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by Prip Ah, the first day of the long-awaited and controversial Games of the XXVII Olympiad, or more commonly known as the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Controversy is not alien to the wonderful world of professional tennis, and this event would be no different, the biggest of which is the decision by the Americans to leave the number one doubles player Lisa Raymond behind in favour of Serena Williams. Of course, the official reason cited was that Serena is the overall stronger player and hence more deserving of the final team position. However, I personally believe that there are many more underlying factors and implications from this move. Logically, Serena Williams will have many more chances to represent her country at the Olympics and I feel that that should have been given more consideration in filling the last spot. Of course, the other major controversy was with the French Federation and Nathalie Tauziat. Just before the event was to start, though, Anke Huber was forced to withdraw with an injury, leaving Germany to rely on Jana Kandarr, who has had a great year so far. The German has made a remarkable comeback after dropping down the rankings a couple of years ago and taking time off earlier this year to complete her university degree. Patty Schnyder also pulled out, leaving the Swiss without their top two players. Instead, Emmanuelle Gagliardi and Miroslava Vavrinec would have to do the job. The Americans of course took the first three seeds, and are favoured to make a clean sweep of the medals. Coming in next are the two Spaniards, Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, and then Sandrine Testud leading the French squad. However, a day before play was due to commence, Sandrine was replaced by Julie Halard-Decugis who would have the task of fending off the challenge from the top Italian player, Tathiana "Tax" Garbin. The first featured match of the day would be between the third seed Monica Seles and Katalin Marosi, now Katalin Marosi-Aracama. Expecting that to be a quick match, I instead decided to catch Anastasia Myskina in action against the Greek Eleni Daniilidou, to check out the newbie to the tour. Eleni had a full cheering squad in her corner, including various members of her local media. The Russians were there for their player as well, most notably Elena Likhovtseva and Dementieva, and later on Marat Safin. "Nastya" has had a mixed year, notching wins over Alexandra Stevenson (twice), Corina Morariu, Erika de Lone, Amy Frazier, Kim Clijsters, and Barbara Schett, while still managing to come up with a 16-16 win-loss record this year. The youngster showed up for her match with her left wrist taped up, but started the match well enough, capitalizing on the Greek's inexperience. Keeping her unforced errors down to a minimum, the Russian took the first set, only dropping one game. Of course, Eleni had nothing more to lose, and pulled all the stops out. Playing more loosely, Eleni managed to come up with some fantastic shots. Of course, all the cheering from the Greek camp helped plenty. On the other hand, Anastasia started to make all sorts of unforced errors, getting more and more frustrated with herself. Anastasia has managed to improve her serve considerably in the last year, and this definitely helped her stay in the second set. Despite a courageous effort from Eleni, who took the initiative more often than not and made every effort to play aggressively and come in to net, the Russian's experience helped her squeak through to take the second set 7-5. Looking somewhat relieved, the Russian went through with her obligatory courtside interview and to accommodate the throng of fans that had gathered for autographs and to take photos with her. Meanwhile, the Greek media had brought a cake out, and they all started to sign the birthday song to Eleni who was packing her bag up. What a way to spend a birthday -- representing your country in the biggest sporting event in the world. On a nearby court, Olga Barabanschikova was having trouble against the Austrian Patricia Wartusch. Olga was had her usual stylish shots, but was missing everything by a couple of inches. Patricia took the first set 6-4, and looked calm and collected. Natasha Zvereva was in the stands to support her countrywoman, but was rather quiet in her corner. Just then, I noticed a familiar figure relaxing in the sun on the opposite stands, and went over to have a quick chat with Tathiana Garbin. On court, Olga was losing grip of her game, and despite putting in a lot of effort, the errors came too often and the momentum stayed firmly with the Austrian. The fact that the crowd was relatively quiet compared to Olga's usual matches probably didn't help the Belarussian at all. What she lacks in the ability to keep her concentration on court she makes up for in her ability to draw from the crowd. Patricia did well to keep a firm hold of things, and took the 6-4 6-2 win. Leaving Tathiana who was heading towards the players' lounge with my best wishes for her match the following day, I went off in the opposite direction to show court 2 where the fifteenth seed Elena Likhovtseva was up