Wednesday was the start of second round action at the 2002 State Farm
Women's Tennis Classic with winners advancing to the quarterfinals.
The top four seeds, who received first round byes, began play and
three of four surviving qualifiers faced daunting challenges against
seeded players.
Martina Hingis (#2) vs. Stephanie Foretz (Q) (Second Round)
First Meeting
There seemed little worry about the outcome of this second round match as an impressive Wednesday noon
time crowd (probably about 70%-80% of what I have seen for a women's weekend match here in
Scottsdale) warmly greeted Martina Hingis's debut at the 2002 State Farm. Her opponent, Stephanie
Foretz of France, was the biggest of underdogs, a qualifier currently ranked #125. But someone did not teach this underdog the "roll over and
play dead" trick. The bespectacled Foretz won the first five points of the match, holding serve at love and
taking the first point off of Hingis's first service game. The French fairy tale ended fairly quickly as Hingis
lured Foretz into the net with a dropshot and then lobbed her for a break point which the "Swiss Miss"
secured. Hingis also converted on her first break chance on Foretz's serve in the
seventh game of the set. Foretz did have
opportunities to earn both breaks back. In the sixth and eighth games, Foretz had two break chances in
each game, but each time Hingis fought back to hold serve. She
punctuated the first set (6-2, 29 minutes) with a 93 mph ace.
Much to her credit, the 20-year old Frenchwoman did not go away in the second set. The players held serve to 2-2.
Foretz faced double break point in the fifth game of the set but this time gave Hingis a bit more of a
struggle to earn the break. Foretz smashed a Hingis short lob to eliminate the first break point, Hingis had
a smash of her own clip the netcord and bounce out to bring the game to deuce. On Hingis's advantage,
Foretz threw in a 106-mph serve, but again Hingis would use the drop
shot to lure in her opponent. Foretz got to it but was unable to handle
the next volley. Hingis faced two break points in the eighth
game but a break back for Foretz remained elusive (even though Hingis's second serves sometimes
dipped into the upper 60-mph range). So just one break decided
the 6-4, second set. At least Foretz could
take some satisfaction in keeping Hingis on the court for just over an hour's time.
The match was the proverbial "tougher than the score" suggests. Foretz was a scrappy player with a decent
serve who just lacks the consistency to be in the upper ranks. After a three week break from tennis and a
mini-tumble down the computer rankings (where she is now #5), Hingis
appeared to be happy to be back on the court - often flashing her
"cheshire cat" smile when she made an error or her opponent hit a good
shot.
In her post-match conference was confident and relaxed. She was happy
with her play, particularly noting
her backhand and her ability to hold serve today. When asked if it was a tougher match than she
expected, Hingis did the standard "you know these [insert nationality, today "French"] girls come onto the
court with nothing to lose." Concerning her unusual position in this week's rankings, Hingis was confident
that she would get back up to the #3 spot by the finish of the Miami tournament (Nasdaq 100 Open). In
perhaps a rare show of humility, Hingis added "which is, at this point, (where) I belong." But no need to
worry we have not lost the quotable Martina - on her current ranking she quipped, "I don't think I have ever
been #5, I think I jumped from like #8 to #4."
Hingis next meets the winner of the Daja Bedanova/Silvija Talaja match, which conveniently started at the
close of Hingis's press conference.
Daja Bedanova (#8) vs. Silvija Talaja (Q) (First Round)
Head to Head: Bedanova leads series 1-0 (2001 US Open, R64, 6-1, 6-3)
It was a potentially interesting match-up between a rising youngster
and a player who has not quite lived up to
her potential over the past year. The soon-to-be 19 year-old Bedanova
has meteorically risen up the
ranks over the past several years and reached the quarterfinals of the US Open last year; while Talaja
has struggled since breaking into the Top 20 in 2000 but since falling
to #109 at the close of 2001 (and a current rank of #95).
The players held serve to open the match, but then Bedanova went on a roll. The Czech
rattled off 15 of 16 points breaking Talaja's serve twice for a speedy 5-1 lead. Perhaps a little disconcerted
by her fine play, Bedanova struggled in her next service game and double faulted to give Talaja one of the
breaks back. Talaja's service continued to give her problems and
Bedanova earned her third break for a 6-2, 31 minute first set.
A messier second set ensued as Bedanova's game dropped a few notches and Talaja was able to get into the
groove a little bit more. Being the server was no advantage as five
of six games in the middle of the set were service breaks. The set seemed to be heading for a tiebreak but Bedanova was able to maintain a
now one-break lead as she served for the set at 5-3, winning the match with a 101-mph service winner.
Bedanova now meets Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals scheduled for Friday. The two have known each
other since they were young girls (after all they are quite up there in age now!). It should be a good match if
Bedanova is able to bring her first set flashiness to the court, while Hingis will certainly need to step up her
game from today's "good enough" performance.
Serena Speaks
With wins over Anna Kournikova and Amelie Mauresmo this year, you would think that Serena Williams
was having a pretty good year on the court. But those were the only
two matches that Williams played this year as an ankle injury forced
her out of a semifinal match versus Meghann Shaughnessy at the 2002
adidas
International in Sydney. This evening she starts her comeback taking
on Russian qualifier, Alina
Jidkova, in a second round match.
Serena spoke to the Scottsdale press earlier in the week, here are some of the highlights:
On her injury: "It's not 100 percent, it's probably about 90%. With this type of injury it takes six months to
be 100 percent."
On Venus's rise to #1: "I'm really happy for her, but it also motivates me."
On Indian Wells: "I took away the tournament, the championship. That's about it. That's literally all I took
away from the tournament. Serena will not be defending her title next
week and likewise did not want to speculate about her
future plans to compete there. "Obviously, it was a big thing. It was a very sensitive issue"
Lastly, Serena may not bowl over many Valley of the Sun sports fans
with her knowledge of sports outside of tennis. Serena admitted to
not following baseball at all. "I was happy to see the, um, the one team that won against the Yankees. But if you asked me to
name seven other teams, I couldn't do it." Of course, that "one team" is the World Series Champion
Arizona Diamondbacks who have dominated Valley sports scene since the fall classic. Serena, however,
did redeem herself when she was able to name Diamondback pitching ace, Randy Johnson.
Raymond Update
In her first round losing effort to Ai Sugiyama yesterday, my untrained eye thought American Lisa
Raymond had called out the trainer for a shoulder ailment. It was, in fact, an abdominal strain. With the
strain not appearing serious, Raymond remains in the doubles draw with Rennae Stubbs. The top seeds
face Daja Bedanova and Elena Bovina in a first round doubles match this evening.