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by Prip First order of the day was to see how Jelena Kostanic was doing. Showing lots of promise early in the year, the youngster was putting in shaky results so far in the clay season, the very period she should have been climbing up the rankings. The Croats were already hard at work on the courts, and by the time I had settled everything and headed out to the practice courts, they were finishing up. Silvija and Jelena (who had her left ankle taped lightly) were having a hit, with Jelena's coach walking around the courts as usual, picking balls and throwing in comments. I walked over to say hi, and left them to finish up their session. Jelena would have a big day ahead of her, playing in her first Federation Cup singles match. At #88 in the world, Jelena was far from being the Number Two player for Croatia, but in my opinion, would have turned in a far better performance than Mirjana Lucic (WTA Ranked #51) anyway, with the troubled tennis the now Florida-based former wunderkind was showing. Still intent on putting her past as far away behind her as possible, Mirjana had decided not to play for her country yet again, after contributing to bringing her country up to World Group I in 1998. She has always played hard for her country, winning even in times when her results were dismal to say the least, and has chalked up a 12-1 record, her sole loss coming against Anke Huber. Silvija Talaja would obviously be the number one player for her country, and has a 5-2 singles record, both losses coming against the USA last year. Rounding off the team would be Iva Majoli, who had pretty much taken a sabbatical from the tour since her historic win at the French Open in 1997 (preventing Martina Hingis from being the youngest player to ever win the Grand Slam). I doubt that the Croatian team's captain, Sasa Hirszon was planning on playing her, though, and she was there for support as well as in case either Silvija or Jelena couldn't play. Along for some experience was Ivana Abramovic (#535), who from a distance looks pretty similar to a 15-year-old Lucic. In fact, Ivana looks more like Mirjana than any of Mirjana's sisters. Ivana is one of the young Croatian players who will be slowly making their way into the WTA tournaments this year. Ivana was introduced to tennis at age 7 ½ when her father saw an ad in the newspaper for a small introductory tennis workshop and decided that his kids needed some extra activities. He sent all 7 (with 4 sisters and 2 brothers -- Ivana laughingly says that she thinks hers is the largest family in Croatia) of them, and Ivana, the eldest, was "discovered". Her first WTA event of the year will obviously be the Croatian Bol Open, where she will receive a wild card. Ranked #486 after jumping up 60 places from a week before, Ivana will be juggling professional tennis and her studies (born in 1983, she is still in high school). Apart from casually playing a few sports other than tennis, especially basketball, she can find little time to do anything else. As with the younger generation nowadays, she favours her backhand over her forehand, and loves the backhand down the line. Sporting a pretty athletic build, Ivana has well-developed groundstrokes, an average serve (she'll need to grow to her full height), commendable footspeed, but is uncomfortable at net -- all the characteristics of players her age. Unlike her compatriot Maja Muric who left the game recently, though, Ivana seems to enjoy this path of life so far, and her pleasant off-court demeanor and strong command of English will certainly help her along. On the other side, Germany would be headed by the slightly over-ranked Anke Huber. Anke had been taking her own sweet time starting the year, losing a couple of first and second round matches, until she finally decided to boost both her confidence and her ranking by playing in and winning the Tier IV-A event in Estoril a week before the Federation Cup. Germany's number two, Barbara Rittner wasn't playing the singles match, but would play with Anke in the doubles. In her place would be German Nummer Zwolf Andrea Glass, for some odd reason. Jana Kandarr wasn't called for Fed Cup duty as she was finishing up her studies in Germany. Rounding off the team was Marlene Weingartner, with Anca Barna who came along for the experience. With more than an hour before matches were to start, I walked around, watching the players practice and getting a first-hand update on their form. The Italian team had just arrived, and I took the opportunity to congratulate Tathiana Garbin on winning her first WTA title at Budapest after falling just short a couple of times. Tathiana has had a marvelous clay season this year, and has moved from #126 at the beginning of the year to #55 this week. Andrea Glass (GER) versus Jelena Kostanic (CRO) Finally, the first match of the day was to start. Jelena Kostanic would take on Andrea Glass, and on paper, it seemed like a horribly mismatched competition. Anja Rasmussen (my favourite umpire, by the way) tossed the coin, and Germany elected to serve. As Jelena walked to the baseline, it was obvious that she had been doing some strength training, and looked a little stronger around the shoulders and thighs. Her extra weight didn't stop her from running around as quickly as ever, though. The Croat was certainly at home on the red clay, but looked like her mind was far from the match in the beginning. Nevertheless, Andrea found her serve broken in the opening game of the opening match of the tournament. Jelena managed to build her focus as the match went along, and while she had a few short lapses every now and then, she was certainly concentrating a lot better than a few months ago. Her serve, already a weapon in the first place, has improved, and good lefty servers are certainly not favourite opponents on the tour. Her second serve, while it has good spin and kick, is rather easy to read, though, and with good preparation, Andrea managed to run around the ball to hit some down-the-line winners. Andrea, while she looked a little uneasy in the first few games, started playing a lot better, and with Markus Schur advising her, capitalized on Jelena's impatience. Andrea got the first break to go up 5-3. Always playing brilliantly from behind, Jelena suddenly took control of the points and broke back immediately. She carried her momentum to hold serve, but a momentary mental lapse gave Andrea an easy service game. In the tie-break, Andrea got an early lead, but Jelena evened it up, and held one set point at 6-4. She hit a swinging backhand volley way long to bring it to 6-5, and double-faulted on the next to even it up at 6-all. Jelena suddenly made a conscious effort to be more patient, and it paid off when she got the unforced error off