All Eyes on Tanasugarn on Getaway Day
by Prip
Day 4 of competition, and things were getting more interesting.
As the day started, my picks for the final remained to be Jelena
Dokic and Tamarine Tanasugarn. Both would see some action today,
Jelena in her first match of the tournament in the evening match,
and Tammy against Dragana Zaric, winner of the event at Cardiff.
Dragana was sitting in the stands for most of the morning, and
later had a practice session with Jelena Dokic, along with Sylvia
Plischke, who hit against her doubles partner, Henrieta Nagyova.
Tatiana Panova played in the first match of the day against
Jana Nejedly. The Canadian looked just as bad in this match
as she had in her previous one, and certainly wasn’t in form. In a
match that was boring to say the least, the 5-foot Russian came
through, moving into the quarterfinals with a 6-4 6-4 win.
The other match was little more interesting. Sylvia Plischke and
Henrieta Nagyova were in doubles play against Petra Mandula and
Patricia Wartusch. Petra had been excellent about providing
support for her partner, and is only playing in doubles here. The
two have been pretty much inseparable all tournament, and you could
not find one without the other. In the first few games of the match,
Patricia played like she had in her singles, and it looked like she
might as well not have showed up at all for her match. Her partner
continued to push her on, though, and she picked her game up very
quickly.
The pair was no match for Sylvia and Henrieta, though, especially
Henrieta who was playing very aggressively. Sylvia tended to do a
much better job at the net than from the baseline, and was pretty
fearless. She returned so many balls that were hit at her feet that
I couldn’t believe it, and should have been very happy with her
performance in the match. Henrieta played very solid tennis, and her
doubles has certainly been good for her singles. As the match went
on, I was increasingly impressed by her, and liked her chances at
progressing in the tournament. She and Sylvia were certainly the
much stronger pair, but totally fell asleep in the second set.
They lost it 4-6 after taking the first set 6-1, and fell behind
0-2 in the third set, but finally woke up and took the last 6 games
in a row to wrap the match up. Asked about what had happened in the
second set, both of them could only smile sheepishly. Henrieta said
that it was terrible and joked that she’d much rather forget about
it, while Sylvia just shook her head and said that they totally fell
asleep out there.
Back on the other court was a much closer match. Martina Sucha, sole
qualifier left in the draw, continued to do well here. I had come
into the tournament expecting something from the 20-year-old, but
certainly not this much. Tina Hergold had also risen to the occasion
in the doubles, which I expected to carry over to her singles game.
Both players were coming into the match brimming with confidence.
To my delight, Martina came onto court back to her casual shorts
and t-shirt. I have no idea what her sponsor thinks about this, or
even if she has a sponsor, and will have to ask her about it the next
time I get a chance. She got off to a bad start, and was broken in
the very first game, but immediately broke back, much to the
annoyance of Tina. Both players were playing well, but Tina was
having a slightly easier time on her serve. At 3-all, Martina was
in danger of losing her serve, but she kept calm, not rushing her
serve, but her serve was still giving her trouble. Tina was taking
full advantage of this, and her returns were putting her in control
of the points. She got the break to go up 4-3, and this time
managed to consolidate the break for a 5-3 lead. Sucha’s serving
troubles continued to plague her game, and Tina got the second
break to take the second set 6-3.
Tina again got an early break in the second set, and was up 2-1,
40-love, serving. Martina had had a very slow last couple of games,
and it looked like the match was Tina’s to take. However, I had
underestimated the Slovakian, and she suddenly looked very determined
to get back into the match. Despite facing 3 game, points, she
played more aggressively, managing to keep the unforced errors way
down. It took Tina all three points to hold serve, and the Slovenian
got really upset with herself. She slammed the ball into the back
of the court, and it obviously bounced back off it. At the same time,
she had asked the ball boy for a ball, and found two balls coming at
her. The ball the ballboy had thrown bounced off her shin, and all
that confusion only served to annoy her even more. She finally got a
ball from the kid, and held her serve for a 3-1 lead.
Martina Sucha was starting to pull the momentum to her side,
though, and kept her cool. Tina, on the other hand, was really
starting to fall apart. In the span of one game, in which Tina
still held a break of serve, the match totally turned around, and
Martina now looked in control. She showed incredible maturity in
keeping herself in check while Tina simply lost it. The Slovakian
took full advantage of the opportunity that was presenting itself,
which further drove her opponent nuts, and from a seemingly hopeless
position, took the next six games in a row and eventually the match
3-6 6-3 6-2. A bizarre match to say the least, but certainly a good
one for Sucha. As for Tina, it remains to be seen as to whether she
will learn from this experience or simply lose all confidence in
herself.
