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by Priya Prasad With matters of the qualifying draw over and done with, main draw play became the focus of the tournament, but because of Bianka Lamade's absence, a bit of shuffling around was done in the singles draw. Ana Isabella Medina Garrigues was promoted to the 9th seed and moved into the appropriate slot, while lucky loser Nathalie Vierin was shifted into her previous one. With local crowds generally caring little about non-Italian players, Magui Serna sent the first wave of excitement through the tournament grounds -- the top seed would see action in the first match on centre court. Not that it would be much of a match: surely Klara Koukalova would present little more than a warm-up for the Spaniard. The Czech had other ideas, though. Playing in only her fourth WTA tournament, she not only got through qualifying but had also reached the final in Antwerp this year before finally falling to Barbara Rittner in straight sets. Magui Serna soon found her hands full with a player playing like she had nothing to lose. The first set went to the Spaniard 6-3, but the second didn't go as well for her. Being one set down with even less to lose meant that Klara could let loose and blast away, while Magui couldn't keep control of the points. Klara took the second set by the same score, and evened the match up again. Typically, once the Czech realised that she had actually taken a set against the top seed and could actually win the match, the invincibility wore off, and on the other side of the net, Magui quickly realised how wrong things could turn out. As she turned up the volume a little on her game, the third set went by quickly. The top seed could breathe easily again with a 6-3 3-6 6-2 win. On the other side of tournament grounds, Maria Jose Martinez was having trouble with Rossana de Los Rios. Martinez fell behind in the first set and soon had the trainer on court tending to a problem with her shoulder. The problem was deemed worthy of a full medical timeout, and a lot of pulling and stretching later, the two players got back on court. The shoulder was still hurting, though, and the first set went by 6-2. Showing exceptional heart as she always does in her matches, Maria Jose fought hard, and despite being unable to capitalize on her breaks several times, continued to play hard, hitting winners and drawing errors from her opponent. On the other hand, Rossana was playing physically aggressively, but chose her moments carefully. She let the other player do the brainwork more often than not, and played more of a retrieving game than anything. Fortunately for her, her opponent was missing as much as she was hitting, and eventually gave the match away 2-6 7-5 5-7. The Spaniard was understandably disappointed after the match, but was quick to return to the same court to watch her good friend Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues after receiving the proper medical attention. Of course, Gala Leon Garcia helped put a smile back on her face, and by the end of the 6-3 7-5 win over qualifier Eleni Daniilidou, the group of Spaniards were their usual rambunctious selves again. On one of the lighter moments in the match, Ana was about to serve when a mobile phone rang. Mobile phones had been ringing throughout the tournament so far, and with the second set being at 5-all, Ana got annoyed, stopped her service motion to locate the source of the disturbance...only to find that it was actually one of the coaches in her group! A sheepish smile and chuckles all around the group was followed by the umpire's warning for mobile phones to be switched off -- the first such warning of the tournament. Meanwhile, Maria Emilia Salerni was struggling with herself in her match against Catalina Castano of Colombia. The youngster more often has problems dealing with her own game than anything else, and Catalina's crafty play didn't help. With a keen court sense and an eye for openings in her opponents' games, Catalina kept mixing up her shots and the pace, not allowing the youngster to find her rhythm in taking the first set 6-1. But once she managed to get some focus on what she was doing on court, the Argentinean made it all look too easy, and in the blink of an eye, she took the second set 6-1 amid a sigh of relief from coach Mercedes Paz. Sporting a poker-face throughout the match Catalina didn't let the losing streak change her resolve or demeanor, and continued to push the right buttons. She threw everything but the kitchen sink at Maria; half the time, she let the youngster come up with the error and the other half, she bided her time before finishing off with a strong forehand. Maria, on the other hand, would set up beautifully but miss the finishing shot, compounding her frustrations. The final score: 6-1 1-6 6-3 for Catalina Castano. With new sponsorship and the eyes of the world on her, perhaps a bit more time should be allowed for Maria Emilia Salerni to reproduce the quality of play she had first shown. No sooner had Mercedes Paz dealt with the post-mortem of one protégé's match than she had to prepare for another -- Alexandra Fusai would take on a rather lethargic Nuria Llagostera. Nuria had been rather nonchalantly walking around in the last couple of days, looking a bit too relaxed. She looked a it more energetic on court, but couldn't keep her mind on the court, and after struggling to take the first set 6-3, found it difficult to string 2 points in a row. Alexandra Fusai made good on her entrance into the main draw and took the last too sets 6-1 6-3. In the final interesting match of the day, Evgenia "pepperoncino" Koulikovskaya became the second qualifier to advance to the second round, taking out Emmanuelle Gagliardi in three sets. Emmanuelle, having had a very up-and-down year so far, continues to struggle with physical problems. Having finally getting over a shoulder injury early this year, this time, the Italian-Swiss residing in Monaco suffered from stomach problems and minor black-outs due to the heat and humidity. Evgenia Koulikovskaya instead managed to hold steady despite looking like she was going to evaporate in the heat, and played out the match to win 6-1 1-6 6-0. In the other matches, Maria Elena Camerin defeated Martina Sucha 6-3 6-2, Christina Torrens-Valero defeated wildcard Gloria Pizzichini 6-2 6-3, Virginia Ruano Pascual defeated Adriana Serra-Zanetti 6-0 6-2, and Lubomira Bacheva defeated lucky loser Nathalie Vierin 6-2 6-2. In the night match, second seed Tatiana Panova had little trouble taking care of Giulia Casoni, leaving Elena Camerin the sole Italian survivor of the day. Giulia managed to come close to taking the match to three sets, but fell 6-3 6-4. In doubles action, Asa Carlsson and Sylvia Plischke managed to move into the second round despite having to play perhaps the toughest first-round match of the four seeded teams. They defeated the wild card pair of Magui Serna and Francesca Schiavone 6-3 4-6 6-3, while tournament favourites Tathiana Garbin and Janette Husarova finished their match off dropping only three games against Eugenia Chialvo and Conchita Martinez Granados. I arrived at the court, along with a couple of other players, only to see the Italian-Slovakian pairing in matching red tops and white skirts shake hands with the other pair. Seeing the Salerni sisters, I asked them the score, only to be told that they didn't know. I teased them, asking them what they had been doing standing there if not watching the match, and their answer perfectly characterised the match: "No, we arrived, and then 'Game, Set and Match'." Game, set and match indeed, and it was time to finally head off for the day. |