A Test for Serena As Main Draw Play Begins
by Prip
Once again, Mother Nature had her own plans at the Sydney
International Tennis Centre, and the first day of main draw play
was hampered by gloomy clouds and intermittent rain. Play started
right on time, with Corina Morariu taking to stadium court against
Tathiana Garbin despite the falling raindrops. Corina had spent the
year-end break working hard, and had the confidence with her despite
ending the year with a first-round loss to Katarina Srebotnik in
Thailand. Tathiana, on the other hand, had had the worst happen
just as she was ready to take her ranking to new heights. The Italian
had up till the U.S Open the best year of her career, moving up to
the thirties in the rankings. As luck would have it, the charismatic
Italian ended up in surgery and spent the rest of the year trying to
recover.
Playing in her first tournament in months, Tathiana came on court
looking like she was still in bed. Her strokes lacked any purpose,
and her serve was letting her down miserably. Corina played well
herself, and was striking sharp winners past her opponent easily. Not
surprisingly, the American took the rain-interrupted match 6-2 6-2,
just as the skies really started to pour. Tathiana had picked her
game up a little in the last game, and Corina's serve had suddenly
fallen apart, but the Italian failed to capitalize on the 2
double-faults and threw her racquet around in disgust before hurrying
off to the locker room.
The rain stopped soon enough, and play resumed as scheduled. The
Aussies who had stadium tickets flocked to stadium court -- youngster
Evie Dominikovic would take on veteran Nicole Pratt, and the
crowd was eager to see how she would do after her encounter with
Jelena Dokic the previous year. She looked like she was going to come
through after the first set, but fell short and Nicole played hard to
cruise to a 3-6 6-4 6-1 victory in the end.
On the outside courts, Nadejda Petrova continued her steady journey
to the main draw, taking out Bryanne Stewart easily 6-4 6-3 and
ending the hopes for any wildcard to get through to the main draw.
Tina Pisnik also advanced
with a 6-0 3-6 6-1 victory over Maria Alejandra Vento in a
needlessly long match, as did Elena
Bovina with a 6-1 5-7 6-1 win over Alena Vaskova. The
Americans were guaranteed a qualifier, though, as Brie Rippner
managed to top compatriot Erika de Lone in a hard-fought match,
eventually winning 6-3 6-7(4) 7-5.
The men also completed their final qualifying round, with surprises
saved for last. Paul Goldstein (who gave Lleyton Hewitt a scare at last
year's Australian Open) fell to George Bastl 6-3 4-6 6-2, while wild
card Scott Draper took out 2nd-seeded Chris Woodruff by the same score.
The bottom half was straightforward, with Christophe Rochus and Jeff
Tarango easily advancing to the main draw.
In more main draw play, Serena Williams faced more resistance than
she anticipated against compatriot Lilia Osterloh. Lilia pushed the
fifth seed hard, not giving her many free points, and had a
never-say-die attitude in the toughest of situations. Deep into the
second set, Lilia found herself down 15-30 at 4-5, and serving to
stay in the match. While any player could be forgiven for falling
apart, she cracked her serves in and evened the set up. Again, and
5-6 and 0-30 down, she gathered all her resources and played
aggressively to get herself out of trouble, bringing it to a
tie-breaker. Here, things couldn't have gone better for her, and she
jumped to a 4-0 lead. Serena Williams could hardly believe that she
was only 3 points away from having to play another whole set, and
decided that she'd been on court long enough. She took 5 points in a
row to go up, baffling her opponent with incredible shots. Lilia hung
tough, but fell short in the end, losing the tie-breaker 8-6.
Certainly an admirable effort from the former NCAA champion.
Women's Singles Qualifying Final Round
- Nadejda Petrova (1) def. Bryanne Stewart (WC) 6-4 6-3
- Elena Bovina def. Alena Vaskova 6-1 5-7 6-1
- Brie Rippner (3) def. Erika de Lone 6-3 6-7(4) 7-5
- Tina Pisnik (4) def. Maria Alejandra Vento 6-0 3-6 6-1
Women's Singles First Round
- Serena Williams (5) def. Lilia Osterloh 6-3 7-6(6)
- Corina Morariu def. Tathiana Garbin 6-2 6-2
Men's Qualifying Final Round
- George Bastl def. Paul Goldstein (5) 6-3 4-6 6-2
- Scott Draper (WC) def. Chris Woodruff (2) 6-3 4-6 6-2
- Christophe Rochus (3) def. Tomas Behrend 6-4 5-7 6-1
- Jeff Tarango def. Attila Savolt 6-3 6-0
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http://tennis-ontheline.com/01syd03.htm © 2025
Last updated 26 September 2015
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