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by Priya Prasad Qualifying day 1 at the adidas International in Sydney, and the haze covering Sydney from recent bushfires spreading around the city left the skies over Homebush Bay looking more like it was situated in the middle of London in spring instead of Australia in summer. Players coming from winter in the northern hemisphere and expecting a blistering heat Down Under were a little thankful, especially those who had battled extreme conditions on the covered court in the Gold Coast. In fact, conditions had become so extreme that a match had to be suspended for an hour and a half under the WTA's extreme-weather condition policy. Only the women were in action today, with first round singles qualifying action, while the men will play both their first and second qualifying round matches tomorrow. Elena Bovina of Russia was up first on court two, playing against Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian of Switzerland. Playing in her first singles match of the year, the Russian had trouble taking control of the points against Marie-Gaiane's huge hit-or-miss game. Nevertheless, she kept her first set percentage up, and jumped on her opponent's second serves to keep herself in contention. At the end of the day, it came down to pure luck, with the Russian winning the important points (she managed to save 11 out of 16 break points against her) and Elena just barely make it through 6-3 4-6 7-6(6), helped by a whopping 15 double-faults from her opponent. Not the best of ways to start the year, but she at least has a good start with her win-loss record, and will have at least one more match in preparation for the Aussie Open. Her next opponent, Sandra Kleinova, had by then already won her match 6-0 7-6(7) against Eva Dyrberg, but is not likely to fare as well against the strength of the Russian's game. A couple of other interesting results were Katarina Srebotnik, who didn't have to work too hard against the "Little Chilli" Evgenia Koulikovskaya. She got through 6-3 6-3 to set up a potential meeting with Ai Sugiyama, who was still in the Gold Coast playing doubles. Tina Pisnik struggled with her quad injury in an absolutely appalling match against Maja Palaversic-Coopersmith of Croatia, and anyone seeing either player for the first time would have wondered how they ever managed to get into the tournament without a wildcard. At the end of the day, the Croat simply made too many silly errors, and had a long discussion with her husband/coach as well as a couple of other Croatian coaches who had been in attendance. That set her up against alternate Nathalie Vierin, who will definitely take full advantage if the Slovenian doesn't pick up her game for tomorrow. Also moving easily into the second round were Daniela Hantuchova (who hardly broke a sweat against Italian Maria Elena Camerin), Maria Emilia Salerni (now coached by Patricia Tarabini), Anastasia Myskina, Alexandra Stevenson, Anca Barna, Klara Koukalova and Marlene Weingartner. Jelena Kostanic had a nightmare of a match against Kaia Kanepi, who had replaced Tatiana Panova who was still playing in Auckland, but eventually made it 6-4 6-7(5) 7-6(1). Tomorrow will see the men hot in action, and tennis fans taking advantage of the free admittance during qualifying will certainly appreciate the full day of play ahead, with the men playing both their first and second round matches, recuperating in between while the women play their second round matches. |