her. She is a very intelligent
player with a lot of experience and I knew this would be the toughest
match of the whole championship. The semi-final against Martina
Hingis was a piece of cake compared to this one. I wanted to share
this beautiful moment with everyone."

The loser smiled bravely, for hers had been a courageous tournament
as well. She was the lowest ranked player to reach the final of a
Grand Slam since tennis went professional, and only once had a player
seeded 16 reached a final - when Pam Shriver made her one and only
appearance in the final, also collecting 10 games.

This will probably be the first and last time this wonderful French
talent - a throwback to more graceful and elegant times - makes it on
to such a stage, for she is 30 and in a world of big- hitting
teenies, something of an anachronism. But more power to her serve,
which had delivered more than any other female by the time the final
was called.

Tauziat did not possess the big shot when it was required, indeed,
before the denouement of Novotna's final winner, it had seemed that
her opponent was more than happy to guide her through the finishing
line. All the errors in the tie-break came from the French racket
when the betting was that Novotna would start to spray the ball to
all areas of Centre Court.

"It was still one of the best days of my life," said Tauziat, "but
Jana was just too good, too aggressive for me. It was not to be for
me today but I think I did the best I could and before the final,
that was what I wanted. I would have been so sad to have let myself
down."

When the two finalists walked on to court and turned for the curtsey,
you could have sworn that Novotna made direct eye contact with the
Duchess of Kent, and almost certainly got a warm smile in response.
As Tauziat walked back to serve first - Novotna handed her that
responsibility, which could have been seen as a sign of weakness -
she puffed out her cheeks and raised her eyes skywards.

This was not the sun-filled day they had been promised. The grey
clouds lined up one after another, to throw a shroud across Centre
Court. Tauziat served the obligatory double fault, survived a break
point and held with a commendable overhead.

Novotna double-faulted on her first service game. Tauziat was 0-40
before you could blink, coming out of the stalls as fast as Hingis
had done in Thursday's semi-final. Although Novotna retrieved the
first three break points, she succumbed on the fourth when a
delicately chipped backhand zinged from the Tauziat strings.

With two points for a 3-0 lead, one hardly dared watch Novotna, but
she came in daringly behind a second serve, chipping and charging in
tennis parlance, and finally forced Tauziat to overhit a backhand.
The final was on.

The seventh game of the first set was pivotal. Tauziat was down 0-40,
the first indication of a fissure in her game, but she produced a
superb forehand lob and contrived to bring a couple of forehand
errors from the Czech. On the second deuce, a Tauziat backhand volley
landed on the baseline - or so the linesman indicated. But umpire
Jane Harvey immediately over-ruled, despite anguished pleas.

Tauziat had been wounded and on the seventh break point Novotna
broke, controlled herself and served out for the set. An immediate
break in the second appeared to put her in control, but that is
something she has never enjoyed in a Wimbledon final. Her seventh
double fault on break point in the sixth game brought the set level
once more.

Tauziat spurned that advantage, losing her next service game, to give
Novotna the chance to pause, draw long breath and serve for the match
at 5-4. Quite confoundedly, she managed to get each of her first
serves in, but couldn't keep any of her other shots between the
lines.

There was a late call of a high forehand volley on the first point,
another shot from the same bracket, planted into the net. The crowd
began to sigh, familiarly. When she netted a backhand and Nauziat
made a final, crosscourt, running forehand winner, the tie-break with
all its nerve-jangling portents loomed.

But Novotna kept her wits about her this time. Graf wasn't on the
other side of the net, neither was Hingis. This time the opponent was
herself, and she won that contest handsomely. A worthy champion knelt
to her knees on Centre Court.



A great article for a great player. She is a legend in my eyes, and I
hope she comes to talk to us here.

Annika x