The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 22

THE GUARDIAN Friday June 9 1995 SPORTS 23 Tnnls Nn Robinson on the appointment of an avowed disciplinarian as Arsenal's new manager IKtoelh) ft Dock ttlft) TOiraeirs Binto stope Graf sets up final revenge OwM Irvine In Perls 9 But Grafs many unforced errors were her main undoing. At 5-5 in the tie-break she was again on the brink. Two inexplicable forehand errors cost her the set. It was the first she had dropped in 47 this year and the prospects looked ominous. The momentum was strongly in the Spaniard's favour but Graf hung on grimly in the third and, although all seemed lost at 3-3 and 15-40, Martinez was unable to take advantage.

Her frustration was evident as she flung down her racket and a loose service game ended with her leaving a despairing backhand by Graf which dropped just inside the baseline. The No. 2 seed had to save another break point before clinching victory after 2hr 33min. "I'd not been on court that long since last summer in Montreal." said Graf. "1 wasn't sure what my condition would be, so I was happy to be able to go the distance.

Though the 5ft tin Date failed to do quite enough to elbow the Sumo wrestlers off Japan's front pages today, she gave the defending champion a hard workout. Knowing what to do and doing it, however, are two different things. Date's game fluctuated between the brilliant and the awful, but her real undoing was an exhausting 28-stroke rally at deuce when she led 3-2 in the second. Thereafter she won two more points. Thomas Muster, who today plays Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the first of the men's singles semi-finals, has been fined $5,000 for making a visual obscenity in his match with Alberto Costa.

In this afternoon's other semi-final Michael Chang plays the holder Sergi Bruguera. British players again showed encouraging grass-court form at the Annenheim Challenger in Austria yesterday, three making the quarter-finals. Chris Wilkinson defeated Wally Masur 6-3. 7-6, the same score by which Mark Petchey beat Shuzo Matsuoka. In an all British match Tim Henman proved too good for Barry Cowan and won 6-2, 6-0.

RSENAL yesterday ended their protracted search for a manager naming Bolton Wanderers' Bruce Rioch as successor to George Graham. LiKe his predecessor, Rioch is a former Scotland midfielder and one-time manager of Mill-wall. Unlike Graham, who departed Highbury amid allegations of financial irregularities last February. Rioch will not have overall control of transfers or player contracts. Although the 47 year-old Rioch, who has a three-year contract, said he is "responsible for all football matters related to this Arsenal have updated a job description that had not altered since the days of Herbert Chapman.

"We have not changed the role of the manager for 50 years but the business has grown 100 times in that said the chairman Peter Hill-Wood. "We are not going to do anything without the approval of the manager but the board will deal with transfers, and contracts will be dealt with by our chief executive Ken Friar." Rioch's first task will be to decide the fate of Stewart Hous ton, caretaker manager since Graham's departure. Hill-Wood said Houston was "disappointed" at not being given the job, adding that his inexperience had weighed against him: "Stewart is not being fired out the door at the moment. It is up to Bruce." Rioch. whose family home is at nearby Harpenden.

may be tempted to appoint his longtime ally Colin Todd, with whom he played at Derby and who was his assistant at Middlesbrough and Bolton. Signifi candy, neither prospered when thev last parted company in 1990 when Rioch left Todd in charge at Ayresome Park and moved to Millwall himself. Bolton seem certain to resist attempts to prise Todd from Burnden Park, and he was yesterday installed as favourite to become manager. Only last week the pair masterminded Bolton's promotion to the Premiership with a play off victory over Reading. Bolton's attractive, enterprising football they also reached the Coca-Cola Cup final was one of the most significant factors in Rioch's appointment.

SOMETHING had to give but would it be Steffi Grafs 100 per cent record for the year or Conchlta Martinez's unbeaten clay-court run begun last July? It might easily have been either when the two met in the semi-finals of the French Open here yesterday but, at the end of a bizarre encounter, it was the German who emerged a relieved 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 winner. Tomorrow Graf will contest her 24th Grand Slam final seeking her 16th title when she faces her main rival Arantxa Sanchez-Vi-cario, a 7-5, 6-3 winner over Japan's Kimiko Date. It is a match with a No. 1 ranking at stake. It is not one Graf will relish.

Sanchez-Vicario beat her three times last year and holds a 2-1 advantage in their previous matches at Roland Garros. Martinez might have been even more of a threat, given the ingredients of the potential feast that was expected. Yet for 40 minutes what the crowd got was the equivalent of a stale bun and a lukewarm cuppa. Martinez, whose aggressive style has been at the root of her recent success, seemed intent on a policy of passive resistance as Graf took a 4-0 lead. Yet Graf generously allowed her opponent back to 4- 3 and deuce before taking the set and reaching 3-0 in the second.

At that point Martinez trudged to her chair to the accompaniment of derisive whistling. Gradually Martinez's game began to come to life. She denied Graf two game points to break back to 1-3, another four at 1-4 and, despite missing a chance at 3-4 levelled at 5- 5 after Graf had been within two points of victory. "It's difficult to play her," said Graf, "because she hits so hard and low. And she mixes it up constantly." As the pressure intensified Grafs forehand grew more and more brittle.

