Crunch Time for Germany and Spain on Day Three
by Prip
The first match of the day did indeed feature Tathiana Garbin against
Jelena Kostanic. Admittedly, I never used to do well when watching
matches with one of my favourite players, being a person who gets too
emotional about tennis, but while I have calmed down considerably over
the years, I do become a wreck when two of my favourite players are on
court. Less than a year ago was the most recent major match featuring
two of my absolute favourites, Steffi Graf and Mirjana Lucic in the
semifinal of Wimbledon, and that match was bittersweet, one moment joy
for whichever player gets the tough points and the next moment sorrow
for the player who didn't. But regardless of who wins these matches, I
always appreciate the tennis and not so much who actually won the
match. This time, Tathiana Garbin and Jelena Kostanic would play off.
I anticipated a good match from both players, both hungry to prove
their worth for different reasons and at different stages of their
career. I was also eager to see the two distinct styles clash, Jelena
having a more tenacious, straight-to-the-point style than Tathiana who
is more flamboyant and free-flowing. Both players have strong serves,
and of course, the speed, but Jelena has neater footwork, taking
smaller steps while Tathiana pretty much just runs everywhere.
Tathiana Garbin (ITA) versus Jelena Kostanic (CRO)
Jelena Kostanic was eager to switch her Federation Cup singles record
to a winning one, and as is her tendency, came out blasting. Tathiana
had a slow start, and although the rallies were decent, it was
obvious that Jelena was playing better than the Italian. Always a
favourite with the crowds anyway, Tathiana has a strong following here
in Italy (the May edition of TENNIS Italiano is sure to be a sell-out),
and the crowd needed little reason to become boisterous.
Croatia won the toss, and Jelena obviously elected to serve. Starting
full blast as usual, Jelena took her service game easily, but with
crowd-thrilling rallies even at the start of the match. Tathiana found
herself struggling to keep up with the spunky Croat, and when she
found herself at 30-all on a questionable line call calling her
would-be winner out, she demanded that the umpire check the mark. When
the umpire confirmed the line judge's call, Tathiana refused to play
on, staying at the net. After telling both players to "play on", the
umpire slapped Tathiana with a violation for unreasonable delay, much
to the amusement of the crowd. The already boisterous crowd was a
little stunned when their tennis darling (sporting a newly broken left
little finger, by the way) went down 0-3 despite making a very good
effort. Even though both players were running each other around,
Jelena's shots were simply perfect in placement, frustrating the
Italian.
Tathiana, however casual in demeanour, is totally serious about her
tennis, and after a talk through with Rafaella Reggi during the
changeover, came out looking like she was ready for war. The bandana
she wore as a headband (if you ever see her on court without her
bandana tied either in a headband or bandana-style, please take a
photo for me) pretty much added to the effect as well.
Spurred on by her teammates and the Italian crowd (who was gracious
enough to applaud good shots from either player), Tathiana started
playing smarter tennis, not giving Jelena any rhythm to work with.
Jelena on the other hand, started losing patience, and the unforced
errors started to creep into her game. Jelena always looks like she's
playing all out, but once she gets a little complacent, her forehand
becomes very shaky and she starts going for too much a little too
soon. Tathiana maintained her consistency, and let Jelena come up
with the first error. Game by game, the feisty Italian clawed her way
back, and in the seventh game, got 2 aces and 2 service winners to go
up 5-3 in the first set.
Just like clockwork, Jelena picked up her game when she found herself
in trouble. Making a conscious effort on each shot, she also managed
to serve better, and got her service game. Tathiana served out the
set, and ended Jelena's hopes of breaking back with an ace to secure
the first set for her country 6-4.
The second set was much more even on both ends, and both players'
serves were working well. Games went on serve until 2-all, when
Tathiana got the break to go up 3-2. Unfortunately, the break came on
a controversial line call. I happened to be standing right next to
the line where the ball landed, and Jelena was waiting for the shot to
be called wide when the call didn't come. She asked the umpire to
check the mark, which the umpire did, but called in anyway. Not
believing that she was about to lose serve over a line call she
strongly felt was wrong, after losing the first set after leading
3-0, Jelena stood at the line, refusing to play on. The umpire was a
split-second away from calling the second violation of the match when
Jelena grudgingly walked to receive serve, staring at the mark.