Next on court were Tamarine Tanasugarn and Dragana Zaric.
Tammy was fully expected to come through in this match and Dragana
hardly put up a challenge in the first set. Her shots were flying
everywhere, and her first serve percentage was worrying. Tammy
quickly took the first set 6-2. All of a sudden, the Yugoslavian
totally picked up her game, and her shots started to find their mark.
She started slamming her first serves in, giving her easy service
points. She ran the Thai from one side of the court to the other,
hitting the ball hard and deep. All the players come into their
matches against Tamarine with that sole intent, but few actually
manage to do it, and the Yugoslavian was doing a heckuva job. She
actually sent Tammy practically diving for the ball on one point,
and Tammy ended up on the floor. Just as quickly as the first set
had gone, Dragana took the second set 6-1, much to everyone’s
surprise.
Typically, though, Dragana couldn’t maintain her high level of play.
Her brain took a break, and Tammy went in for the kill. She ended up
taking the match 6-2 1-6 6-1, and headed off court for another
marathon -- this time, with the press. Her press conference was cut
very brief, as she had another 3 television features to do, and had
to fit in her massage session somewhere in between. In fact, due to
the high demand for her time, the accommodating Thai had to switch
massage sessions with Anastasia Myskina, who had hung around for the
whole match and is due to fly out to Thailand tomorrow.
So far, Tammy has had two tough matches. The first match, of course,
had gone a lot quicker, but the score is a lot more straightforward
than the match actually was. Tammy had a lot of praises for her
opponent, and admitted that had Dragana been able to sustain her
focus, she would have been a goner. Always ready to give praise to
her opponent, Tammy still sounded a bit flustered after her "narrow"
escape, and said a couple of good things about her opponent in the
brief interview.
I don’t have too much to say about Dragana Zaric, as her performance
had been too up-and-down to comment on, but I suppose as the winner
of the event at Cardiff and having taken a set 6-1 against the
hard-hitting Thai, she must have a bright future in the tennis. She
didn’t show too much variety in her game, and neither did she show
any signs of having a plan B to revert to if plan A didn’t work.
Hopefully, we’ll see a bit more of her around the tour next year.
Although Tammy wouldn’t put too much emphasis on it, she had let her
guard down and lost her concentration in the second set as well.
Having seen this match as well as how Henrieta Nagyova was doing in the
doubles, I must say that if both of them come through their next
matches, I’d give the edge to the Slovakian to get through the
match. Henrieta has had an extremely bizarre year, starting with a
split with her Pavel Slozil in December last year, and suffering
from a slew of injuries in the beginning of this year. She entered
the tournament in Warsaw, Poland with a 1-6 win-loss record, and
suddenly took the title there, defeating Kristie Boogert and
Tathiana Garbin on the way. She then played 5 matches, losing 4 of
them, and suddenly won the title in Palermo, defeating Rita Grande
and Silvia Farina on home ground, as well as Justine Henin, Nuria
Llagostera and Pavlina Nola.
She is now working with Thomas Malek, who once worked with Jana
Novotna, and appears to be full of confidence in herself despite
having had such a shaky year. Taking one match at a time, no one
has paid much attention to the Slovak who started the year in the
thirties and is now in the sixties. When asked about what
performance would make her happy, she said that she would love to
take the title here, and believed that she is fully capable. I
certainly believe so, looking at the level of tennis she is
capable of and her ability to maintain her concentration. She
has set high goals for herself, but in full knowledge that she
is perfectly capable of reaching them, which I think is an
excellent mentality to have in a game like this. She certainly could
take the title here -- the only player I can see standing in her way
is Jelena Dokic.
On the other court, the first set between Liezel Horn / Vanessa
Webb and Angelika Bachmann / Eva Dyrberg was just over.
The South African - Canadian pairing had met almost no resistance in
taking it 6-1, and were on the same track in the second. They jumped
to a 5-1 lead in the second set, and held one match point which was
miraculously saved by Angelika and Eva. That seemed to boost their
confidence a little, and the German-Danish team suddenly came alive.
