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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.
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:
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