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by Christopher Gerby My seventh consecutive year (hard to believe) covering the tournament at Jarry Park actually began on the practice courts. While none of the bouts scheduled for 11 AM featured marquee names, Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova filled the gap. Before 10:30, both had already drawn significant crowds to their respective practice sessions. Kournikova eventually departed on foot with a security team that would put the Secret Service to shame virtually acting as a moving bubble around her. Hingis, meanwhile, made a relatively quick getaway via golf cart after signing some autographs. As the girlfriend of PGA Tour star Sergio Garcia, she may be used to that mode of transportation. Sharp-eyed, early-arriving fans could also be treated to such sights as Nathalie Dechy's courtside jump rope exhibition, Martina Navratilova's rippling muscles, and Elena Dementieva's elaborate jogging/stretching routine. Dementieva had one of those yappy little dogs on the court with her, but I was unclear on whether the feisty mutt actually belonged to Elena or her coach. Oh, there were also some matches on Day One... (11) Anastasia Myskina vs. Clarisa Fernandez Singles: First Round Court 2 Shortly after her shocking run to the French Open semifinals, Clarisa Fernandez suffered a knee injury which has kept her out of action for six weeks. Playing on a hard court for the first time since March, she had to be considered a major underdog against 11th-seeded Anastasia Myskina, fresh off a very successful World Team Tennis campaign. However, it was Fernandez who secured three service breaks on her way to a 5-2 lead in the opening set. Myskina was making far too many unforced errors, punctuating many of them with cries of "nyet!" and looks of disgust. Fernandez failed in her first attempt to close out the set, but broke right back to win it 6-3. Fernandez's big roundhouse forehand may be better suited to the clay, but it continued to pay dividends as she held to open the second set. Clarisa's next service game (at 1-1) was a long, well-played, pivotal four-deuce affair. Myskina held her own in some long, creative rallies, but made the key errors again to lose the game. Having survived that scare, Fernandez went on a run, storming ahead 5-1 as "Nastya" continued to misfire on one backhand after another. The Russian made a gallant last stand in Game 7, fighting off a total of five match points. Fernandez refused to give her the game, though, and secured a 6-3, 6-1 upset victory when one last Myskina groundstroke found the net. While Anastasia Myskina was clearly out of sorts on Monday (spraying errors and displaying "don't go there" body language), it was an impressive showing from the Argentine. Converting six of six break points and doing some damage with her lefty serve, Fernandez looked like a player to be reckoned with on any surface. Henrieta Nagyova vs. Mary Pierce Singles: First Round Centre Court No, I can't claim to have seen all 2 hours and 52 minutes of this first round endurance test. Judging by the rather plodding, monotonous nature of some portions I did catch, perhaps that's just as well. If nothing else, though, Montreal-born wild card recipient Mary Pierce (ranked 49th in the world) and qualifier Henrieta Nagyova (45th) proved to be very evenly matched. Following an early exchange of service breaks, Pierce and Nagyova slugged their way into a first set tiebreak. The first eight points went with serve, followed by matching forehand errors to 5-5. Pierce earned set point on a backhand winner, but sent a lunging forehand return just long for 6-6. The next point saw Nagyova run down a Pierce shot off the tape, drawing an errant lob from the two-time Grand Slam champion. Pierce fought back with an inside-out forehand winner for 7-7. Who would blink first? The answer came quickly as Mary dumped a second serve in the net to fall behind a mini-break at 8-7. "Henya" took full advantage, lacing a forehand winner down-the-line and pumping her fist. Nagyova saw a 4-2 lead evaporate in the second set, ultimately won by Pierce in a shorter tiebreak (7 points to 4). Pierce overcame a torrential downpour of double faults to draw even at 5-5 in the third set, continuing to battle in humidity that might have brought a lesser player to her knees. A laboring Nagyova picked up a time violation in Game 11, but eventually put away a short ball to hang on. Now the pressure was on Pierce to force a third tiebreak. Trailing 15-30, Mary appeared to clip the baseline with a forehand. Nagyova urgently pointed to a mark, but the "out" call never came. Nonetheless, the Slovakian handcuffed her more famous opponent with a big return to earn match point at 30-40. She would not have to hit another ball -- Pierce promptly coughed up her 13th double fault to lose the WTA's longest match of 2002 (in number of games) 7-6, 6-7, 7-5. Downplaying the humidity as a non-issue and saying a minor ankle injury suffered in the second set "wasn't really anything," Pierce blamed the loss on her poor form. "Basically pretty much everything was missing today" was her assessment of the match. "I just totally didn't feel like myself out there. Just not playing well, not moving well. So I'm not sure what's going on, but I need to figure it out." It may not have been one for the time capsule, but it's a relatively high profile win for Nagyova, who advances to face # 5 seed Justine Henin in the next round. Barbara Schett vs. Marissa Irvin Singles: First Round Court 2 While Nagyova and Pierce were battling the heat in the stadium, Barbara Schett and Marissa Irvin did likewise on Court 2, which always seems particularly vulnerable to harsh sunlight and unpredictable breezes. Irvin needed just 20 minutes to win the