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 The
tournament found a new home in 1991 at The La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, a scenic and
spacious location that offered room to grow.
The new venue was ready in time to host the hardcourt tour event,
which had become an important tune-up for the U.S. Open.
Mazda became the title sponsor and the $225,000 tournament was renamed,
The Mazda Tennis Classic.
Two-time champion Steffi Graf was unable to defend her title due
to her commitments to the Federation Cup in England and the Canadian
Open in Toronto.
The tournament still had a stellar field that included top-ranked
Monica Seles, who ended Graf's 186-week streak as the number one
player in the world earlier in the year and fifteen-year-old tennis
sensation, Jennifer Capriati.
Tournament co-promoter, Raquel Giscafre called Capriati's entry
to the tournament, "a complete but very pleasant surprise."
One month earlier, Capriati became the youngest female semifinalist
(15 years and 95 days) at Wimbledon where she defeated Martina Navratilova.
Tennis fans got the dream final they
had hoped for, a Seles-Capriati match. Both players easily advanced
to the finals without the loss of a set.
In the semifinals, Capriati routed second-seeded
Conchita Martinez of Spain, 6-4, 6-0 while the 17-year-old Seles
destroyed sixth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-1, 6-2.
The Seles-Capriati finals matched the
youngest finalists in the Open era of women's tennis dating back
to 1969.
With a sold out crowd of 5,200 and an ESPN television audience looking
on, Capriati defeated Seles, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (2) in the final.
The match would go down in tournament history as a true classic
and was considered at the time to be one of the hardest hitting
matches on the women's tour.
Seles won the first set when she broke Capriati's serve at 4-4 and
went on to serve out the set by hitting a service winner on set
point. Capriati quickly regrouped and jumped out to a 4-0 lead in
taking the second set, 6-1, in only 18 minutes.
In the third set, with both players picking up the pace of the match,
Capriati held leads of 2-0, 4-2 and 5-3 before Seles took a 6-5
lead. Capriati forced a tiebreaker after holding serve in a tense
14-point 12th game.
The fans knew they were watching something
dramatic and they gave the players a huge ovation before the start
of the tiebreaker.
The tiebreak was tied at 2-2 when Capriati
won five points in a row. On match point she hit a backhand return
off Seles' serve to seal the victory.
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| Tennis fans enter
the main entrance of the Mazda Tennis Classic. |
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The fans erupted as they gave both players multiple ovations.
Capriati, who moved to number eight in the world rankings, received $45,000 and a special
edition Mazda Miata for winning the tournament. Seles took home $20,200.
The loss temporarily knocked Seles from the number one ranking in the world.
Jill Hetherington and Kathy Rinaldi won the doubles title with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over
Gigi Fernandez and Tauziat.
In the tournament's qualifying competition, a tall, 15-year-old Californian won two matches
before losing in the final qualifying round to fellow American Kimberly Po. The young girl's
name was Lindsay Davenport.
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