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by Prip Late for the first day of qualifying, I managed to catch the end of Katarina Srebotnik's match against Korean Jeon Mi-Ra. The seventh-seed's year had hardly gone well, and her 10-23 record for the year has left her in a blue funk. Her compatriots Tina Krizan and Tina Pisnik have gathered 15-15 and 25-28 win-loss records for the year respectively, although it should be noted that Krizan's matches have been mostly in qualifying. Slovenia, which had looked so strong not too long ago with these two most prominent players leading the way and a handful more on the way, was now looking to be struggling with their tennis players, no doubt starting with injuries late last year. With her current form and apparent lack of motivation, I wasn't going to take anything for granted, even a match against an opponent hovering around the 300-mark in the rankings. And it looked like Katarina wasn't either. She had taken the first set 6-3, and was ahead in the second set, playing seriously and trying to finish the match as quickly as possible. Fortunately for her, the Korean wasn't giving her the opportunity to come up with errors, and Katarina managed to keep the ball in control and in play. The match was soon wrapped up 6-3 6-3 in Srebotnik's favour, and the Slovenian immediately headed to her chair, turned it around to face the adjacent court and sat down to offer moral support to Tina Krizan who was in the middle of her match. Katarina had kept an eye on her best friend's match at every opportunity during changeovers, when going for the towel, etc. throughout her match. Things just weren't going as well for Tina, though, and despite a good effort, ended up losing her match 6-4 7-5 to another Korean, Cho Yoon-Jeong, who had received a wildcard into the qualifying draw. Over on the other two courts, another double-treat was in store. Jelena Kostanic would try to make up for her dismal performance since Roland Garros this year. Her original target for the year was to get into the top 50 in the rankings, which I had thought were more than manageable for the hard-working teen, but a freak accident earlier in the year which left her with an injured ankle (if I had a penny for every injured ankle in the WTA...), and later on a split with her coach Velimir Zerker has left her sliding down the rankings to outside the top 100 instead of moving up. The youngster had cruised through qualifying in this very tournament a year ago as the fourth seed, but would certainly have a bit more trouble getting into the main draw this year despite being seeded fifth. Her first opponent would be Angelika Bachmann of Germany, who has done rather well in getting through qualifying at Roland Garros and the U.S Open this year, but fell just short at Wimbledon. Jelena and Angelika finished warming up, and the Croat would start the match serving. Jelena looked like she needed to warm up on her serve a little more, but managed to hold anyway and went ahead 2-1. Her serve wasn't the only thing giving her trouble, though. The Croat seemed to be somewhere else from the court, and her shots looked not only poorly executed but not thought out at all. The balls were landing short, giving the German opening after opening. Angelika's serve had a very big kick on it, and it worked very well for her against the clay-courter. Jelena looked totally frustrated returning serve, and came up with weak responses, giving Angelika 2 easy service games. Not surprisingly, at 2-all, Jelena's woes continued, and her serving continued to be atrocious. First serve after first serve landed nowhere near their target, and her second serve had nothing on it. Angelika did well to put added pressure on, and the Croat double-faulted to lose serve. Meanwhile, her older sister and new coach were sitting in the stands, offering quiet support. She seemed to need it a lot, and after nearly every lost point which she knew she totally deserved, she looked up at them, a pained expression on her face, to which they would nod as if to say, "come on, you know what you have to do, and you know that you can do it." Jelena not so much won the break back in the next game as Angelika gave it up. The German played a little more tentatively, and a couple of silly errors came off her racquet. A little vocal display in Deutch showed her total disgust with herself. Both players held serve without too much trouble, and the match went to 4-all. While Jelena's shots continued to look sloppy, Angelika's were just streaky. The German tried to up the level of aggressiveness to pressure her opponent's already shaky serve, and started nearly every point with the upper hand. Her shots were landing very deep, and she ran Jelena all over the court. Fortunately, the Croat still has her footspeed, although a slight increase in muscle mass has left her a little less quick than before, and her stamina. She ran for every ball, and got to most of them. She knew that she couldn't keep going like this and expect to win the match, though, and after every exhausting point, looked annoyed that she kept letting herself get into these positions. It didn't help at all that she wasn't too sure about a couple of line calls either. It was at this point that I realized that the two linesmen at the baselines were the very same 2 guys who had been the source of much controversy the previous year. Of course, linesmen aren't expected to be right all the time, but the close calls seemed to have come at tight points, and one of the incidences that I remember clearly last year was when Anastasia Myskina was reduced