|
by Christopher Gerby After weeks of on-again, off-again rain in the Albany area, Wednesday saw the gray clouds move out and sweltering heat move in. With temperatures reaching 93 degrees, it was a good day to stay hydrated and seek shade. Unfortunately for the players in the Schenectady challenger, it was also a day to grind it out in the last of the first round matches. There is good news: I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. No, actually, the good news is the tournament's semifinals and final will be played in the lush confines of MVP Stadium, which in the meantime has been reserved for New York Buzz practice sessions. Cory Ann Avants vs. Sunitha Rao Singles: First Round Court 5 Cory Ann Avants took up competitive tennis at age 5. She's 19 now, which in her mind means "I've been playing forever and a day." Her will to compete has not dimmed, though, as fellow American prospect Sunitha Rao can attest. Avants ousted Rao from a challenger in Los Gatos three weeks ago and got off to a strong start in the encore. Hitting flat, two-handed strokes with good power and accuracy, Avants took the first five games against a strangely flat-footed, lethargic Rao. Cory Ann nearly got the bagel, pushing Rao to deuce before a nifty volley winner made it 5-1. Avants got a tad annoyed in the following game when a ball from another court rolled in just as (or right after) she hit a winner. A let was called and Cory Ann asked the umpire, "Are you serious?" before turning away and muttering, " I like how SHE calls the let." Avants went right back to work, though, closing out a 6-1 set with a service winner and shouting, "C'mon, let's go!" There was more of the same early in the second. Lacing multiple winners down the line, she stormed out to a 3-0 lead. Game 4 dragged on for four deuces, with Rao making what had the earmarks of a futile last stand. Instead, it was a genuine momentum swing: Sunitha broke for 1-3 and broke again for 3-3 as Avants grew increasingly annoyed. Cory Ann threw her racket during Game 7, but took advantage of a few Rao errors to regain command. Soon enough, Avants was serving for victory at 5-4, 40-0. Two double faults in a row followed, but Avants cashed in the third match point, wrapping up a 6-1, 6-4 win as Rao sent a lunging forehand long. You'd think Avants would have come in confident after her recent 7-5, 6-3 win over Rao, but she wasn't taking anything for granted. "I just try to play. She has a good game, so it's tough to play her and tough to go out there. She's a very fine player, so, you know, you always cringe when you see somebody you know. You're like, great, I just played them a couple weeks ago and now she's looking for revenge. It's always tough to go out there and be, like, OK, well I beat 'em a week ago and everybody's, like, you're fine, you're fine, you beat 'em a week ago. You're never fine when you beat somebody a week ago! They always want revenge, so I'm just happy to come through it and get out with a win." Cory Ann's short term goal is simple. "I'm trying to get my ranking up so I can get into US Open qualies. It's borderline right now -- I'm 238 and last year's cutoff was 210, so hopefully a couple rounds in this will give me the points that I need to maybe make the cutoff. That's pretty much what everybody's trying to do here. The seeds are pretty much in and then everybody else is close." Avants still had a doubles match scheduled later in the day, but it wasn't high on her list of priorities. "To tell you the truth, I haven't even looked, I don't really know who we play. Doubles is just kinda fun for me. I enjoy it and I'm competitive with it, but it definitely is not something I take so seriously as singles. That's why everybody likes to watch doubles. It's a little more light-hearted and fun." Avants and Varvara Lepchenko would go on to win that one, ousting fellow qualifiers Amanda Johnson and Raquel Kops-Jones 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. Still alive in both draws, Cory Ann is also in the running to be named On The Line's favorite interviewee of the week. She is very friendly and polite, with an adorable North Carolina accent. Jewel Peterson vs. Janet Lee Singles: First Round Court 6 10-year WTA Tour veteran Janet Lee came into Schenectady on a major cold streak, having lost her last five singles matches, all in straight sets. She was in a world of trouble again here when hard-hitting American Jewel Peterson broke her for a 6-3, 4-3 lead. Peterson smacked an ace to end the next game, leaving Lee right on the brink of another first round exit. Lee held for 4-5, putting the pressure on Peterson. The youngster rushed through a poor service game, double faulting at 15-40 to even the second set at 5 games apiece. After Lee notched a pair of aces in holding to 6-5, Peterson answered with a love hold to force a second set tiebreak... After blowing three match points, the first two on her serve, Jewel Peterson decided it was time for a bathroom break. Janet Lee agreed and the pair, accompained by one of the linespeople, made the very long walk to the public restrooms. It should have been enough time for Peterson to get her head together, but she dropped her next two service games, allowing Lee a 3-1 edge in the final set. # 2 seed Jenny Hopkins, slated to play the winner of this one in the next round, did some scouting in person as Lee and Peterson dug in for an epic fifth game. Still playing erratic tennis but putting up a good fight, Peterson saved a whopping seven break points. Lee would not go away, however, and the lanky Asian knocked off a winning forehand volley to secure another break and a 4-1 lead. Having squandered three match points earlier, Peterson found herself facing them at 1-5, 15-40. Jewel unleashed a pair of big first serves to stay alive, eventually holding for 2-5 and forcing Janet to do something she hasn't accomplished in some time: serve out a singles win. The Indiana native, who changed her nationality