Little by little, they fought their way back, and actually brought
the second set into a tie-breaker. Both teams were playing hard by
this point, and the tie-breaker was pretty close. Liezel and Vanessa
took the lead, though, and held several match points, all of which
were saved. 6-all, and the tension was incredible. For the first time,
Eva and Angelika took the lead, and had an opportunity to extend the
match into three sets, but an unforced error from Eva lost it. 7-all.
Horn/Webb took the next point on a forced error from Bachmann, and
once again held match point. The crowd which was concentrated at the
far end of the court, was now watching this match on the edge of
their seats. No one could believe it then when Eva double-faulted
to give the match away. The girl slammed her racquet, which
consequently broke into several pieces, before shaking her opponents
hands at the net. She headed straight for her chair and buried her
face in her towel, sobbing uncontrollably. Angelika tried consoling
her partner despite feeling disappointed herself, and the crowd
really felt for the Danish girl.
Finally, Jelena Dokic came out on court for her first match of the
tournament. On the other side of the court was Iva Majoli,
tournament wildcard. The previous year, wildcard Joanette Kruger had
done very well, and it would be determined if Iva could do just as
well. In her interview earlier, Iva had expressed her belief that
she belongs among the top players on the tour, and aims to re-enter
to top ten. Later when asked about it, Silvija Talaja agreed that she
believed her good friend could make it, but said that Iva would need
to be serious about her tennis and put a lot of hard work into it
instead of just playing 5 tournaments a year and expecting everything
to fall into place.
As the match started, the crowd became delighted that they’d be
treated to a real match instead of a walkover. Iva showed no signs
of intimidation and looked fully confident. In fact, looking at the
players, both looked like they felt they were the favoured player in
the match, each for different reasons. Both players held serve to
open the match, and Jelena went up 2-1 before the changeover. At
this point of the match, I unfortunately had to leave the stadium
if I was to make it in time to catch my flight. I was already
pushing it, what with the traffic jams that Kuala Lumpur is famous
for, especially since it was rush hour on a Friday. I felt very
tempted to stay and just cancel my flight, but my saner alter ego
kicked in and I dragged myself away from the tournament grounds
(not that I got very far -- there was a traffic jam right outside
the entrance).
I managed to receive match updates on my mobile phone as I made
my way to the airport, and was told that Jelena had taken the first
set 6-1. All looked well for the Aussie, and I didn’t bother calling
back for score updates until I had checked my luggage in (just in
time) and was making my way to one of the cafes to grab a bite
before boarding the plane. To my surprise, I was told that Iva
Majoli had taken the second set 6-4 and was up 4-1 in the third! A
million thoughts went through my head, and it looked like the Croat
was indeed serious about her tennis now. Of course, she had been
talking like she was serious about her tennis, but anyone who knows
Iva knows that she is a genuine party girl, and isn’t exactly the
hardest worker on the tour. She ended up taking the match 1-6 6-4 6-2
just as I boarded the plane, and that gave me a bit of food for
thought for the flight. Things were starting to look interesting, and
while just 9 hours ago, I was sure that the final would be played
between Tamarine Tanasugarn and Jelena Dokic, I was now thinking that
it would be Henrieta Nagyova and Iva Majoli.
Taking a look at the schedule of play for the next day, I decided
never to plan to go to a tournament and miss the ending of it ever
again. In any case, it had been worthwhile taking the break for
Kuala Lumpur, and I really felt that a lot is going to happen during
the upcoming break to make the start of 2001 very interesting.
Singles main draw second round:
- Corina Morariu def. Silvija Talaja (1) 6-2 6-2
- Henrieta Nagyova def. Asa Carlsson (6) 6-4 6-2
- Tamarine Tanasugarn (3) def. Dragana Zaric 6-2 1-6 6-1
- Joanette Kruger def. Sandra Kleinova 7-5 7-5
- Tatiana Panova (5) def. Jana Nejedly 6-4 6-4
- Martina Sucha (Q) def. Tina Hergold 3-6 6-3 6-2
- Pavlina Nola def. Iroda Tulyaganova (Q) 7-5 4-0 ret.
- Iva Majoli (WC) def. Jelena Dokic 1-6 7-5 6-1
Doubles main draw first round:
- Srebotnik/Krizan def. Basuki/Vis 2-6 6-3 6-2
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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