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by Prip The first two matches of the day proved uninteresting. Sandra Kleinova had a walk in the park over Li Fang of China, and unlike her compatriot in the previous day’s match, had put up little resistance against the CZE. Sandra took an easy 6-1 6-0 win to make up for the loss yesterday in the final doubles qualifying match. On the other side, a marathon match was underway between Wynne Prakusya who had been given a wildcard into the main draw, and Dragana Zaric, entered into the main draw as the winner of the event at Cardiff. The match went on forever, with the crowd firmly in the Indonesian’s corner. The first set was very lukewarm, but the crowd really started getting into it when the Indonesian wildcard took the second set 6-0. To their disappointment, though, she fizzled out after the nearly 2-hour long match, and lost the third set 6-4. Adriana Gersi had been practicing hard while the qualifying matches had been going on, and had been keeping an eye on the progression of the qualifying draw for good reason -- her first round match would be against one of the four who emerged victorious. Unfortunately for her, she was drawn against the pick of the crop: the top seed Iroda Tulyaganova. Iroda had had a tough three-setter the previous day, the "titanic struggle of the day", and would be more than ready to really push the Czech. As expected, Iroda came out very comfortable, fully familiar with the court, the balls and the playing conditions. Of course, the match turned out to be a baseline battle, and Adriana kept coming up with the first error. Iroda wasn’t doing anything especially great with the ball, but Adriana still kept on playing an impatient game, and Iroda barely had to do more than keep the ball in play. The qualifier soon had a 6-4 6-3 win, perhaps a reward for getting through her tough previous match. Her next opponent would almost certainly put up a tougher challenge, in the form of Bulgarian Pavlina Nola, who had taken out seventh-seed Anastasia Myskina. By this time, Olga Barabanschikova had officially been declared AWOL, and was replaced in the draw by Katarina Srebotnik. Hopefully, the new lease on life would motivate her somewhat and give her a small push toward recovery. She looked as cheerful as I’d ever seen her on the practice court with Tina. As for Olga, her carelessness had left several people rather disgusted and wishing her fine was far higher than it was. Over on the other side, the first interesting match of the day was taking place. I had expected a good performance from Martina Sucha, but must admit that I was surprised at how well she had held up so far. She had dug in despite finding herself on the losing end against the junior number one, and played hard when she recognized that her opponent wasn’t playing as well as she was hyped to be capable of. She had little time to feel relieved about getting past that match, though, as she was drawn against fourth seed Anna Kremer. Martina Sucha, now dressed in more "formal" tennis clothes than the casual t-shirt and plaid shorts she had on during qualifying, was ready to play. Both players started the game playing aggressively, and the power struggle was evident between the two players. Martina was going for her shots, playing exactly as she should have -- with nothing to lose. Anne, on the other hand, was playing a little more calmly and stuck with her game. I couldn’t help but feel that she was waiting for her opponent to start losing grip of her game, and Anne started to panic when that didn’t happen. Martina Sucha was playing well from the baseline, hitting the ball hard and deep. The 20-year-old had the double-advantage of being full of confidence, and yet having nothing to lose in the match. That was the edge she needed to come out on top, and her gambles paid off. The games went pretty evenly, but the Slovakian got the crucial points, and slipped away with a 7-5 7-5 win, continuing her success from Bratislava. Next up for her would be the winner between Tina Hergold and Patricia Wartusch. The Slovenian had picked her game up considerably while playing doubles in the qualifying draw with Maria Salerni, and had been given direct entry into the main draw for winning the event in Largo, but Patricia would probably still come through easily in that match. Next on court, Spanish qualifier Ana Isabella Medina Garrigues would try her hand against the third seed and tournament favourite, Tamarine Tanasugarn. The hard-hitting Thai has a very good chance to get through to the final against Jelena Dokic, and should have little trouble against the 18-year-old Spaniard. This was Ana’s first time playing on hard courts since February this year, and the courts here are playing rather fast, so all the factors were for the third seed. Tamarine certainly had to work for her points, and later readily admitted that the match was much tougher than the score indicates. The first set was a little closer because the Thai had never even heard of her opponent before the match, and took a couple of games to figure out her game. The Spaniard fought hard, but was simply overpowered by the Thai. Ana Isabella Medina Garrigues (her name is too long to fit in the computer ranking sheets, or on any scoreboard for that matter) started the year ranked outside the top 300, but has brought it to 120 entering the tournament. The Spaniard played in three WTA tournaments this year, beginning at Madrid