Tathiana consolidated the break, and was looking good to get the
double-break when she went up 40-15 on Jelena's following service
game, helped by an untimely double-fault. Jelena saved one break
point, and pumping herself up, walked over to the mark (which
amazingly was still there) and angrily kicked it into oblivion. It
did seem to work, and she played beautifully to take 4 points in a
row to save her service game.
Breaking Tathiana's serve was a different matter altogether, however.
The Italian maintained her strong serving, and got the first two
points. On the third, the Italian hit a service winner, which the
umpire called out. Tathiana went up to question the call, and the
umpire maintained that she saw the ball land out, but Jelena called
to the umpire that the ball was in, and the players went up to replay
the point, amid cheers from the crowd in appreciation of Jelena's
honesty. It could be argued that the call came as much from honesty
as it did from getting a sort of revenge on the umpire. Not being a
very gracious recipient of a gift, Tathiana played a good solid
point, and took her service game with an ace to go up 5-3.
There were a couple of rallies that were pretty amusing, as both
players kept hitting cross-court to each other. With Jelena being a
left-hander, she was hitting to Tathiana's stronger side, her
forehand, while Tathiana kept hitting to Jelena's stronger side, her
backhand. Finally, facing 2 match points, Jelena started playing
Tathiana's backhand, and was rewarded with her service game. The
crowd and Italian team started to settle down a little after getting
all flustered with the prospect of a 6-4 6-3 victory.
Jelena continued to play well, stepping into her service returns and
attacking the Italian's less dependable wing, and evened it up at
5-all. At this point, it looked like the match was about to go to 3
sets. She finally got a strong service game, going up 40-love.
Tathiana threw in a beautiful dropshot, which Jelena managed to get
to, and Jelena was moving to get into position in the middle of the
court when Tathiana fired a shot in the same direction as her
dropshot, trying to wrong-foot Jelena. Amazingly, Jelena, with her
quick reflexes actually hit the ball by reaching behind her with the
racquet, but more amazingly was that the ball actually landed in and
turned out to be a pretty good dropshot. Tathiana herself is no
slouch, and smacked an easy winner. Jelena got another strong serve
in to take her game, and went up for the first time since 2-1 in the
second set. Apparently still fuming about the line call earlier in
the set, she walked over to where the mark had been and gave it one
last stomp. There was no break of serve for her, though, as Tathiana
herself had a strong service game, taking 4 points in a row to take
the second set to a tie-break.
The tie-break went on serve in the beginning, but Tathiana got the
first break to go up 3-2. Jelena immediately broke back to bring it
back on serve, and actually got another mini-break to hold match
point at 6-5. The Italian had come too close to victory before, and
this time was determined to finish the match without having to go the
distance, and she took the last three points, getting a final
unforced error from Jelena to take the match 6-4 7-6(6). Falling to
her knees, Tathiana embraced the joy of winning her first singles
Federation Cup match for her country. With the way Silvija Talaja was
playing, surely Italy would take the tie. Her team members crowded
around her, the crowd rising to their feet and the photographers
snapping away. Should Germany defeat Spain later in the day, Italy
would have a slight chance of making it to the final round of the
Federation Cup.
Silvia Farina (ITA) versus Silvija Talaja (CRO)
Things didn't look as bad today as they did for Silvija as they did
the previous day. She had picked up her game a little, and didn't
look so helpless against a less dominating player than Anke. Silvija
served to open the match, and amazingly enough managed to hold serve.