to tears due to dodgy line calls. All of Jelena's running paid off, though. Angelika would set up the point well, be in full control of the point, finally manage to pull her opponent way out of the court, and then miss the putaway shot. Maybe she was too wary of her opponents speed and tried to go for too much, but I think she could have gone for a lot less and even Venus Williams would have difficulty sending the ball back. Jelena narrowly held serve, and Angelika found herself serving to stay in the first set. The match now looked a little less one-sided, with Jelena hitting the ball well and cleanly again, with a lot more conviction and confidence. She also looked a lot less troubled returning serve, and earned herself a set point. This time, Angelika was the one to succumb to pressure, and double-faulted the first set away. The second set started badly for Jelena, who double-faulted and lost her service game on a close line call to give the early break to Angelika. Angelika once again blew the advantage and lost serve, but Jelena continued to serve atrociously, losing serve yet again on another close line call. The German finally managed to hold serve to go up 3-1, and had a chance to get another break in the next game. Jelena managed to keep her head on straight and played an aggressive point to save it, but a careless forehand landing way long from her and a nice winner from Bachmann gave the second break to the German. Down 4-1 in the second set after taking the first set -- an all too familiar scene with Jelena Kostanic. The question now was, would she pick up her game now or would it take a whole set for her to get back into the game. Grumbling loudly to herself after missed shots and careless mistakes, the Croat gradually started hitting the ball a little better, instead of just pushing it back across the net. Angelika was still doing a good job of running her around the court, and a lot of shots Jelena hit were on the full run, but her backhands were now harder and flatter while her topspin forehand were skimming over the net with a lot more pace. With the help of an unforced error from Angelika, Jelena got one break back to put a stop to her losing streak. Sure enough, once the Croat had found herself losing the set, she picked up her game. Little by little, made to work very hard for each point by Bachmann, Jelena chipped away at the deficit, and finally managed to even it at 4-all. Her serves were still going very badly, making it easy for Angelika to take early control of the point, but two things were on Jelena's side: the youngster's never-say-die attitude gave her the strength and stamina to run after every ball, no matter how obscure her chances were of saving the point; and her considerable speed which got her to those balls. Angelika herself was very respectful of her opponent's court coverage, and preferred to take the risk of going for the lines instead of having the ball come back across the net. Unfortunately for her, she missed as often as she hit. Drenched in sweat from the hot and humid climate, and looking more tired than Jelena despite having covered a lot less distance, the German found herself down 4-5 and serving to stay in the match after having held a 4-1 lead. She came in after her serve and brushed a beautiful drop-shot volley which Jelena didn't even bother to run after, and proceeded to hold serve at love. Jelena's baseline play continued to improve, and she was visibly getting more confident, creating good angles and opening the court up well. She herself went up 40-love, when another double-fault came off her racquet, but a service return error off a second serve gave her a 6-5 lead. Jelena continued to have trouble returning Angelika's big kick serves, and was reduced to hitting the ball around the height of her head on nearly every service return in the match. Still feeling less than comfortable with the shot, she gave her opponent early control of the points, and the first point of the game saw fantastic running from the Croat. The effort paid off, and she took the point for a 15-0 lead. Angelika wasn't ready to go away just yet, though, and she played a good next point, hitting a couple of very deep shots which pushed Jelena way back in the court, followed by another nice drop-shot. She wrong-footed her opponent on the next point, and threw in yet another drop-shot which Jelena got to in plenty of time but pushed the inside-out forehand just wide. Jelena opened the tie-breaker, and for once got a decent serve in, she played aggressively and came in to net, but Angelika could only throw up a defensive lob on the full run, which Jelena simply hit what I can only describe as an overhead touch drop-shot. A couple of hard rallies brought it to 1-2. An attempted passing-shot from Angelika Bachmann landed just wide, and Jelena played another solid point to get an easy inside-out forehand winner to go up 3-2. A strong serve from the German forced an error off Jelena's racquet, but the mini-break finally came when she double-faulted at 3-all. A silly unforced error from her put Jelena up 5-3, and an even sillier service return straight into the net gave Jelena 3 match points. Angelika refused to give up, though, and took possession of the point with a strong serve, getting the point by wrong-footing the Croat. That saved one match point. She saved the second by wrong-footing her opponent yet again, and took the third by pulling the Croat way outside the court before hitting a volley that hardly bounced down the middle of the court. Only having one match point left, the Croat pulled out all the stops and