against German hopeful Jana Kandarr. The match was still on serve at 3-4, Kandarr serving. Jana was in fine form, playing her game and looking fully confident. On the other hand, Elena might not have quite expected such strong play from her opponent, and for the first half of the first set, was simply trying to keep up with her opponent. Usually a smart player and well prepared for her matches, Elena looked more shell-shocked than I've seen her in quite a while. She collected herself and played smart on the big points, though, trying to figure a way through the German's armour. When things didn't look like they were going to turn her way, she used her experience -- taking her time between points, getting the towel, intimidating the linesperson by questioning a couple of line calls and arguing at length with the umpire -- a side of Elena I've rarely seen before. Jana finally got the break to go up 5-4, playing a solid baseline game. With the smart tactics Elena was using, Jana was pretty much forced to play from all around the court, but still preferred to out-rally her opponent from the baseline. Jana's own service game went to deuce, and Elena had a chance to break back. She totally mishit a return of serve (a fault from Jana), and the ball flew straight and hard right at the umpire. The umpire just managed to avoid getting hit, and managed to compose herself, nodding at Elena's apology. Feeling the pressure and trying to go for a little too much, unforced error after unforced error came off Elena's racquet, and Jana held serve after a bit of a struggle, taking the first set 6-4. The story remained the same for the second set, only this time, the German was doing very well to adapt to the variety in the Russian's game, not only handling nearly everything thrown at her very well, but showing her own versatility as well. Of course, Jana was considerably fresher than Elena, having had a more relaxed schedule this year. The 15th seed hung tough, not appreciating the thought of letting her country down, and games continued to go on serve until 4-all again. Facing break point, Elena had her opponent on the ropes several times, but hit a high overhead way into the stands on the opposite side of the stands to lose serve. Right on cue, Jana stepped up the pace, and played aggressively to take the final game easily, scoring the first upset of the women's draw. Next to come on court would be Arnaud di Pasquale and 9th seed Nicolas Kiefer. I suppose that playing in the Olympics was far too tempting for the reluctant Davis Cup player to skip. His performance could have done with a little boost, though, as the sunnies-and-bandana-clad Frenchman, spurred on by his teammates, played bold tennis to send the German packing with a 6-4 6-3 loss. On court 5, the much-touted youngster Cara Black was due to face Silvia Farina, now ranked 19 places behind her. Cara had a fantastic start to the year, reaching the final in Auckland, and has notched wins over both Jennifer Capriati and Silvija Talaja on their respective home turfs, Elena Likhovtseva and Amanda Coetzer on the way to being ranked just inside the top 40. Cara had to come in the match with full confidence, with all the factors -- ranking, surface and crowd support -- in her favour. Cara got the break to open the match, drawing unforced errors off the Italian's racquet. Serving and volleying her way out of trouble on her own service game, Cara managed to consolidate to take the first two games of the match. Silvia once again faced the prospect of being broken, and was down 15-30 on her serve when she decided to change racquets. That seemed to do the trick, and she soon settled into the match, minimizing on the unforced errors and playing her distinct clay court style. Cara was trying to be aggressive, but just could not follow through, and from being ahead 2-0, found the next six games and the first set taken away from her. Feeling that things were going to go the Italian's way, I left to catch the lone Romanian tennis player, Ruxandra Dragomir, against Nicole Pratt. With Irina Spirlea hurtling down the rankings after playing only 17 WTA matches all year, winning only 5 of them, and the closest player being Catalina Cristea, tennis would have to be the if not one of the weakest sports for the Romanians. Ruxandra was in deep trouble when I got to the court. Nicole was playing with her aggressive attacking game (minus the diving around the court), and really taking it to Ruxie. The loud Aussie crowd had no inhibitions about spurring their underdog home girl to victory, and Nicole was very clearly drawing on that, pumping her fist and letting out a yell on getting a nice winner. She also had the knowledge that her mother, working as a tennis commentator for a local television network, was watching and had to be proud of her. Ruxandra was run all over the court and was barely able to make any plays. More often than not, when she did take control of the rally, she couldn't finish off the point, and the Romanian kept getting more and more frustrated with herself. The match was a lot more straightforward than the score indicates, and the Aussie played her heart out to take the match 6-3 6-3, amidst thunderous applause