Looking at Silvija's game, it sometimes makes me wonder how she ever
managed to get into the top 20, and defeat Anna Kournikova, Arantxa
Sanchez-Vicario and Conchita Martinez on the way to taking the title
in Gold Coast earlier this year. With the amount of topspin she puts
on the ball, timing has to be perfect to execute the shot without
either causing it to stay up and become an easy sitter, especially on
her forehand side. While at times, she can hit the ball flat and with
a lot of pace on both her groundstrokes and service, she doesn't seem
to do it often enough, and her only wins since January have come
against Nadejda Petrova, Tina Pisnik, Alexandra Stevenson and Linda
Wild.
Silvija had managed to work on her timing and preparation, hitting
with Ivana Abramovic, and wasn't mishitting everything like she had
against Anke Huber. Of course, it also helped a lot that the balls
weren't coming at her at a million miles per hour. Silvia F on the
other hand hits with a lot more pace than Silvija T, but came up with
an appalling number of errors. The match was pretty even, and the only
reason for it to generate interest was because the games were closely
contested and a victory meant that Italy, the home crowd, would have
a chance to contest for a spot in the final should Spain lose to
Germany later in the day. Cries of "Dai, Silvia!" came after every
other point, to the amusement of some who realised that the Croat is
also named Silvija. After some time to cool down and shower after her
match, Jelena Kostanic joined her teammates courtside, and was very
vocal in urging her struggling compatriot on.
The tennis itself was very average throughout the match, although
there were the brilliant shots from both players every now and then.
After a close fight, Silvia took the match 6-4 7-5, to the delight of
the crowd and her teammates, who flocked onto the court. Ironically,
after the initial delight had died down, a group in the crowd started
calling for Tathiana, who eventually delighted them by standing on a
chair and pointing her index fingers in the air, signifying "Italia
Numero Uno". Not satisfied, they called for more, and she had to
appease them by throwing kisses to the crowd. What can I say?
Italians.
Giulia Casoni/Rita Grande (ITA) versus Jelena Kostanic/Silvija Talaja (CRO)
Ivana Abramovic had initially been expected to play the doubles match
with Silvija Talaja, but Sasa Hirszon substituted Ivana with Jelena,
perhaps keen to salvage a little pride after losing both singles
matches. Italy won the toss, but oddly enough, elected to receive.
Not so odd was that Jelena Kostanic would serve first for her team. A
little cold after her break between matches, she had some trouble
getting her first serves in, and her second serve had little on it to
trouble either Italians. Committing an uncharacteristic double-fault,
she lost serve to open the match.
Jelena has developed her doubles capability tremendously since her
first WTA title in Kuala Lumpur last year, and has a remarkable sense
of position on court and a good feel for doubles play. Natasha
Zvereva (still in search for a worthy doubles partner) would do well
to convince Jelena to play an event or two with her instead of her
regular doubles partner and good friend, Tina Pisnik.
As usual, Jelena was the cheerleader for her team, pumping her fist
after good points and telling both Silvija and herself to "come on".
Always passionate about the level of tennis she's able to produce,
Jelena is more likely to laugh and smile at her mistakes on the
doubles court than when playing singles.
Silvija has had little success playing doubles, ranked #159, mainly
because of her awkwardness at net. Even when playing singles, Silvija
plays mostly from the baseline, and doesn't have much feel for the
ball. This becomes painfully apparent on the doubles court, and the
Italians constantly took advantage of her lack of touch. "Arms of
wood," chuckled Giulia Casoni's father quietly to himself after her
umpteenth volley dumped into the net. Giulia herself, ranked #127 in
doubles, was playing pretty well, coming up with many incredible
saves and certainly more winning shots than Rita Grande who, sporting
a light thigh brace, looked a little too relaxed on court.
Games went on serve, despite Jelena still struggling to get her serve
under control and Rita Grande, serving with new balls, having to save
2 break points. Jelena's serve finally started to pop in the
second-last game of the second set, and she held serve at love, but
the Croats couldn't stop Giulia Casoni from serving out the first
set.
Silvija served to open the second set, and promptly lost serve. Rita
Grande started to get into the match, while Giulia started to slow
down a little. Silvija made a conscious effort to be a little more
alert and aggressive at net, and worked well with Jelena, extending
Giulia's service game to 5 deuces before failing to get the break.
