Tulyaganova and Srebotnik Wage a Classic
by Prip
Final day of qualifying and the start of main draw play at Kuala
Lumpur 2000. For the players in the qualifying draw, this was it. It
was all or nothing -- for the victors, a berth in the main draw and a
major chance to gain both experience as well as ranking points. For
the losers, all their hard work would have little to show for. In the
first two matches, Liezel Horn would take on the temperamental
Evgenia Koulikovskaya, and Katarina Srebotnik would try to
extend her 2-match "winning streak" against Iroda Tulyaganova.
As far as the Russians go, their tennis players have shown as little
emotion on court as their other athletes, but the younger players
nowadays seem to have a very short fuse. Of course, one very noted
example is Anastasia Myskina, but Evgenia seems to be an even more
temperamental player. In her previous match, the Russian had been in
control all the way against Zsofia Gubacsi, but you wouldn’t know it
by the way she was behaving on court. With a demeanour more than
enough to rival famous volleyball coach Nikolai Karpol, she looked
like she was about to explode half the time. Her emotions got the
better of her, and Liezel carried her aggressive style of play to a
relatively easy 6-2 6-4 victory.
Just as a sidenote, I forgot to mention a particularly amusing point
in Koulikovskaya’s previous match against Gubacsi. As I had mentioned,
the Russian was leading very comfortably in the match, but was also
throwing little temper tantrums. Zsofia, already frustrated at being
down in the match, grew increasingly disturbed by her opponent’s
antics. Anyway, Zsofia was close to losing the match when she managed
to slowly turn the momentum around to her advantage. Until, that is,
Evgenia totally mishit her service return, and the ball went flying
way up in the air. Somehow, the ball managed to land right on the
baseline. Zsofia hadn’t taken the shot for granted, and was ready to
hit the ball, but she made the mistake of not hitting it on the rise.
The ball bounced up high, way out of her reach even though she had
her racquet fully extended above her head and jumped up as high as
she could. She simply couldn’t believe her luck, and leaned against
the back fence, shaking her head, while the Russian raised her hand
in apology.
Anyway, back to the present. All the focus in the stadium was on the
other court. Katarina Srebotnikwas carrying her improved
attitude into this match, and looked more confident that I’d seen her
in any singles match in the last 12 months. When the Slovenian lacks
confidence on court, her most common tendency is to pull up on the
ball and send it flying long. She looked focused in this match,
though, and didn’t try to approach on everything. She engaged the
top seed in a baseline rally, biding her time and making much better
choices as to when to make her move. Iroda Tulyaganova is very
capable of keeping up in the baseline rallies, though, and came up
with very nice passing shots that looked effortless. Katarina
persevered, and her more aggressive game paid off as she took the
first set 7-5.
Many players had started to gather in the stands, both from
qualifying and from the main draw, to watch the match. There were
more players watching this match that I’d seen watch any match so
far, for some reason. Katarina fell asleep as soon as she’d taken the
first set, though, a little too contented with having taken the first
set. Iroda herself started hitting the ball much harder and playing
more aggressively. The top seed had to work for it, but she took a
3-0 lead in the second set. She totally squandered the lead, as
Katarina got her mind back into the game and looked determined to
take the match in straight sets. She got the break back, and brought
the second set to 4-3. The match went on very evenly, players taking
turns holding the momentum and taking control of the rallies. Neither
player was serving particularly well, and serve became more of a
liability than an advantage. Iroda hung tough under pressure, and
narrowly escaped with the second set.
The players were given a long break before commencing with the third
set. The rest was definitely well deserved, and everyone was glad for
the pause. Over on the other court, Ana Medina continued her bid
for a main draw berth against last year’s doubles runner-up Yuka
Yoshida. The match turned out to be another easy one for the
Spaniard, who continued to play her aggressive explosive game, and
she finished her match in probably less time than it took Katarina
and Iroda to play their third set.
As opposed to the first two sets, the third set was closely contested
from the beginning. Both players refused to go away, and played hard
for every point. Iroda had shown exemplary mental stamina, and
continued to focus on the task at hand, while Katarina for once
managed to keep her head on straight for more than a couple of games.
The set went to 4-all, nearly all the games going to deuce.
Once again, Katarina suffered a mental lapse, and Iroda’s
relentlessness gave her the break and 2 match points. Waking up from
her slumber and probably riding an adrenaline wave, Katarina saved
both of them, taking control of the points early and hitting the ball
deep. She let herself down when she pushed a forehand long on the
next point, but saved the third match point with a volley winner.