kept her shots deep. One ball landed very close to the baseline, and Angelika was half-expecting a call that didn't come, but her concentration was lost and she pushed a forehand long to finally give the match up. The German came off the court extremely dejected, and sat down alone in a corner to think long and hard about the lost match. Meanwhile, Jelena and her sister Marina looked extremely happy to have gotten through the match, while her coach looked more relieved than anything. In any case, this was a match that had very little reason to have had gone on for so long. Youngster Maria-Emilia Salerni was in the meantime playing her first professional match of her career. The Argentinian junior #1 had taken the singles title at Wimbledon and was runner-up in the doubles, and is the current title holder of both the singles and doubles events at the U.S Open. Her introduction to the tour wasn't going to be a picnic, though. Luck of the draw pitted her against the second seed of the qualifying draw, Vanessa Webb. Salerni had already had a big match experience, though, defeating Natasha Zvereva and quite nearly upsetting Barbara Schett at the recent Sydney 2000 Olympics. For some reason, the Argentinian started very tentatively, and Vanessa Webb, more than wary of the youngster's capabilities, started off aggressively. Admittedly, her position wasn't very enviable -- the pressure was solely on her, despite the youngster having much to prove yet. Playing aggressively and coming in to net at every opportunity, Vanessa jumped to a quick 4-0 lead. Maria played far from what she had showcased just 6 weeks before, showing poor shot selection and camping out on the baseline. And then things started to turn around. A few more errors started coming off Vanessa's racquet, and Maria stopped pushing the ball around the court, instead raising the level of aggressiveness of her game and gradually started beating Vanessa to the net. Bit by bit, she clawed her way back into the set, and held serve to go up 6-5 for the first time in the match. Vanessa was still playing very hard, determined not to let the game slip away so easily. Her service game went to deuce, but she lost the next point to face set point anyway. Keeping with the do or die attitude, Salerni played aggressively, and went for a gutsy down-the-line winner from the doubles alley. The ball landed in the corner of the court to give her the first set 7-5. The second set started more evenly, Salerni showcasing a little more versatility in her game than she had in the first set. Games went on serve, most of them going to deuce. Vanessa continued to play aggressively and came in to net at the drop of a hat, while Salerni was still contented to stay back, although she managed to do well when she came in to net. Her passing shots were serving her well, though, and continued to frustrate Canadian. The score went to 4-all, and neither player had the momentum on their side. Salerni played a very streaky game, continuing to get herself into jams, throwing silly drop-shots that left her a sitting duck on court, and simply making poor decisions. On the other hand, she was also coming up with brilliant shots, forcing Vanessa to make good plays. The youngster is also another one with a good set of wheels, and many a time, Vanessa would hit a crisp, short, tight-angled volley that could easily have been given up on, only to see the ball come back at her. Down 4-5 and serving to stay in the tournament, Vanessa came up to net as usual, and tried to finish the point early with a drop-shot, but the youngster managed to run it down in plenty of time. What seemed like a good idea at first had turned into suicide, as Maria-Emilia was now standing a mere 3 feet in front of her and winding up for a big forehand drive. The Argentine did have a bit of compassion, though, and drove the ball to Vanessa's left. Being left-handed, Vanessa moved away but managed to hit the ball with the back face of her racquet. The ball was still in play, but the point was most definitely lost for her. Perhaps a bit rattled by the near-death experience, the second-seed double-faulted on the next point, putting Salerni 2 points away from her first professional win. A lazy forehand from her sailed way long, setting up 3 match points. She saved the first with a good strong lefty serve that swung out wide, forcing a service return into the net, but finally bowed out after pushing a volley long. Maria-Emilia Salerni had finally won her first professional tournament, but her performace was far from convincing. The brilliance and all-court game that she had showcased in Sydney was nowhere to be found, and instead she played a bland baseline game that could easily have been reproduced by the top 20 juniors in the world. If the youngster is to come through qualifying, she'd have to pick up her game considerably. The rest of the matches went as well as expected. Martina Sucha had a little trouble closing out her match against Jolanda Mens of the Netherlands, and never looked to be in trouble throughout the match. She and Salerni had a potential clash in the third round, and would pose a serious threat to the Argentine's bid for a place in the main draw. The first casualty of the tournament, fourth-seed Marlene Weingartner, had pulled out against Alicia Ortuno after having lost the first set 6-4 and found herself down 0-3 in the second. Sixth-seed Ana Isabella Medina Garrigues looked pretty impressive in her 6-4 6-1 dispatch of Kim Eun-Ha, and looked like she'd progress to the main draw comfortably.
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