Jelena continued to play aggressively, having a strong presence at
net, and after being down 2-4, finally got the break back on Giulia's
serve, taking it to 5-4. Rita held serve after saving one set point,
but Jelena was too close to taking the set to back down. Maintaining
her strong serving, she got her game at love, and capitalising on a
number of unforced errors from Giulia, the Croats got the break,
taking the second set 7-5.
The third set started well, all four players feeling the heat of the
competition, and games went on serve until 2-all when Silvija lost
serve. Rita and Giulia were all over Silvija's serve, and an
over-anxious Jelena started to make her move to cross too early,
getting passed down the alley several times. However, Rita had some
trouble on her serve, and the Croats broke back easily to even it up
at 3-all.
At this point, Silvija looked pretty tired physically, and Jelena
looked tired mentally. Both players had played far more than their
opponents, who were constantly having a ball of a time with their
teammates and huge group of friends and family throughout the four
days. Finally running out of steam, Jelena played very lackluster
tennis, forcing the play much too soon, and ending up committing the
error or compromising her team's position on court. She managed to
save one break point, but ended up losing serve anyway, and that was
the end of the story. Giulia Casoni held serve easily, and Silvija
only managed to get one point on her serve, giving Croatia a 4-6 7-5
6-3 loss and a 0-3 result in the standings. The Italian team
celebrated their straight win against Croatia, allowing them to
contend with either Germany or Spain for the second place in the
group.
The Croatian team, on the other hand, was done for the week, and
would head back to Croatia just in time for the Croatian Bol Open.
While a silly ankle injury has pretty much disappointed my
expectations for Jelena to enter the top 50 by the end of the French
Open, I do expect her to take over as the top player for Croatia well
within a year.
After a mere 15 minute break, thanks to the length of the matches
between Italy and Croatia, Spain and Germany would battle for a place
in the final round of Federation Cup in America later in the year.
Andrea Glass (GER) versus Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (ESP)
Andrea Glass, the lowest-ranked player playing in Group A with the
exception of Ivana Abramovic, had so far played well above her
ranking, as she apparently always has when it comes to Federation
Cup. Today was no exception, and Andrea did well to take advantage of
Arantxa's streaky play. Arantxa's original game has obviously lost
substantial effectiveness in her age, and her experience makes up for
less and less of it as time goes on. After coming close to being as
good as retired last year, Arantxa worked hard to regain her fitness,
but has to use a more aggressive array of shots to end points
considerably earlier in the rally now.
Adapting and expanding her brand of tennis to suit her changing
limitations, it will be interesting to see if Arantxa will re-enter
the Top 5, especially now with both Williams sisters feeling the
effects of growing up on hard courts and Venus Williams yet to play a
match this year. Arantxa took the first set 6-3 after a slow start,
but found herself in trouble early in the second set.
Andrea Glass had managed to avoid unforced errors long enough to get
a break, going up 2-1. Consolidating the break was a considerably
harder task, though. Up 30-15, she missed the chance for 2 game points
when she served a double-fault. After a short struggle, Arantxa
committed 2 errors in a row to give the German her service game and a
3-1 lead.
Andrea couldn't keep up the consistency, though, and served very
erratically for the rest of the match. With the number of unforced
errors coming off her racquet and Arantxa stepping up a gear, the
German lost the next 5 games swiftly, giving Spain the first match of
the tie.
Anke Huber (GER) versus Conchita Martinez (ESP)
While on paper, Conchita would be the favourite to take the match, in
reality, Anke was more likely to come out the winner. Anke, always
playing well for Germany, had shown a relatively remarkably high
level of consistency and concentration compared to her other recent
performances, while Conchita has had trouble getting started in her
matches.
As had Jelena Kostanic, Anke Huber had one main thing in mind, and
that was to remain aggressive by hitting the ball on the rise.