where she had also received a wildcard into qualifying the year before in her first professional tournament. This year, she managed to get through to the main draw before falling to wildcard Virginia Ruano-Pascual. At her next tournament in Palermo, she got a good win over Miroslava Vavrinec before losing to sixth seed Anna Smashnova in three sets. Her third tournament proved the most successful, when she got through qualifying in Knokke-Heist, taking out compatriot Nuria Llagostera on the way, before falling to top seed Dominique Van Roost in the second round. Just turned 18, the Spaniard was introduced to tennis when she was 7 years old by her parents, and is now coached by Gonzalo Lopez. Citing her favourite shot as her backhand (which Tamarine tried to keep well away of), Ana did not model her game after any particular player, but likes Martina Hingis and Pete Sampras as players. Finally escaping the Age Eligibility Rules, the Spaniard hopes to play as many WTA tournaments as possible next year, and is aiming to crack the top 100 soon. Meanwhile on court, Yayuk Basuki was going neck-and-neck with Henrieta Nagyova. The Indonesian was playing her usual stylish game, while Henrieta was playing a little too tentatively, not doing enough with the ball to trouble the veteran too much. Although I feel that Yayuk has definitely under-achieved in her career, the game has passed her by, and the power and athleticism the players display nowadays is simply too much for a player who hasn’t built up any match toughness in smaller events. The last time the two of them played was 3 years ago, when Yayuk won and Henrieta was a lot greener on the tour. Both players made their share of mistakes, but for very different reasons. Henrieta finally got the break at the very end to take the first set 7-5, but not without having to work very hard for it. Yayuk was still playing her subtle attacking game, trying to make the play and was constantly moving forward, but the veteran simply couldn’t intimidate the Slovakian enough to really put the pressure on. The second set started very well, Yayuk having several opportunities to get the early break of serve, but Henrieta hung tough, and focused well on her game and the task at hand. She managed to escape with her service game, and from there, never looked back. Yayuk was considerably fatigued, both physically and mentally. The Indonesian is, of course, fitter than most people will ever be in their entire lives, but she was also expending a lot of energy on the court. The key factor here lay in the mental aspect -- she just hadn’t been out there playing matches week after week, building up the levels of concentration and stamina needed to sustain mental toughness for an entire match. Henrieta took the next five games to wrap the match up. Yayuk will still be playing in the tournament, partnered with Caroline Vis in the doubles event, and will hopefully go on to play in Pattaya the following week. If she is granted entry, she will play the last professional match of her career, and return happily to get on with her life with her husband. At the moment, she isn’t working with any junior Indonesian players (she’s left that to her husband), and neither does she have any plans to do so in the near future, but has said that she would help out her country’s younger players if asked to. Tennis has been her life, and I’m sure she would be a great asset on anyone’s support team. The stylish Indonesian has had a wonderful career, in which she’s gained the respect of everyone she’s met, including Steffi Graf who’s always found it tough playing against her, and remains one of the most well-liked players on the tour. When asked how she feels about walking around tournament grounds again, meeting players she used to spend week after week with, she says that that will be one aspect of the game that she will miss greatly. The players, WTA officials and the like have been one big family to her, and their camaraderie will certainly leave a void when she’s stopped traveling with the tour. The feeling is definitely mutual -- all the players and regulars on the tour being had been absolutely delighted when they’d seen Yayuk back at the Grand Slams. Back on court, Wynne Prakusya and Nadejda Ostrovskaya were playing doubles against Petra Mandula and Patricia Wartusch. I had personally expected the Austrian-Hungarian pair to have an easy time of it, so I was surprised to see their opponents take a quick 4-1 lead in the first set. The more experienced pair soon got into the groove of things, though, and took the match handily, winning 6-4 6-1. Perhaps Petra, who had not played any matches so far, needed the little extra time to warm up in the match. Tatiana Panova soon took to the court against Katarina Srebotnik. The change in opponent probably troubled the Russian little. She has played against Olga twice already this year, winning both times, dropping only one game in their most recent encounter. The last time she had played against Katarina was nearly exactly a year ago in Pattaya, and the Russian had also won that encounter very handily. Although Katarina was practically hobbling around on one leg at that time, the mental state the Slovenian is in now would be just as much of a handicap. Tatiana got off to a quick start, and took the first set 6-2. It looked like the match would be over in 5 minutes, as the balls were simply flying off Katarina’s racquet, constantly landing long. The Russian