Saturday, August 05, 2000
Seniors Tennis Championship
Bahrami-Rinaldi meet Fernandez-Fillol in final
By Dave Schutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When Mansour Bahrami agreed to play in the Seniors Championship of the Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati, he didn't know it was a mixed doubles format.
“I haven't played mixed doubles for 10 years,” said Bahrami, 44, of Iran. “The last time I played in Cincinnati (1995), it was men's doubles.”
Bahrami and Kathy Rinaldi, 33, advanced to tonight's championship with an 8-4 upset of Dick Stockton and Mary Joe Fernandez.
They will play Gigi Fernandez and Jaime Fillol, who defeated Carling Bassett-Seguso and Fred Stolle 8-3. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy and Owen Davidson meet Stockton and Fernandez for third place.
“Everybody told me I had a great partner,” said Rinaldi, the No.7-ranked player in the world in 1986. “He keeps me loose, and it's a lot of fun playing with him.”
Bahrami had added motivation after losing to Doug Jones, a local amateur player who had won a contest to play against one of the professionals.
“Someone should have warned me the guy was a pretty good player,” Bahrami said. “I was trying to be nice and not embarrass him. Then the last two points were out but not called.”
Rinaldi-Bahrami and Fernandez-Stockton both were undefeated going into Friday, so the intensity was high until Rinaldi and Bahrami broke Stockton's serve to take a 5-4 lead.
At that point, Bahrami, the crowd favorite because of his variety of trick shots, served holding seven balls in one hand. He aced Fernandez and went on to hold serve.
They then broke Fernandez, and Rinaldi successfully served for the match.
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