Arantxa Sanchez Vicario

The limousine driver squints again at the faxed itinerary, lingering on the section that indicates he is running late, and, not for the last time on this day, his black brogans stomp on the accelerator. Passengers exchange whiplashed glances as the driver locks on his next television studio target. Hand grips are lunged for. The white missile fishtails around a corner onto Sunset Boulevard. Alone among the group, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is delighted.

News alert: There will be a new French Open champion on the women's side. The last remaining champion in the draw, three-time winner Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain, departed Thursday in the second round. That itself was not a huge shock, although the only other time she lost in the second round here was in 1990. The 29-year-old Sanchez-Vicario has had off-court difficulties, announcing earlier this month she was officially separated from her husband of less than a year, Joan Vehils.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario teamed with Natalia Zvereva for a 6-3, 6-2 first-round victory over Kathy Rinaldi and Jill Hetherington at the $175,000 Light n' Lively doubles tournament in Wesley Chapel, Fla.

Top-seeded Mary Pierce of France defeated Jelena Dokic of Australia, 6-3, 6-1, on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C. Fourth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain also advanced, defeating eighth-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 7-6 (12), 3-6, 6-3. "Amanda and I, we always have tough matches and we always play longer matches," Sanchez-Vicario said. "In the end, I started being a little bit more aggressive and I made it through."

Steffi Graf beat Manuela Maleeva, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated Akiko Kijimuta, setting up today's final between the No. 1 and No. 5 players in the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament. Graf, ranked No. 1, was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Maleeva, who is ranked No. 8. Sanchez Vicario beat Kijimuta, Japan's top player, 6-4, 6-2, in the other semifinal on the artificial court.

Top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated second-seeded Conchita Martinez, 6-1, 6-4, in 71 minutes Sunday to win the $375,000 La Familia Open at Barcelona. It was Sanchez Vicario's third tournament victory of the season and improved her match record to 31-4. Three of those losses were to Steffi Graf. Martinez rallied briefly in the second set and took a 3-2 lead. But Sanchez Vicario bounced back to win four of the next five games.

So it wasn't a total loss for Helena Sukova after all. Sukova, swept by Steffi Graf in the women's singles final earlier Saturday, teamed with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to upset the top-seeded team of Gigi Fernandez and Natalia Zvereva, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the women's doubles semifinals under the lights. Fernandez and Zvereva were attempting to win the Grand Slam in women's doubles, but instead saw the No.

In Larry Stewart's notes on March 26, he wrote: "ABC angered tennis fans last Saturday when it interrupted coverage of the Lipton Championships final between Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to switch to bowling." FYI, we bowling fans were upset when the tennis action cut into the bowling telecast. ABC didn't return to the bowling until the 10th frame of the first match. To make matters worse, ABC then cut immediately to a commercial, thus depriving bowling fans of seeing all of the crucial final frame.

MEN No. Player Comment 1. Patrick Rafter: Showed Rome was no clay aberration. 2. Marcelo Rios: Arrives with 2 titles in last 3 events. 3. Gustavo Kuerten: Could face Sampras in quarterfinals. 4. Carlos Moya: Picked up some confidence in Dusseldorf. 5. Alex Corretja: So did he. 6. Yevgeny Kafelnikov: First-round match vs. Chang. 7. Pete Sampras: Useless to predict what he'll do here. 8. Andre Agassi: Ditto. 9. Felix Mantilla: '98 semifinalist has tough draw in '99. 10.

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario has won four Grand Slam titles for a reason. Quite often, the Spaniard has pulled out matches with a tool many players often overlook . . . her mind. When Plan A doesn't work, she'll try B or C. But Serena Williams wouldn't allow let her to get to C, much less D, on Thursday night.

MEN No. Player Comment 1. Patrick Rafter: Showed Rome was no clay aberration. 2. Marcelo Rios: Arrives with 2 titles in last 3 events. 3. Gustavo Kuerten: Could face Sampras in quarterfinals. 4. Carlos Moya: Picked up some confidence in Dusseldorf. 5. Alex Corretja: So did he. 6. Yevgeny Kafelnikov: First-round match vs. Chang. 7. Pete Sampras: Useless to predict what he'll do here. 8. Andre Agassi: Ditto. 9. Felix Mantilla: '98 semifinalist has tough draw in '99. 10.

MEN No. Player: Comment 1. Pete Sampras: Was that Pete McEnroe in Cincinnati? 2. Patrick Rafter: Rounding into form just in time. 3. Andre Agassi: Starting another streak. 4. Goran Ivanisevic: Looking for first U.S. tour title. 5. Alex Corretja: Only Armada member staying afloat. 6. Richard Krajicek: Saved eight match points vs. Henman. 7. Tim Henman: Classic match vs. Krajicek at New Haven. 8. Marcelo Rios: Loses way under lights vs. Byron Black. 9.

MEN No. Player: Comment 1. Carlos Moya: Takes FC Barcelona off front page? 2. Marcelo Rios: Rios ran dry against Moya. 3. Alex Corretja: Said Armada would rule in France. 4. Pete Sampras: Made Ramon Delgado famous for a minute. 5. Cedric Pioline: Give this weary man a rest. 6. Petr Korda: Made Mariano Zabaleta famous for five minutes. 7. Andre Agassi: Did he play in the French Open? 8. Felix Mantilla: Blond ambition crashes in semis. 9. Marat Safin: Not the most famous Marat in Paris. 10.

For anyone expecting a fairy-tale finish to the 1998 French Open, a refresher course is helpful in understanding Saturday's result. In 1989, Steffi Graf had a chance to win her second consecutive Grand Slam. Five years later, Mary Pierce was on the verge of becoming the first Frenchwoman to win Roland Garros since 1967.

The eight-month plan has turned into, well, something closer to an eight-day program. Early at the French Open, Monica Seles and her coach, Gavin Hopper, were talking about aiming for the 1999 Australian Open, realizing it might take some time to get back to the top of women's tennis. After all, wasn't this supposed to be a brand-new era, filled with stronger, cockier and younger baseliners? Seles' answer has come through with a vengeance: So what?

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has never beaten Monica Seles, but she is going to try something new in today's French Open women's final. She is going to wear her lucky wristband. Sanchez Vicario, winless in four matches against Seles, will wear the same wristband she wore while beating Steffi Graf in the 1989 French Open final and the semifinal here Thursday. "I am not superstitious," Sanchez Vicario said. "I wear it for all big matches and I shall wear it for the final.

No wonder Martina Hingis looked adrift and amiss Thursday in the second set of her semifinal match against Monica Seles at the French Open. It was as though she had found a stranger in her house. Clearly, this was not the Monica Seles she thought she knew. An interloper strolled onto the court at Roland Garros and turned Hingis' neat little 17-year-old world upside down. Seles and her thunderous ground strokes shook Hingis and the tennis world with startling results.

While the men's side of the Australian Open has been reeling with upsets, the women's side has retained its seeded players and renewed long-standing rivalries. Opponents in the semifinals are familiar, each pair having played eight times. One semifinal pits top-seeded Martina Hingis against 10th-seeded Anke Huber, with Hingis holding a 7-1 record. The other semifinal pairs eighth-seeded Conchita Martinez against second-seeded Lindsay Davenport, with Martinez holding a 6-2 advantage.