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by Priya Prasad Tradition played a back seat to ambition this year as 62 players spent Christmas on a plane traveling halfway around the world instead of with their families. However, one tradition did stay true -- the Thalgo Australian Women's Hardcourts saw the start of main draw play on Qualifying Sunday instead of the more conventional Main Draw Monday (as happens in the three proceeding tournaments so as to eliminate the need for players to run a 100 metre dash towards Melbourne for the premier Grand Slam of the year). The contestants for main draw berths were not entirely robbed of their moments, though, as main draw play was scheduled to begin at 10 A.M. on center court while theirs would commence at 9 A.M. on the outside courts, giving them a whole hour of undivided attention from the spectators before they flocked to see the "real" players do their stuff. The final qualifying round held few surprises as Klara Koukalova took out local wildcard Cindy Watson in three sets after only having won a single game in the first set. Next to move ahead was Anca Barna, taking out Dally Randriantefy in the only straight-set victory. Promising up-and-comer Hsieh Su-Wei couldn't come up with enough against the experience of Nuria Llagostera-Vives after having embarassed local young favourite and third seed Evie Dominikovic in straight sets, but the drama came with the match between Valentina Sassi (who had taken out the second and highest remaining seed Jana Kandarr in the first round) and Cho Yoon-Jeong, in which the Korean only barely escaped alive from the first two sets before finishing off the third convincingly. Nadia Petrova and Christina Torrens-Valero had the honour of playing the first main draw match of the year, and the much-watched Russian came out all-cylinders-firing, totally blasting Cristina out of the water. The Spaniard had trouble getting started, as most players do with their first tournaments of the year, and won a total of three games before crashing out. The next two matches featured the two local wildcards, with Christina Wheeler putting up a fair fight against Daja Bedanova before Anastasia Myskina, making her first ever trip down under at the start of the year (usually opting to join her family on skiing trips instead), creamed hometown girl Samantha Stosur 6-2 6-0. The next match saw the first big upset of the year, with Tina Pisnik taking out Sandrine Testud in straight sets. The Slovenian has always approached her matches positively, ready and willing to give anyone a fight, and this match was no different. Decked out in a complementing gold top and navy blue shorts, with a golden-yellow bandana to match, Tina focused hard on her game, and surprised spectators by taking the first set. Sandrine was also finding it a little hard to get into the match, and didn't have the luxury of being the underdog to get her motivated. Letting everything from line calls to let calls bother her, she looked determined to avoid an early exit, but couldn't come up with enough against the Slovenian's calculated game. Tina Pisnik has always been recognized as having the talent as well as the guts to make a significant mark on the tour, but has failed to progress as far as she could have in the two years she has been on it. Fitness has improved from the juniors, but at an unimpressive rate, and her main problem has always been her inability to hold it together once she's ahead. Wielding a deep sliced backhand and a much-improved forehand to finish off points, Tina's game is not the clear-cut blast-from-the-baseline game becoming common with the many hard-hitters out there, but is a more mentally- and physically-demanding strategy that involves patience with the slices before coming in to finish off points. Needless to say, quite a bit off scrambling as well as movement around the court is required, and the youngster tends to get down on herself when all the work she puts into setting up a point goes down the drain from a small mistake. With increasing motivation and a more positive approach to her game, will this mark a turning point for the youngster or merely go down on record as yet another flashy win in her career? The key lies in her work ethic, and the Slovenian will need to take more initiative during her off-court hours if she is to realize the potential so many see in her. Perhaps positive things will rub off from her camaraderie with the Russian and Czech players such as Daja Bedanova and Anastasia Myskina. The final singles match of the day certainly wasn't a letdown after the excitement of losing the third seed. Elena Likhovtseva had her work cut out for her against hard-hitter Alexandra Stevenson, but as usual, had a definite plan of attack. Instead of being wary of the speed of the balls coming at her, she showed no signs of intimidation and actually stood inside the baseline to return most of Alex's booming serves. The tactic paid off in the first set, with Elena cleverly pushing Alexandra's buttons and handling the pace and heavy topspin well. The veteran took the first set 6-2 in front of an impressed crowd, who was awed by the power the American was producing and the coolness in which Elena was handling the situation. It had to be sooner or later when Alex found her rhythm, though, and as if alarm bells had sounded off in her head, she started hitting the balls even harder. With more of them starting to land on the lines, Elena found herself with a much larger court to cover, and even the keen anticipation and reflexes that got her the first set so easily weren't enough to get her to the ball in time. Despite a light drizzle around the covered center court, the heat on the court itself was deceptively high, and both players were considerably drenched, although neither showed any signs of letting up physically. Alexandra started running around a few more backhands despite having a considerable left wing as well, and proved once again that when her game is on, not much can stop her. She dropped only one game in taking the second set, and both players trudged off to the locker rooms for an extended heat break before coming back for the big showdown. Both players had taken their sets convincingly, and the spectators were on the edge of their seats anticipating a fight-to-the-death style final set. Expressionless as ever, Elena went up to serve, and opened with a double-fault. Lesser players would have been a little shaken, but Elena merely shook her head, as if she was surprised at herself for coming up with something so dreadful, and got ready to make up for it in the next point. Both players held serve in the first three games. An interesting factor on this point was the return-of-serves from both players. Elena Likhovtseva was attacking the famous Stevenson serve as early as she could, moving forward to take the shot and taking her chance against the speed and varied placement; on the other hand, Alexandra was actually moving backwards leading up to the return-of-serve, despite the less intimidating pace at which the ball was coming at her. Serving at 1-2, Alexandra let her concentration slip a little, and despite blasting her serves as hard as ever, had become predictable in placement, and Elena had the balls right in her hitting zone. Before anyone could blink, she took the early break and consolidated for a 4-1 lead. A scene as proverbial among the younger players on the tour as is the Sanex WTA Tour patches all over tournament grounds, seeing her own blood on the floor got Stevenson to pick up her game. Reminiscent of the second set, she started hitting the ball harder, especially on the backhand, absolutely amazing the crowd by hitting sizzling groundies right in the corners on full run. Despite always being in the best possible location on court, Elena could only watch the ball whiz past her at the net or land just out of reach on the baseline. Alex got the break back to serve at 3-4, and the situation was turned around very quickly. Crunch time, and the familiar Likhovtseva temper was flaring. Almost as if in desperation, Elena started attacking Alex's stronger forehand side! After having had her left wing attacked so determinedly, Alexandra got flustered, letting the pressure to execute the "easy shot" get to her, and both the stroke mechanics and timing broke down. Sure enough, the balls started landing long, and mentally, Elena had the upper hand in the match. The Stevenson serve was on fire, though, and ace after ace whistled untouched all the way to the backdrop (which, by the way, was solid and produced an intimidating bang whenever the ball slammed into it -- perhaps a flashy trick to impress spectators with the power of women's tennis today?). The score was evened at 4-all with yet another ace. Steady as ever, Elena had to put a stop to the mayhem, and continued to put the pressure on, playing from all over the court and not giving up an inch of ground. Pressure off, the Stevenson game lost its edge, and the combination gave Elena the next two games to end the match. Visibly upset but with no one to blame but herself, Alexandra will have hopefully gained some lessons in life from this match. In the meantime, the unseeded Russian will look forward to taking on yet another rookie, Tina Pisnik, who had done the hard work of taking out the seed in that section of the draw. Singles Qualifying Round 3:
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