Jennifer Capriati vs. Tatiana Panova
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.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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