|
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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. |