from the crowd. Meanwhile, out on court 3, the 13th seed Silvija Talaja was strolling through her first-round match. Luck of the draw had given her the easiest first-round match, drawn against wildcard Neyssa Etienne of Haiti. All Silvija had to do was keep the ball in play, and let the youngster (just a month short of hitting 17 years) make the mistakes. Neyssa might have simply been overwhelmed by the occasion, and didn't showcase anything worth mentioning, but managed to avoid being double-bagelled by the Croatian number one. In the blink of an eye, Silvija was packing her bags, a 6-1 6-0 victory under her belt, thinking about her upcoming match against Silvia Farina -- a rematch of their clash 5 months ago in the Italian's home turf, on a surface both players built their games on. Silvia's win had been far from easy, though. Typical of young players, once Cara found herself on the losing end of the match, she started playing a cleaner game, cutting down on unforced errors. She had served well through the first set, and although her serve was a very effective factor, it had a rather predictable pattern. Cara liked to go down the middle on the deuce side and out wide on the ad side, and the Italian soon picked up on it. Almost predictably, as soon as the Zimbabwean had evened the match up at 1 set apiece, the unforced errors started to creep into her game again, and Silvia's steady play earned her a 6-2 3-6 6-3 victory. With most of the matches finished, the final match of the day for me would be between Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn and Slovenia's Tina Pisnik. As sweet as ever, Tamarine had been extremely friendly earlier that day when I went up to have a chat with her after her practice session. Tamarine has had a fantastic year, reaching the final in Birmingham and the 4th round in Wimbledon on her favourite surface, and more recently coming through qualifying in Manhattan Beach to reach the second round, and making it to the 3rd round in the U.S Open before falling against Lindsay Davenport. Tina Pisnik has had a mixed year, winning the singles title in Bol, but managing little else lately. Tina is, like that other popular Slovenian, Katarina Srebotnik, extremely talented, but struggled with minor injuries earlier this year. Both players have since fully recovered, but Tina has arrived in Sydney in less than full health. Tamarine served to open the match, and held serve easily. Tamarine was absolutely smacking the ball, but Tina did well to keep up with the heavy-hitting Thai. Tina came to the match with the right idea, she was doing very well to mix up the pace and spin on the ball, but the sheer pace of Tammy's groundies was forcing the errors off the Slovenian's racquet. A double-fault gave Tina an early break and a 2-1 lead. However, she soon found herself down 0-40 on her own service game. Playing courageously, she brought the game to deuce, and faced another 2 break points before conceding her own service game. Tammy continued to hit the ball hard and deep, but was also doing quite a bit of running herself. On the other side of the court, Tina kept herself in the game by anticipating the ball remarkably well and continuing to vary the spin on the ball, not allowing the Thai to groove on her shots. At this point, it should be noted that Tammy had only been able to hit two or three clean winners, including about 5 overheads, not for the lack of quality on her part, but because of either Tina's amazing job of anticipating which direction the ball was going to go, or her incredible luck at guessing. Tammy managed to hold serve, taking the game on an ace, and called for the trainer as both players went to sit down. As her left foot was being treated (didn't look like anything major, probably a blister), Tina poured a bit of water over her legs to keep cool in the heat. Players were back on court soon enough, and despite being run from corner to corner, Tina hung tough and took 4 points in a row to hold serve at love. At this point, a bit of wind started swirling on court, which had to give Tina a bit of an edge. Tina had a chance to break again, but lost it on an unforced error. Both players managed to hold serve to bring it to 4-5. It looked like the set would go the distance when Tina went up 40-love on her serve, but the Slovenian simply failed to convert any of the game points, and lost both her service game and the first set. Cursing herself for wasted opportunities, Tina composed herself, and picked up the play to break in the first game of the second set, but once again failed to consolidate the break. Tina might have had more success had she come in to net more, but Tammy's shots were simply too deep, pinning the youngster to the baseline. There was no way the Slovenian was going to keep up with Tammy in a baseline rally, although she was certainly doing better than most players would. The second set was a repeat of the first, and Tammy took the 6-4 6-3 victory. Totally dejected, Tina went through a lengthy obligatory post-match interview, then took some time to collect her thoughts before heading off to the locker room. I sincerely hope that Tina finds full health and a suitable steady coach soon. |