the German's racquet, giving her set point #2, but she couldn't capitalize on it. Andrea made the most of her narrow escape, and picked up her play a little, taking more initiative. She worked on Jelena's forehand, which had started becoming a little erratic, and got the unforced error to take the tie break 11-9. The second set was a totally different story, though. Jelena came out blasting, and Andrea had absolutely no answers to her opponent's rejuvenated play. The small crowd was treated to superb tennis from the Croat, and Andrea grew increasingly frustrated as she watched game after game fly past. Even the most energetic of players have to run out of steam at one point, though, and Jelena slowed her game down as the set progressed, but nevertheless took the second set 6-1 in under 30 minutes. While Jelena's game was slowly winding down, Andrea was making a bigger effort, running after everything in sight. Jelena was too good, though, and the last couple of games were especially good for her, as she showed her maturity in taking control of the points from the start, playing forcefully and not letting her opponent even contemplate making the play. She took the risks, and fortunately, she hit more than she missed, and took the third set 6-3 to win her first Federation Cup singles match for her country.
Silvija had left courtside after the first 2 games to prepare for her match, but had she stayed, she might have been more inspired for her match. Things weren't looking too good for her even before the match started. She broke her racquet strings at the end of the warmup, and had to use a different racquet for the match. Her floating spinny shots were no match for Anke's flat groundies, and before anyone had even realized that the match had started, Anke took the first three games. Anke had total control of the match throughout, and points that were actually won by Silvija were few and far between - her groundstrokes were as short as Anke's skirt was. To make matters worse, Silvija was mistiming and mishitting a lot of shots. Anke dictated play throughout, and Silvija was left to react to whatever Anke dished up. If it were not for a couple of strings of unforced errors from Anke, it was probable that Silvija would have only managed to get 1 or 2 games in the whole match. It wasn't long before Anke had secured her country's place in the tournament, winning 6-2 6-2 (the match was far more painful to watch than the score indicates). The marks on the freshly-swept clay told the story -- the footmarks on Silvija's side on average about 5 feet behind the baseline while Anke's were on average about a foot inside.
With the two countries tied, it was up to the doubles match to decide the winner. Germany's best doubles team, Anke Huber and Barbara Rittner, would take on Croatia's only two practical players, Jelena Kostanic and Silvija Talaja. The Germans won the toss and elected to receive. No surprise, Jelena would open for her team. Silvija continued to have a bad day, and was feeling more and more frustrated that she was letting her country down. The Germans quickly went up 5-1, when the Silvija finally started to get into the match. Jelena was doing a good job at net, and Silvija was doing well to keep up with the hard flat shots from both Germans, and all four players had pretty quick reflexes at net. The way the Germans were blasting the balls, though, it was only a matter of time before either Jelena or Silvija would have to be treated for a concussion. In a great show of courage, much to the delight of the growing crowd, the Croats fought hard, and little by little, the raised the level of their collective game and clawed their way up to 5-4. Anke had already nearly taken Jelena's head off twice, but ironically, the first player to be hit by the ball was Barbara Rittner. Jelena had slammed a high volley at Babsi's feet, but in trying to move away from the ball, Barbara moved into the path of the ball and got hit. As always, the doubles play was a lot more entertaining than the singles matches, and even those who weren't paying much attention earlier were sitting watching intently as the two teams played a very good match. All sorts of remarkable shots were thrown around the court, landing inches from the lines. Two incidences did leave a small impression, though. On one point, both Anke and Barbara were up at net when Jelena threw a lob up towards the corner of the court. Anke ran to get it, but couldn't get there in time and gave up halfway. She turned around to get in position for the next point, when the linesman called the ball out. Jelena and Silvija asked the umpire to check the mark, and Anke was honest enough to say that she couldn't recognize which one it was. Barbara, who had been standing on the other side of the court, quickly walked towards where the ball had landed and circled a mark that was just outside the baseline, which the confused linesman didn't correct. The umpire, not knowing better, confirmed the linesman's call. On another instant, Jelena hit an amazing forehand past both Anke and Barbara, and the shot was called out. Unfortunately, the call came late, and the crowd was clapping and applauding the shot, so none of the players heard the call. Barbara was facing the net, and saw the umpire asking the linesman if the ball was out. Walking to the baseline, she brushed over the mark before either Silvija or Jelena had even realized that the call had gone against them. These may be regular occurrences on the tour, but it still symbolizes bad sportsmanship. The Croats ended up losing 6-4 6-1, but the match was certainly more entertaining and better contested than the score indicates. This gave Germany the first victory of the tie, a 2-1 win over Croatia. Giulia Casoni (ITA) versus Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (ESP) After an hour's break, the opening ceremony was held, introducing the members of all four teams. Spectators had come in full force to see their country perform against overwhelming favourites Spain, and the stands were packed. After the short ceremony, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario got on the court with -- Giulia Casoni. Perhaps feeling that neither Silvia Farina nor Rita Grande had a chance of winning against Arantxa and Conchita Martinez, the Italian team's captain, Rafaella Reggi decided to give the two doubles players a bit of experience and conserve her top players' energy. As expected, Giulia was way out of her league, but put in a good effort anyway. The Italians, not familiar with tennis and probably not knowing that their two top players were not playing, must have been scratching their heads at the flogging their player was receiving, but nevertheless cheered her on. Giulia ended up losing 6-1 6-1, leading to the second match.