Iroda continued to play a punishing baseline game, and was very
successful at passing the Slovenian at the net, hitting balls that
landed around the area of the court where the service line joins up
with the doubles alley. Katarina continued with her net approaches,
though, as the baseline rallies were more likely to go to the Russian.
There was some commotion during the game, and one of the linesmen
went off the court to tend to a cut on his hand, while Iroda scooped
a butterfly off the court and set it aside. Despite the many
distractions (including a linesman nearly entering the court as she
was about to serve, not realizing that the injured linesman had
already been replaced), Katarina set up an easy winner with a good
strong serve and evened it up at 5-all.
The set went into a tie-breaker, and here’s how it went. Scores
shown are Tulyaganova -- Srebotnik.
- A well-disguised and well-executed dropshot from IT. KS got
there in plenty of time but pushed the forehand long. 1-0
- A good deep approach shot let KS establish herself at net, and
got a nice volley winner. 1-all
- Ball from Katarina flying way out, IT got a little excited and
volleyed the ball while practically standing on the baseline.
Fortunately for her, Katarina had come in behind that shot, and the
ball flew way over her head, just landing inside the baseline. IT
got a lucky break, and knew it. The expression on her face said it
all -- disbelief at both her luck and carelessness, and disgust that
she quite nearly blew it. 2-1
- Unforced error from IT. 2-all
- KS once again at net, IT hit a beautiful lob that Katarina
couldn’t reach even standing at the baseline. 3-2
- Katarina passed while coming in to net and still standing on
service line. 4-2
- Deep shots drew IT to the back of the court, at which Katarina
kept moving forward, and finally got the point on a short volley. 4-3
- Unforced error from IT. 4-all
- KS once again nearly passed at net. She stretched out wide,
practically diving for the ball, but framed it and sent the ball
flying. 5-4
- Another down-the-line passing shot attempt, but landed way wide. 5-all
- Forehand from IT landed long. 5-6
- Service return from KS landed wide. 6-all
- Nicely set up point from Kata, had an opening for a volley winner
but dumped the easy shot into the net. 7-6
- Very deep second serve from Iroda, nearly ending up in a
double-fault, managed to force the error from KS.
And so ended the titanic struggle, a gigantic lost opportunity for
the Slovenian. She had played her heart out in this match, and kept
herself in check towards the end, when she has a tendency to get
frustrated with herself and play reckless tennis. An encouraging
performance all in all, showing that the Slovenian has the capability
to come out of her downward spiral despite not having a coach.
Winning the match would have made all the difference for the start
of next year, though, with confidence being her main problem at the
moment.
After having to wait nearly three hours, Maria Salerni took to the
court against Martina Sucha. As the match started, I felt
disappointed that my expectations had not been met in more ways than
one. Martina looked asleep and quickly lost her service game to go
down 0-2. I had thought that she’d come into the match not expecting
anything, but was pleasantly surprised when the Slovakian put up a
big fight in the next game and got the break back to put the game back
on serve.
The players engaged in baseline battles throughout, and everything was
very hit-and-miss. I was still wondering what the Argentinian was up
to, she looked like she was just going through the motions and not
using her head very much in the match. In any case, she managed to be
a little more consistent than her opponent, and had the added
advantage of serving ahead. She soon got the break again to go up
5-3, but a combination of more aggressive and consistent play from
Martina got her the break back to even it at 5-all. The Argentine had
had her chances to take the set, but had simply not thought things
out well enough to follow through, and looked more like she was
simply reacting to what was being thrown at her than anything else.
Martina duly took the first set 7-5, and that was all she wrote. She
managed to maintain her level of play while Maria self-destructed and
looked like her brain had simply gone, "oh, this is too hard. Just
hit the ball back, and if it lands inside the court, good if not,
then too bad. In any case, what’s for tea?" Martina took the 7-5 6-2
win, finally ending the junior number one’s bid in her first
professional tournament.
It may have been the pressure of playing in an actual tournament
or it may have been the pressure of following up on her fantastic
performance in Sydney, but the junior had definitely failed to
impress at this tournament in singles. She still has her doubles
matches, which she and Tina have a good chance of getting a few
matches into the main draw if they continue to play like they have.
All the players who had had a bit of free time during her matches
had come out to see what the Argentine is capable of, but none
stayed for long, probably leaving wondering what the fuss is about.
In any case, I believe that as soon as the youngster works on
building her mental strength, she’ll make a quick rise in the
rankings. For a new player on the tour, hovering around the # 120
mark and hovering around the # 60 mark makes a huge difference, and I
think the latter will apply to this girl. Under the tutelage of
Mercedes Paz, she will have the advantage of being able to learn
from someone who’s been there and done that, and it looks like the
pair have a very healthy relationship.