got a 5-2 lead in the second set, but suddenly, Katarina played a lot less tentatively, and didn’t think twice about going for her shots. She stopped pushing the ball long all the time, and made some very good plays. She was still trying to approach the net at every opportunity, but she got passed more often that not. Still, that is the way she knows how to play tennis, and she certainly wasn’t going to out-rally the diminutive Russian on the baseline, so chip and charge her way to the net she did. Surprisingly enough, she managed to even it up to 5-all, partly thanks to an increased number of errors coming off Panova’s racquet. Then came the longest game of the match. The advantage went to and fro in Katarina’s service game, both players having their opportunities but losing them on silly errors. Admittedly, both played better when they were down. Katarina on one point had the advantage and had set up the point beautifully, was up at net and had the whole court open, but blew the volley which landed wide. That was the absolute deciding point, and had the Slovenian gotten that point and a 6-5 lead, the outcome of the match could have been very different. Once again, it looked like it was all over. Two silly errors gave put Tatiana 2 points away from the match, but Katarina didn’t give the fight up yet. Adjusting her strings and telling herself to focus, the Slovenian played three very gutsy points in a row, to give herself a break point. The streak was too good to last though, and inevitable, a lapse in concentration lost her the next point. A careless sliced backhand landed wide to give Tatiana match point, and I thought that was all she wrote. Not giving her opponent’s serve much respect, Katarina pounded the return of serve so deep it landed on the baseline, which put Tatiana on the defence. Her next shot also landed on the baseline, drawing the error off Tatiana’s racquet and saving the match point. Once again, a careless service return from the Slovenian flew long, setting up match point # 2 for Tatiana. The Russian reciprocated the favour by promptly double-faulting. Standing at barely 5-foot-1, Tatiana has a serve that isn’t too much to be feared, and Katarina had been doing well to put the pressure on her to do something special with the ball. The rain had been pouring earlier on, and feeling that Katarina was gaining confidence as the game went on, Tatiana cleverly decided that a short break was in store, and complained that the dome over the stadium court was leaking around the center of the baseline. The umpire came down, and arranged for one of the ballgirls to wipe the area down with a towel while Tatiana went for the towel herself. This, of course, didn’t sit well with Katarina, who had already gotten very emotional early on in the second set, questioning a line call or two, and slamming her racquet on the net. She wasn’t about to let her opponent think that she was about to come out on top with the mind games, though, and just as the girl was about to finish wiping the court and Tatiana was getting the balls to serve, Katarina went for the towel herself, taking her own time and making the Russian wait. The next point started well with Katarina, her return landing deep, sending Tatiana moving backwards, but the Russian, with her smaller mass, was soon moving forwards again, and her hard shots gave her control of the point. Katarina was reduced to blocking back a high lob, barely even able to get to the ball, and was sent scrambling after the overhead. She got that one back as well, and got herself back in the point. She followed her next shot to the net, always looking to move forward, but it wasn’t exactly the best of approach shots, and a hard drive from Tatiana passed her on the way in, landing exactly where the service line meets the doubles alley. Katarina had been getting passed all match long, basically because of her poor choice of approach, but credit has to be given to the Russian for coming up with shots like these. Most of the crowd was amused by her diminutive stature and strong build, and comments were going around that she’s built more like a wrestler than anything. Anyhow, those very characteristics also endeared her to them, and they cheered the Russian on. Holding her third match point, Tatiana swung her serve out wide, sending Katarina, who was standing just inside the baseline as she had for most of the match, scrambling after it. Katarina managed to get the ball back, but had left the entire court open, and, the Russian went on the attack, hitting the ball early and into the open court. Game, set and match, another loss for Katarina, but certainly a better effort from her. Hopefully, the Slovenian will get her head together during the break and find some motivation in something. As for Tatiana, she’d have a day of rest while her opponent would be decided between Jana Nejedly and Liezel Horn. Top seeds Asa Carlsson and Corina Morariu had taken to the court against Sylvia Plischke and Henrieta Nagyova on the other side of the stadium, and were up 4-1 in the first set. The doubles match was fantastic, featuring hard rallies and smart doubles play from both teams. All four players are more than capable doubles players, and none of them posed as a definite weak link in the team. Crosses at the net were timely, and all four players were constantly trying to move forward, resulting in many thrilling volley rallies with all four players at net. By far the most interesting