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by Prip Tatiana Panova was not intimidated at the prospect of playing former top ten American darling, and had been walking around tournament grounds looking very relaxed. When the diminuitive Russian came out on court, she looked more like the match favourite than the underdog. The match started very evenly, the players trading shots at the baseline. Tatiana managed to match Jennifer shot for shot, and made the effort to venture to the net to finish off the point. The first set stayed even until the end, when Jennifer got the break to go up 5-4. Tatiana had her chances to break back, but a couple of unforced errors lost her the first set. With a few choice words for herself, Tatiana strengthened her resolve to try as hard as she could to win the match. The second set was a continuation of the first, the crowd treated to power-hitting and daring touch shots in thrilling rallies that could have gone either way. Tatiana finally got the break to go up 2-4, and started mixing up the pace of the ball a little, both to conserve strength and to play the percentages a little better. Three out of the next four points, she started the point by moving Jennifer around, then pushing her back with deep shots and finishing with beautiful drop-shots that Jennifer could only dream of getting to. Down 2-5, Jennifer, whose serve had fallen apart early in the second set, suddenly got a couple of good first serves in, either getting the error from her opponent of setting up an easy point for her. She broke her losing streak, but a couple of shots into the net gave Tatiana the second set 6-3. The third set saw Tatiana go back on the attack, trying to beat Jennifer at her own game, perhaps trying to shake the American's psyche a little. A number of times, Tatiana had Jennifer on the ropes, but simply couldn't finish off the point. All credit to Jennifer, though, who came up with good passing shots and scrambled all over the court to keep the rallies going. There was a boy in the crowd who was most definitely pro-Capriati, and while the cheers for Jennifer had earlier been limited to the changeovers and between points, he was now cheering as Tatiana was ready to serve. Although he was probably ignorant of the disruption he was causing, he certainly managed to get to Tatiana, who had also been given a time warning as she was about to serve for some reason. A double-fault gave Jennifer the early break. Already a little disturbed by the circumstances, it didn't help Tatiana that the wind suddenly picked up, blowing her forehand long. Jennifer took the free points to go up 40-15, and looked confident to hold. Confident, until she was called on a foot fault, that is. A little unnerved by the call, she gave 2 points away, and had to fight hard for her service game. She eventually got it, and from there, simply ran away with the set, dropping only one game. Tatiana had no answers to the shots Jennifer was coming up with, and Jennifer was lifted a little by the crowd support, although Tatiana had a decent share of hers. |