One thing that really gives Salerni an edge is that she is perfectly
capable of playing an all-court game, although she had done none of
that in this tournament. Whether or not she is comfortable doing it
is another question altogether. It would do her good to work on
getting off the baseline without having to be dragged during the
upcoming break. She has expressed a definite need to improve her
strength both physically and mentally, but the latter will come
soon enough with more match play. All in all, it’s still early yet
in her career, and how she handles herself in the first half of
next year will give us a clearer picture of what’s to come from the
promising youngster.
In the first main draw match of the tournament, Corina Morariu would
take on Jana Kandarr. Corina is, of course, still trying to
piece her game back together after her freak accident during
Wimbledon this year, while Jana Kandarr has been enjoying a
relatively good year despite playing a limited schedule. The German
looked totally off in this match, though. Spraying the ball
everywhere, her tennis was a disaster area, and nothing seemed to
go right for her. The first set went very quickly to Corina, and
Jana hit the chair wondering what was going on.
The German has come a very long way in the last three years,
though, despite virtually disappearing for a year or so and playing
very limited tennis while she finished her degree and battled
niggling injuries every now and then. She gathered her resources and
put a much better effort in in the second set. She was still a
little too inconsistent, and that inconsistency made the difference.
Corina had been looking very serious in practice, and she certainly
is serious about her bid to "come back". With her husband watching
intently in the stands, she came through with a 6-2 7-5 win, and
looked to be a certain threat to top seed Silvija Talaja.
Next up, the Russian seventh seed Anastasia Myskina would take on
Pavlina Nola of Bulgaria. Pavlina has been a very steady show
all year, and considering that Myskina had come into the event
recovering from some illness as well as is still being bothered by
tendonitis in both wrists, would be favoured to come through in this
match.
The match was the usual hard-hitting baseline game we’ve come to know
so well in the women’s game. Both players played very streaky tennis,
but as the match went on, the younger player started to fall apart
while Pavlina held her ground well. Myskina's wrists were certainly giving
her trouble, and that made a big difference to her game. Anyone who’s
ever had trouble with a joint knows how frustrating it is, and by
the end of the match, the poor kid was so flustered she looked close
to tears. The more experienced player took the match 3-6 7-5 6-4,
and should have been happy with her narrow win. I believe that had
Anastasia come into the match at 100%, the match would have been
hers.
Another upset was in the making at the exact same time. Joanette
Kruger, wildcard recipient the previous year, looked in good form
against 8th seed Sylvia Plischke. Off-court, Sylvia is an
excellent person, very friendly and certainly well-liked among the
other players. Fluent in 4 languages, partly thanks to being born in
the Czech Republic and growing up in Germany, she was chosen by the
other players to be their representative speaker during the players’
party. One thing that really stuck in my head was how diligent she is
with her stretches, warm-up and cool-down routine before and after
practice. She’d be at some corner of the court, very diligently doing
yoga-like moves while watching the other players practice. I believe
that such behaviour is very reflective of personality.
In any case, Sylvia was not doing well. She looked like she was
trying to get into the game, to make things happen, but nothing
was working. The games went evenly in the first set, although the
game itself wasn’t that close and Joanette looked to be in control
most of the time. Once the South African took the first set 7-5,
she rolled over the Austrian in the second, taking it 6-2 and
leaving Sylvia wondering what had happened on the court. She sat in
her chair for a long while, long after the court had been cleared,
sipping water and staring straight ahead and thinking hard about
the match that she’d just lost. She still had her doubles to look
forward to, though, and one can’t help but think that she’ll make up
for her performance in that.
The stands had really started to fill for defending champ Asa
Carlsson’s match against Yi Jing-Qian of China. The
Chinese girl for some reason prefers playing with glasses on than
opting for contact lenses. Asa came into the match looking very
subdued. The Swede has a very quiet look about her, but does manage
to muster up some emotion for her matches. In any case, there was
something about her attitude, which made her appear more like she
had come prepared to be a spectator and not a player.
Her attitude carried into her tennis, and although the Chinese girl
hadn’t made the best of starts, she soon realized that she had a big
opportunity, and spurred on by the crowd that was mostly Chinese and
certainly pro-Asian, picked up her game considerably. She certainly
put in a lot more effort than Asa, and up to the third set, deserved
the match more than the Swede. Both players obviously traded shots
from the baselines, but it was distinctly different from the
Myskina-Nola match. There was the same hard shots, but there was a
bit more craftiness involved with this match. The balls weren’t
coming off the racquet as heavily, but had more sting on them.
Both players ran each other all over the court, and Asa was lucky
that the Chinese girl had taken a while to get into the first set.