opening set 6-1, aided at one juncture by three consecutive Schett double faults. The Austrian cleaned up her game enough to take the second stanza 6-3 before leaving the court. Play continued to be delayed even after Schett returned, so I believe the WTA's "extreme heat" policy was mandating the break. Irvin (who had a nifty looking red-and-black brace on her right knee) got up and did some stretching as she waited for the match to resume. The delay may have thrown the young American even further off her stride. She played an ugly service game to open the final set, dropping it at 15. Marissa Irvin (whose initials could stand for Mouthy and Intense) vigorously debated a couple line calls in the following game, prompting one fan to mutter "shut your piehole." Four deuces later, Schett launched a service winner to inch ahead 2-0. "Babsi" had multiple chances to score an insurance break in Game 3, which was even longer and more stomach-churning. After squandering her third break point of the game, Schett appeared to channel her old doubles partner, letting loose with an Anke Huber-worthy diatribe of self-criticism in German. As the game dragged on, though, Schett began to find some gallows humor in her missed opportunities. She raised her arms in sarcastic triumph when Irvin (who'd fought off five break points by now) finally got the Ad. Barbara then grinned from ear to ear after steering a backhand return wide to get Marissa on the board at 2-1. Schett held serve for 3-1, but looked more bothered by the heat than Irvin. After capitalizing on some errant Schett groundstrokes to break for 3-3, Irvin celebrated with a fist pump, thigh slap, and approximately her 75th shout of "come on!" A superlative forehand into the corner closed out the next game for Irvin, now leading for the first time in the set at 4-3. On the changeover, Irvin poured water on the back of her neck and looked straight ahead while a presumably wilting Schett buried her face in a towel. Looks can be deceiving. Schett came back out and played commanding tennis, dictating the rallies with her lethal backhand. She held for 4-4 and broke for 5-4 as Irvin committed some presumably nervous errors. Serving with new balls, Schett put it away decisively, holding at love to complete a grueling 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. Sitting down at her chair after shaking her game adversary's hand, Schett looked to her supporters and broke into a big smile. In a nice, carefree little gesture of relief, the one-time glamour girl of the London tabloids then flung her cap backwards over her shoulder. Barclay/Loit vs. Gagliardi/Nagyova Doubles Qualifying: Final Round Court 2 Monday at the Canadian Open could never be complete without some good old doubles qualies. It's not as sorry as you might think -- the final match was played in the traditional best-of-three-sets format and featured some quality players. Not unlike Natasha Zvereva (who's teaming up with Chanda Rubin this week), Catherine Barclay is a doubles specialist who recently returned to the tour after a prolonged absence. The jovial Aussie picked up where she left off and then some, winning a pair of titles. The first came in Budapest with French lefty Emelie Loit, who was Barclay's partner again on Monday. Across the net from them stood Henrieta Nagyova and Emmanuelle Gagliardi. If the latter name rings a bell, recall that Gagliardi came within a few points of the Indian Wells singles final this year. Alas, she has since drifted back into obscure pursuits like doubles qualifying. With her left thigh heavily taped and some flesh-colored tape on her right thigh, injury-prone Nagyova may not have been fully recovered from her marathon battle with Mary Pierce. Barclay and Loit showed no mercy, sprinting to a 6-4, 5-1 lead. A double fault by Nagyova gave her opponents a match point, but Loit netted a return to make it deuce. Two points later, the Frenchwoman missed with a forehand, taking the score to 5-2. Uncharacteristically poor volleying doomed Barclay in the following game -- she dropped serve for 5-3. Would the Swiss/Slovakian pickup team make a run all the way from the verge of elimination to the spotlight of the main draw? Um...no. A second match point came Loit's way and she made good, ripping a forehand cross-court winner to end it 6-4, 6-3. Next up for Barclay/Loit: a main draw encounter with the ageless combo of Amanda Coetzer and Lori McNeil. Anna Kournikova vs. Saori Obata Singles: First Round Centre Court My brief foray into the world of doubles qualifying wasn't brief enough to keep me from missing most of Anna Kournikova's first round match. The world's most photographed female athlete overcame some early yips on her serve (i.e. three double faults in one game) to blast qualifier Saori Obata 6-3, 6-1 in just 44 minutes. "I was going for my shots really today. I was pretty confident out there, pretty much knew that I had to step up a level," said Kournikova of the groove she got into during the second set. The post-match press conference was essentially par for the Anna course. She started off chipper, then became mildly annoyed with some mildly annoying questions. "As I've said a thousand times before, I don't really have a glamour life," she insisted when pressed about her image. "I don't really go anywhere. I don't go to parties or stuff. I just do what I have to do for the people that I work with and they're very limited and that's it." Kournikova was also reluctant to shed much light on news that she'd burst into tears on a practice court yesterday. "It was just something happened back home. Not something I would like to talk about." Fair enough. The Kournikova saga continues on Wednesday as she looks for revenge against Virginia Ruano Pascual, who vanquished her in Rome a few months ago. |