Displaying remarkable timing, Anke hit nearly every ball on the rise
off both wings, not allowing the Spaniard to push her beyond the
baseline. On the other hand, the pace of Anke's shots were pushing the
Spaniard herself backwards, and while Conchita usually has no trouble
keeping her loopy shots effective even from practically all the way
back to the backstop, she certainly wasn't going to get away with it
this time. Anke constantly pressed forward, and blasting shot after
shot from corner to corner, would eventually get the short ball for
the easy winner.
Not wasting any time and effort, Anke was in control all the way, and
took the match 6-3 6-1. The day was not yet over for her, as she
would have to play the final doubles match to determine the winner of
the tie. But more importantly, the winner of the tie would almost
surely be the team to reach the final, with Germany likely to defeat
Italy the following day.
Anke Huber/Barbara Rittner (GER) versus Conchita Martinez/Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (ESP)
Once again, Barbara Rittner would pair up with Anke Huber for the
final doubles match. Barbara is just back from injury, and is only in
the team for the doubles. Today, though, Barbara looked like her mind
was a million miles away from the stadium court, and was absolutely
appalling. It wasn't so much her tennis in terms of unforced errors or
shot execution, but rather shot selection and tactics (or the lack of
them). She was simply hitting the ball back across the net, obviously
not thinking about where she was hitting it or where she was standing
on the court.
With her partner practically giving away the points on every shot,
Anke tried to do double the work, but while her sheer power and
determination might have been enough against lesser players, her solo
effort certainly couldn't match a team like Arantxa and Conchita.
Getting more and more desperate, Anke had to try to end points very
early, and played a very low percentage, risky game. Arguably, she
had little choice, and her best bet would be to take her chances.
Unfortunately, the high level of concentration during her singles
match must have left her mentally fatigued, and her success rate was
far from desirable. The Spaniards took the first set 6-2.
The second set was a continuation of the first, until Barbara finally
woke up in the last two games, but it was far too late, and Anke was
considerably drained by then. Spain took the match 6-2 6-3, giving
them a 3-0 record and a place in the final rounds. The Spanish team
congratulated the pair, and soon surrounded their captain, throwing
him in the air in celebration. No surprises here as heavy favourites
Spain end up at the top of the standings, earning $130,000 along the
way while Croatia ends up at the bottom, collecting a very decent
purse of $50,000. In the final day of Week 1 Federation Cup play,
Italy and Germany would battle it out for second place.
In Group B action in Bratislava, the Czech Republic continued their
excellent performance, and booked their place along with Spain in the
final round of Federation Cup. Daniela Hantuchova got a surprise
victory over Kvetoslava Hrdlickova in straight sets, 6-4 6-2, while
Denisa Chladkova evened it up with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Karina
Habsudova. The doubles match decided the tie, with Daja Bedanova and
Kveta defeating Karina and Daniela for a 2-1 victory over the Slovak
Republic, bringing their overall record to 3-0. Meanwhile, Switzerland
saved defeat by Austria when Emmanuelle Gagliardi got a 6-2 6-4 win
over Patricia Wartusch, and Barbara Schett evened it up for her team
by finally putting in a decent result and defeating Patty Schnyder
7-6(4) 7-5. The Swiss clinched it, though, when Emmanuelle and Patty
just barely won the doubles over Babsi and Patricia 2-6 6-4 8-6.
In Moscow, Anna Kournikova continued to struggle in Group C action.
Elena Likhovtseva got the first match for her country with a 6-3 6-2
win over Nicole Pratt, while Jelena Dokic continued her astonishing
performance with a 7-6(3) 5-7 6-3 win over Anna. However, Rennae
Stubbs failed once again in the doubles, this time playing with
Jelena Dokic, losing to Anna and Elena 6-3 4-6 6-1. On the other
hand, Belgium came up with the shock upset over France, Els Callens
getting a good win over Julie Halard-Decugis 3-6 6-4 6-2, and Kim
Clijsters defeating Nathalie Tauziat 6-1 6-4. The French managed to
save a bit of face when Julie and Nathalie asserted their doubles
superiority with a 7-5 3-6 6-3 win over Laurence Courtois and Patty
Van Acker.
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The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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