More surprise for the general public as Tathiana Garbin walked out on court against Conchita Martinez. Tathiana had just moved past Rita Grande as the Numero Due player for Italy, but was probably still considered more of a doubles player for the team. Italy won the toss, and Tathiana elected to serve. She played absolutely brilliant tennis from the start, giving the crowd something to really cheer about after the previous match. Throwing in beautiful drop shots that just crossed the net, slicing her backhands so that it skidded over the clay and absolutely smacking her forehands, Tathiana jumped to a 3-0 lead, running down everything and not giving Conchita anything. Conchita soon got warmed up, though, and started driving the Italian crazy with her usual array of spins and changing the pace of the ball on every shot. The momentum shifted as suddenly as Tathiana had burst ahead, and to add to things, the Italian was now making a ton of errors. Conchita took 7 games in a row, stunning the celebrating crowd. Looking dejected during the changeovers, Tathiana listened as Rafaella Reggi advised her on how to keep her head on against Conchita. I think it would have worked better if Rafaella had simply handed the Italian her walkman and headphones, as Tathiana seems to have techno music pumping through her veins. She did manage to stop Conchita's run, though, and with her first serve working well again, managed to keep up with the Spaniard. The first half of the second set again saw good tennis from both players, and the Italian crowd were certainly hoping for three sets, if not a chance to see both countries battle it out in the doubles. After struggling for half a set, though, Conchita showed why she is the number 8th ranked player in the world, and closed out the second set 6-3. Tathiana looked dejected as she slumped in her chair. Her team members surrounded her, trying to console her, but she felt that she had let opportunity slip by, and kept to herself when walking back to the locker room. An hour later, she was her smiling self again, though, when walking to the press conference. Nothing can keep the smile away from her face for long.
In the final match, Magui Serna and Christina Torrens-Valero took on Giulia Casoni and Rita Grande. The Italians fared no better in the match, and despite raising their compatriots' hopes by taking the second set, lost 6-2 3-6 6-1. That concluded play for the day at the Circolo Tennis in Bari. Elsewhere in the world, Bratislava, specifically, the Czech Republic had scored an upset over Austria, with Kvetoslava Hrdlickova defeating Patricia Wartusch 6-3 1-6 6-3, and Denisa Chladkova defeating Barbara Schett 7-5 4-6 6-2. The Austrians managed to save themselves too much embarrassment, though, by winning their doubles match, with Barbara and Patricia defeating Kvetoslava and Daja Bedanova 7-6(4) 2-6 6-3. Switzerland disappoints the Slovakian fans, with Emmanuelle Gagliardi defeating Henrieta Nagyova 5-7 6-2 6-1, and Patty Schnyder upending Karina Habsudova 6-1 6-4. In Group C action, Belgium scored a 2-1 win against Australia, with Laurence Courtois defeating Nicole Pratt 6-1 2-6 7-5. Jelena Dokic actually managed to save her country by winning her singles match against fellow youngster Kim Clijsters 7-6(4) 5-7 9-7, but the Belgians took it anyway in the doubles match, with Els Callens (a very able doubles player) and Laurence defeating Alicia Molik and Rennae Stubbs (obviously no slouch on the doubles court either) 0-6 6-0 10-8. Looking at the scores, I probably should have been in Moscow instead of Bari. France were well on their way, scoring a 3-0 win over Russia, with Sandrine Testud defeating Elena Likhovtseva 6-1 6-4 and Julie Halard-Decugis defeating Anna Kournikova 6-2 2-6 6-1. In the doubles match, Julie Halard and Nathalie Tauziat, arguably one of the best teams of the world on paper, defeated former doubles partners Anna Kournikova and Elena Likhovtseva 6-3 7-6(5). The following day in Bari would see Croatia take on the favourites, Spain. |