match of the tournament thus far, the crowd was highly entertained by the amount of effort all four players were putting in. No ball was left for gone, and Corina and Henrieta were especially handy at retrieving balls that had passed by their partners. Sylvia showed great solidarity at the net, holding her ground even when her partner had compromised her position with a high return, and managed to get a number of balls slammed at her feet back over the net. The Austrian-Slovakian pair clawed their way back into the first set, but lost it 6-3 anyway. The second set was just as intense, if not entertaining as the first, but this time, Sylvia and Hentrieta came out on top, taking it with the same score. The third set was a huge battle, both teams going neck and neck, refusing to let the other get ahead. Not too many bad errors were going around, and the rallies were well constructed on both sides. The game went to 5-all, then the top seeds got the break on Sylvia’s serve and went up 6-5. The underdogs had played too hard and too long to give up, though, and played a couple of very strong points to break back on Asa’s serve, taking the match to a final set tie-breaker. In a match that was already fast and furious, it couldn’t get any better than this. Both teams got their points, keeping it dead even at 2-all. Sylvia got her second service point, and then got the mini-break on Asa’s serve to go up 4-2. Corina wasn’t the former top doubles player for nothing, though, and she and Asa went on the attack, taking Asa’s next service point and getting the break back on Henrieta’s serve to even it back at 4-all. The Slovakian managed to hold onto her next service point, and the competition was reaching its peak. In tough situations like these, Asa and Corina had the advantage of experience on their side, but Henrieta and Sylvia showed no signs of letting up. Henrieta continued to make her presence greatly felt at net, and a very timely cross from her gave her team the crucial mini-break, setting up 2 match points for her team. Serving to stay in the match, Corina’s second serve landed right on the service line, very nearly giving it away with a double-fault. Henrieta got engaged in a hard baseline rally, pulling Corina way to the back of the court, when Sylvia took her turn to make the cross, and stopped a volley dead in the center of the court. It was almost too hard to believe that the match was over, and there was a brief hesitation before the Austrian and Slovakian allowed themselves to feel the relief of coming through a tough match. A huge smile on both their faces, especially Sylvia who had come off the court very disappointed the previous day, they exchanged quick kisses on the cheek before shaking hands at the net. The top seeds hadn’t played a bad match at all, but had just come up against a team who wanted the win more, and were prepared to play their hearts out on court. Nevertheless, Corina came off the court looking half suicidal, sporting a kink in her bid to regain full confidence in herself. Back over on the other court, Silvia Farina was self destructing against wildcard Iva Majoli. Silvia was barely getting the ball across the net, not looking like she had any game plan whatsoever. In a match more painful to watch than a Chang 5-setter, Iva took a 6-1 lead. There was its share of drama, though, when Iva yelled at the umpire about several line calls in the second set, and finally called out Tour director Jim Moore to complain about it. The mind games didn’t sit well with Silvia, who had fought hard from 0-3 down to even it back up at 3-all. The Croat eventually went up 5-3, and had a good chance to end the match there, but the Italian fought back, taking it to 5-4. Iva had, throughout the match, beaten her in every category, though -- speed, power, aggressiveness -- and took 3 points in a row to hold 3 match points. A final unforced error from Silvia gave the match to the Croat, who fully believes in her capability of reaching the top 15 or so in the world. Another self-destruction was in store on the same court. Last year’s runners-up Rika Hiraki and Yuka Yoshida, seeded third this year, took to the court against Russians Anastasia Myskina and Evgenia Koulikovskaya. Anastasia totally self-destructed, and the shots coming off her racquet were simply unbelievable. As the match went on, the youngster got more and more frustrated, and was finally reduced to tears when the first set went 6-3 to the Japanese. She buried her head in her towel during the changeover, and was duly consoled by her partner. She continued to make appalling mistakes, her wrists still bothering her, but gradually started to clean her game up. Unfortunately, just as Anastasia started playing properly, her partner immediately self-destructed. In the space of 2 points, their roles were completely reversed, and if not for some uncharacteristic unforced errors coming off the Japanese’s racquets, the score would have been more like 6-3 6-0. Instead, they came off the court with an easy 6-3 6-3 win, while the Russians sat courtside, trying to recover emotionally from their performance. The stands cleared, and they sat there in silence, trying to make some sense of what had happened. The tournament over for both of them, they’d most likely hop on the Thursday flight to Pattaya, along with the rest of the players who had found themselves out of the tournament. SINGLES FIRST ROUND:
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