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by Priya Prasad Quarterfinal day opened with the news that Jelena Kostanic had defeated Jelena Dokic in this week's other women's event in Vienna. The Croat had taken some time off the main tour to play challenger events in the last few months, trying to regain some confidence, and is playing in her first WTA tournament in nearly two months having won the title in Fontana Fredda ($25,000) last week. The news seemed to inspire many players who were following what was happening in Vienna. In the first match of the day, Asa Carlsson faced 6:1 odds in the betting pool to win in straight sets against Francesca Schiavone, a wager I was willing to make. As mentioned, Asa was looking calm and confident this tournament, more focused that in a long while for some reason. Porting a healthy collection of mini-discs and a player with her most of the time, Asa is always watching other players' games, whether it be newcomers to the tour nowhere near her in the draw or prospective opponents. Francesca Schiavone had been walking around very confidently recently, bolstered by her quarterfinal appearance at Roland Garros, and perhaps had underestimated her opponent in coming into the match. Francesca is always looking pumped up on the court, but her play doesn't necessarily keep a high level of energy. Her on-court demeanor gave the appearance of a player very much motivated to win the match, but her tennis said otherwise. Concentration was dubious, energy was waning, and errors were abundant. Her coach Marco Tavelli watched calmly as Francesca managed to power her way out of many tight situations, but just couldn't string enough of them together to make good of the match, and Asa played steady tennis to get through 6-4 6-3 in spite of the partisan crowd. On the other court, Ana Isabella Medina Garrigues made absolute mincemeat of Tatiana Panova. Watched by both her coach and Maria Jose Martinez, Ana had moments in which she struggled mentally, having done most of the work on court in the baking sun, but managed to keep her head on and fought hard against the diminutive Russian. Tatiana continued to get back seemingly impossible shots, but had winner after winner blasted past her, as well as having to cope with the various spins thrown from across the net. In a relatively short match, Ana won 6-1 6-2, making the most of her position in the draw and taking out the second seed. She and Asa Carlsson will square off in the second semifinal. Back on centre court, Tathiana Garbin had a big smile on her face as she walked on court against Gala Leon Garcia. Things were looking very good for the Italian, who is still struggling to get her physical problems under control, and she felt confident as she started the warm-up. A different story unspooled as the match began, though, as neither her struggling backhand nor strong forehand were working for her. Balls off her right wing were landing in the net and balls off her left wing were landing long. Gala is an experienced player, and knew exactly what to do. She started by putting the pressure on the weaker wing, and sure enough, her backhand broke down and Tathiana started reverting to meekly pushing the ball back across the net. That gave the Spaniard the first set 6-4, although it looked a lot easier than the score alludes to. Tathiana had managed to keep inside the top 50 or so despite the deterioration of her backhand in the last year purely because of her fitness, and started running around her backhands to pound forehands in the second set. Spurred on by the crowd (the Italian is absolutely adored in Italy), Tathiana overcame a small deficit in the first set, dowsing herself with water on every changeover, and took the second set 6-3 before heading off to change her sweat-and-water-soaked body-hugging shirt. If Tathiana had started the match tired, she was absolutely flat by the third set. Her normally intimidating serve was hardly making it across the net, and she was running around 8 out of 10 backhands, opening up the entire court. She seemed to think that winning one out of three points that way was good enough odds, and soon found herself down 2-5. Hitting forehand after forehand, she managed to fend off two match points, but eventually lost the third set 6-3, having let everything from people moving around in the stands to constantly ringing mobile phones get to her. Sylvia Plischke and Asa Carlsson were already waiting for their doubles match against her and Janette Husarova, which was due to start after appropriate rest for Garbin. On court 1, Cristina Torrens Valero was ready to challenge the top seed Magui Serna. She got a lucky break, though, as Serna was all out of sorts, and couldn't keep the ball in court at all. More than once, she'd get a short ball, and actually slam a high forehand into the net from the service line. Cristina kept up the steady play, moving elegantly on court and not getting too excited about the prospect of winning. Magui tried to get herself going, and had half the crowd behind her, but couldn't get up for the match. It didn't take long for Cristina to win 6-4 6-3 and head off for a bit of dinner while Tathiana Garbin and Janette Husarova made a bid for the final against Asa Carlsson and Sylvia Plischke. The top pair was a little out of sorts, with Tathiana still feeling out of it after her singles match. Janette continued to play well, but employed frustrating tactics, preferring to remain on the baseline and playing the same formations over and over again. Making life difficult for themselves, Tathiana and Janette took about half an hour to take two games, but came through 6-2 6-3 against the third seeds. Tomorrow will prove an interesting day indeed, with Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues taking on Asa Carlsson in the first semifinal, and Cristina Torrens Valero meeting Gala Leon Garcia in the second semifinal -- three out of four for the Spaniards, from the total of 9 in the entire tournament. I would have to give the edge to Ana Isabel, probably in straight sets, and in the other match, Cristina Torrens Valero in 3. The doubles final will certainly be an interesting one, with the top two pairs taking each other on. Prediction: top-seeded Garbin and Husarova will come through over Martinez and Medina Garrigues in 2 or 3 sets, depending on how tired the Italian will be tomorrow. |