to Chinese Taipei a handful of years back, struggled, falling behind 15-40. Two backhand errors cost Peterson those break points, though, and Lee put in a pair of good first serves to finish it off. Lee completed the comeback and snapped the losing streak by a count of 3-6, 7-6, 6-2. After the match, Janet was soft-spoken and realistic about her rally from behind in the second set tiebreak. "I was just trying to stick to my plan. I missed a couple forehands, two crucial forehands that should have been made. And I was, like, OK, put that behind me and just work on trying to get even. I was a little lucky." Even after building a sizeable lead in the third, Lee didn't believe she had this one in the bag until the last ball was struck. "Even at 5-1, I was still thinking, she could just go for broke and start making everything. It's still not over. It's been a while since I won my last match, so I just tried not to think about it." Next up for Lee: attempting to avenge a very close December 2003 loss to Jennifer Hopkins. Lee remembered correctly that the three-setter on clay in Florida was their only career meeting, which she finds strange, "considering that we've overlapped on the tour for several years." (4) Yuka Yoshida vs. Shiho Hisamatsu Singles: First Round Court 3 Morning turned to afternoon, seasons changed, toddlers grew up and went away to college. All the while, Yuka Yoshida and Shiho Hisamatsu continued an all-Japanese match that refused to end. Seeded Yoshida took the opening set 6-4, but Hisamatsu battled back to win a second set tiebreak. Just as Yoshida broke for a 6-5 lead in the deciding set, Hisamatsu slipped a bit on the baseline and came up limping. After three and a half hours of play in what had become 90 degree heat, it wasn't shocking to see Shiho struck down by what appeared to be a nasty case of cramping. She desperately tried to stretch it out and got some treatment during the changeover. Struggling with her movement but fighting hard, Hisamatsu built up a 15-40 lead on Yoshida's serve. Yuka saved both break points and a third, but could not put it away. Hisamatsu finally got to 6-6, taking the match to a deciding tiebreak. Unfortunately for Hisamatsu, she had to serve first, which proved nearly impossible, as she couldn't push off her aching left leg. Yoshida clobbered Shiho's hopeless duck of a serve for a 1-0 lead. An agonizingly long rally on the next point ended with Hisamatsu doubled over in pain and picking up a time violation. Running out of options, Hisamatsu tried to end the third point with a drop shot, but it fell weakly into the net. Down 0-3 and unable to serve, a visibly distressed Hisamatsu retired. 3 hours and 39 minutes after taking the court, Yuka Yoshida escaped by the odd score of 6-4, 6-7, 6-6 (3-0). A mixture of pain and disappointment overwhelmed Hisamatsu, who sat at her chair, sobbing into a towel. She was almost immediately surrounded by the trainer, the tournament referee, and Yoshida's doubles partner Mi-Ra Jeon, who'd been watching the drama play out. The trainer applied ice to Hisamatsu's leg while Jeon put some on the back of her neck and tried to calm her down. After several minutes, Shiho was able to exit the court under her own power. (7) Maureen Drake vs. Yan Ze Xie Singles: First Round Court 3 Still capable of crafty tennis after age 30, Maureen Drake took a set off Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2002. Drake is 33 now and has put on some weight, but she did reach a challenger final in Los Gatos earlier this month. Some nice serving by the Canadian and a whole slew of errors from Yan Ze Xie staked Drake to an early 4-1 lead. Drake wasn't exactly exuding sunshine and light, however. Disgusted after being passed by Xie midway through Game 6, Maureen wondered aloud, "Why are you coming in on the backhand?" After six deuces, Drake finally angled off a volley for a 5-1 lead. She served it out from there and took a comfortable 6-1, 3-0 lead. She still wasn't satisfied, though, and could be heard grumbling, "What kind of ball is THIS?" After allowing Xie to completely beat herself for a set and a half, Drake let her own level of play slip. She capped off Game 4 of the second set with two double faults in a row, then allowed Xie to hold for 2-3. This sent Drake into a total meltdown. She slammed her racquet down, kicked it all the way across the court, picked it up, and threw it again, finally drawing a code violation from the umpire. Even after that display, Drake didn't have all the anger out of her system. An error in Game 6 was followed by a cry of "EVERYTHING in the NET!" Perhaps afraid to be on the same court with this raging volcano much longer, Yan Ze Xie went back to playing absolutely dreadful tennis. Match point saw her miss a backhand on the run, ending this ugly affair in Maureen Drake's favor, 6-1, 6-2. Elsewhere on Wednesday: Adriana Barna woke up on the wrong side of the bed for her first round match against qualifier Varvara Lepchenko. Barna's ranting and raving throughout a 6-3, 6-4 loss could be heard from a considerable distance. Whatever the problem was, it ended with the German opting not to shake Lepchenko's hand. Another qualifier who advanced was Cindy Watson of Australia, who took advantage of a sloppy third set from Rika Fujiwara. Rika fell 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 and looked pretty furious with herself. Losing qualifiers were Seiko Okamoto (dismissed by Ansley Cargill in a 6-0, 6-2 laugher) and crowd favorite Shikha Uberoi (who put up a good fight in a 6-2, 6-7, 6-3 loss to 6th seeded Natalie Grandin). A number of the fans who watched Uberoi's match stuck around for some deliriously entertaining doubles on Court 5. Ansley Cargill and Julie Ditty played action-packed points that had be seen to be believed against Liga Dekmeijere and Antonia Matic. Cargill and Ditty won in two tiebreaks, the first being a 13-11 thriller that was fit for inclusion in a tennis time capsule. |