Otherwise, Asa would have been able to pack her gear and make an early
day of it, beneficiary of a two-set loss. Asa took the first set,
and the Chinese girl took the second in a tie-break. She had expended
too much energy in taking the second set, though, and the third set
went by quickly, going to the defending champion. The crowd was a
little disappointed, but certainly acknowledged the girl’s effort.
This was a very close call for Asa, who looked extremely unlikely to
defend her title.
The day would be capped off by doubles matches. The doubles
qualifying final was played between Tina Hergold/Maria Salerni and
Anne Kremer/Sandra Kleinova, and was a good one. Tina was
still carrying her sudden rise in performance after their first
match, and Maria continued to play solid tennis, both complementing
each other well. Anne and Sandra had experience on their side, and
carried a solid performance throughout the match, but the big points
kept going to the youngsters. I was especially impressed at the way
they held up in the long rallies. Neither one got too excited during
the fast-paced exchanges at the net, which shows familiarity in
doubles and comfort at coming off the baseline. The match was very
entertaining, and finally went to Salerni/Hergold 6-4 7-5.
The final match of the day was between Alicia Ortuno/Benjamas
Sangaram and wildcards Iva Majoli/Silvija Talaja. I didn’t
have any idea of Alicia’s game, but as the players warmed up, I was
astonished at how hard and flat she was hitting her serves and
returns. Silvija was hitting against Alicia while Iva had Benji, and
looked very amused at how hard and fast the balls were coming at
her. This doubles match was certainly going to be fun and games for
her, and both Croats looked like they were having fun on court.
Benji’s touch certainly combined well with Alicia’s power, but a
lot of errors were coming off her racquet. Interestingly enough, as
she switched to more of a power game, she became more effective in
her team. The match turned out to be very one-sided, though, the
Croats coming through comfortably 6-4 6-2. Silvija and Iva had a
lot of trouble on Alicia’s serve, for the first part of the match,
but soon managed to figure it out. The sheer pace was still troubling
them, though, and her final service game went to deuce, the
advantage passed to and fro so many times that it took up a
considerable chunk of the duration of the match. Silvija must have
had flashes of her match against Alicia Molik in Melbourne earlier
this year.
Another amusing bit, besides the look the Croats had on their
faces after standing in the line of fire while receiving serve,
was one point where Benji and Silvija were engaged in a baseline
rally, both players playing the cross-court angle and avoiding
giving the net player a chance to cross. Benji was hitting the
ball considerably harder than I’m used to seeing her do, perhaps a
bit of her partner’s influence there, and got a very nice angle on
one shot. That sent Silvija scrambling for the ball, and she got
to it way outside the court, pretty much near the side wall. She
hit the ball back hard, but couldn’t control it all too well, and
the ball went straight at the umpire, who could do nothing to
avoid it and was literally a sitting duck in the umpire’s chair.
The legendary John Parry got hit on the body, but brushed it off
with a big smile. All four players had huge smiles on their faces,
while Silvija apologized, and that was a very nice lighthearted
moment during the match. Even John McEnroe hadn’t taken him up like
that. I can imagine how good the hotel bed will look to him after
such a long day, first umpiring the Srebotnik-Tulyaganova match and
then having to stay for the last match only to be shown how much
his work was appreciated by the players.
That capped off the day’s play, and tomorrow will see main draw
play come to a real start. While lower-tiered tournaments usually
see their seeds doing well, I have a feeling that the seeds will
continue to fall as the tournament progresses.
Singles Qualifying final round:
- Iroda Tulyaganova (1) (UZB) def. Katarina Srebotnik (7) (SLO) 5-7 7-5 7-6(6)
- Liezel Horn (RSA) def. Evgenia Koulikovskaya (RUS) 6-2 6-4
- Ana Isabella Medina Garrigues (6) (ESP) def. Yuka Yoshida (JPN) 6-0 6-4
- Martina Sucha (SVK) def. Maria Emilia Salerni (ARG) 7-5 6-2
Singles Main Draw first round:
- Corina Morariu (USA) def. Jana Kandarr (GER) 6-1 7-5
- Pavlina Nola (BUL) def. Anastasia Myskina (7) (RUS) 3-6 7-5 6-4
- Joanette Kruger (RSA) def. Sylvia Plischke (8) (AUT) 7-5 6-2
- Asa Carlsson (6) (SWE) def. Yi Jing-Qian (CHN) 6-4 6-7(7) 6-2
Doubles Qualifying final round:
- Salerni / Hergold def. Kremer / Kleinova 7-5 6-4
Doubles Main Draw first round:
- Majoli / Talaja def. Ortuno / Sangaram 6-4 6-2
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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