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by Prip The match between Maria Jose Martinez and Bahia Mouhtassine was certainly not the prettiest, with errors coming from both ends and long loopy clay-court rallies featuring moon-balls that would make even Conchita Martinez cry, but both players must be given credit for pushing themselves to the absolute limit. With temperatures soaring and the match being played during the height of the heat, it would not have been surprising if both players will spend the rest of the day and the whole of tomorrow in bed recovering. Attracting a large number of players and spectators towards the end, the match lasted 2 and a half hours and Maria came close to tears, nearly dropping to her knees when the last shot from Bahia landed long. The Spanish teenager had advanced to the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time. Ironically, on the very next court, another marathon match was in progress. By the time Maria and Bahia were well in the cool of the locker room, Elena Bovina and Bianka Lamade were only just heading into their second set tie-breaker, with the German having taken the first set in a tie-break as well. Elena looked a lot less fresh than she had in the last two weeks, no doubt with her dynamic game taking a lot out of her. The rather lanky and awkward-looking Bianka Lamade seemed to have little trouble handling the pace of the ball coming at her, and did well to move the Russian around the court. Bianka was also mixing her shots up well, sometimes hitting the ball hard and flat, making her opponent run, and other times putting a lot more topspin on the ball. Elena had a lot of trouble making the adjustment, especially with the high top-spin shots, and came up with a ton of errors. Not getting much of a rhythm throughout the first two sets, both players were tested as the second set went to 6-all. Elena had actually had her fair share of chances to close out the second set a lot earlier, but Bianka did well to put the pressure on. The trainer was called, but for once it was for Bianka and not the Russian. Nevertheless, both players looked like casualties. While Bianka was stretched out on the floor, Elena laid out towels on the court and stretched her own legs, sipping water and energy drink constantly while piling on the ice bags. The tall Russian was certainly expending a lot more energy in her game, and has a smaller surface-to-mass ratio, and had been holding ice bags to the top of her head in the last few changeovers. The second set went to Elena, who had picked up her first-serve percentage considerably. Bovina had also been frustratingly erratic, playing hard to earn break points, and then throwing them away in a matter of seconds with shocking unforced errors. Several times, she'd been given the easy short ball, just passing the net, which she'd get to easily and then panic, not knowing what to do and simply putting it back in play. It took all his coach could do to keep himself from running onto court and strangling her. Instead, he ended up lighting up half a pack of cigarettes. To be fair, there were quite a number of bad line calls going against Elena at the baseline, but the youngster managed to shake them off. Elena opened the tie-breaker serving, and got into trouble early. She found herself down 1-3, but got the mini-break back for 3-all, and got another break to go up 4-3. Bianka looked like she had pushed too hard and had run out of steam. Elena cut down on her errors to get 3 set points. The first was saved by a lucky net cord for Bianka. Elena was on the way in to net from the back corner of the court, and Bianka was going for the low passing shot, hoping for the ball to land at her opponent's feet. Elena was all ready to get the ball back, racquet low and waiting, but the ball clipped the net, popped up and landed deep. Spurred by the stroke of good luck, Bianka summoned up some energy reserves, and saved another set point before watching yet another winner blast past her to even it up at 1 set all. The third set was a totally different story. Elena Bovina managed to push herself harder than her opponent, and cleaned up her act considerably. Bianka, on the other hand, ran totally out of juice, and found herself helpless against the bullets coming at her. The grunts from Elena reaching a crescendo, and the Russian swept the third set to close out the match 6-7, 7-6, 6-0, after nearly 3 hours of heat torture. Lucky for both Elena and Maria, they would be placed in the top half of the draw, giving them 2 whole days to recover from their matches. And like they say, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger. Hopefully, all 4 players will have taken something away from this experience. |