And by standing six feet behind the baseline Martinez had no difficulty defusing her serve. PMOTOOHAPM SEAN SMITH Highbury hot shot Rioch, fresh from his success at Bolton, faces the cameras at the ground yi sportsmen as heroes," said Rioch. "There have to be guide lines for them to follow and they have responsibilities not just to the club but to their own families. It is important to conduct yourself in a proper and orderly way." Proper and orderly were also words used by Hill-Wood in describing Arsenal's attempts to appoint their manager. He de Dates 'no' to Davis Cup request Ferguson surrenders after brie? Dnce war The other was his reputation as a disciplinarian.

His arrival will send a collective shiver of trepidation through the club's more wayward stars and in a season of sleaze much of it affecting Highbury Rioch's opening address cheered the long-suffering Hill-Wood, who has been subjected to a recent barrage of bad publicity. "Lots of people look on fying supporters who have yet to get over the disappointment of missing out on the Premiership title and the FA Cup. "One of the main reasons why I decided we can afTord to let Ince go was because of the emergence of Nicky Butt and some of our other young players," said Ferguson. "I believe a midfield combination of Roy Keane and Butt will be as good as anything you will find throughout the Premiership. "Paul has been a terrific player for Manchester United.

We have had five great years nied they had made an illegal approach to Porto's manager Bobby Robson but admitted they had offered him a "It was not satisfactory to him," said Hill-Wood, who also considered the Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson and Nottingham Forest's Frank Clark before asking permission to speak to Rioch on Monday. effectively run the club while leaving Peter Nicholas and Ray Lewington in charge of the first team. "My main role will be the acquisition of players, he said. He will also be trying to hold on to the ones he has got. Southgate.

Chris Armstrong, Nigel Martyn, Chris Coleman and Richard Shaw want to leave and John Salako has had his transfer request granted. "I think if I was in the same position as these players I would be looking elsewhere." Coppell admitted. "But it's my job to get them to stay because. A flurry of transfer activity at Highbury is now inevitable as Rioch seeks to reduce the age profile at the club the average age of the team beaten in the Cup Winners' Cup final by Real Zaiagoza was 28. That is the age of Tony Adams, but Rioch will be happy that the Arsenal captain has agreed to an extension to his contract that will keep him at if they do, there is a real chance we can bounce straight back." But Southgate said: "I want to play in the Premiership.

It's as simple as that." The Palace defender Darren Patterson was fined 300 and warned about his future conduct yesterday for his part in the FA Cup semi-final free-for-all against Manchester United. Andy Townsend, the Aston Villa midfielder, is out of the Republic of Ireland's European Championship qualifier against Austria in Dublin on Sunday. He has an ankle injury. out of him but a move to Inter Milan at this stage of his career makes sense not just from our point of view but also from his." United supporters and Ince himself may not be so sure. Steve Coppell returned to Crystal Palace yesterday to find that he has already failed in his first task: persuading Gareth Southgate to stay.

Coppell. the former Manchester United and England winger, has been appointed technical director of the club he left as manager two years ago. He wdl Stoonon Btorioy LEX FERGUSON, who AA this week said he was aVa "adamant" Paul Ince would not leave Manchester United, began back-tracking yesterday in the face of what appears the inevitable move of the England midfielder to Internazionale. Ince's agent Steve Kutner in sisted it was not a foregone conclusion that Ince would agree to a move to Milan but United's manager is already busy molli the club until the year 2000. Hill-Wood said substantial sums believed to be as much as 10 million were available for new players.

"We are in a position to go for the best. Whether we would pay 6 million for a 29-year-old, I'm not sure. But if we have to spend 5-6 million on a player and he is a good player then we will do it." 0 TMf PaOUOTION All AVAIIABII (HOM Coppell back at Palace Staffordshire's Foster, the world No. 320, kept the No. 5 seed on tenterhooks for 1 hours on Beckenham's grass but a couple of sloppy backhands tipped the scales and Bates prevailed ft 3, 2 6, A.

"He was genuinely close to beating me for the first time," said a relieved Bates. Danny Sapsford went out tu the Argentinian No. seed Ja vier Frana but Berkshire's Paid Hand showed the door to South Africa's No. 7 seed Marcos On-druska 3, and Lincoln shire's Andrew Richardson overcame Gary Henderson t-2. 7-6ofIlkley.

110 1ATM AO UUUI.M ill JEREMY BATES, who yesterday battled his way past Andrew Foster to the quarterfinals of the Beckenham Open, said he will not make a Davis Cup comeback against Monaco next month Britain must win to avoid dropping into the low est Euro-African group. Bates. 32, turned down a request from the new British captain David Lloyd because he believes young players must be given their chance. "I have a lot of respect for David," said Bates, "but once my mind is made up I never change it. Anyway I'm entered in a tournament that week." TIIICOM SiCUICO CillUlAI DiO IIMIIID WA Cs thottforMCupFinel I are yours for the winning 3 i0u7 tv I I II if you call a I I not know thci 0 JLc 1 1cnkycuef fafwiuinc mo If As a sporting gesture to our customers we're giving away Ybu'll hear an entirely amiable interview with one of the shirt, as worn by the forthright Mr Moore.

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