Basuki Ousts van Roost: Huber, Novotna and Hingis Move On |
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Basuki Ousts van Roost: Huber, Novotna and Hingis Move On |
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This article contains reports of the following matches:
Dominique van Roost vs. Yayuk Basuki
Singles: 2nd Round
Court 2
12th seeded Dominique van Roost and Indonesia's Yayuk Basuki
opened Wednesday's play on Court 2. The match figured to feature an
interesting contrast of styles, with Basuki relying on her good serve
and net skills while Van Roost would look to dictate from the baseline.
Their last match had been a close, break-filled affair at this year's
Australian Open, with Basuki prevailing 6-4, 6-4. A repeat did not
appear likely in the early going. Basuki double faulted to end the first
game and failed to capitalize on a Van Roost double fault in the second.
After each player finished up easy holds with service winners, the
score was 3-1 in favor of the Belgian.
Van Roost further took control of the match in Game 5, getting a clean winner with a drop shot on the way to breaking at 15. She was playing the right kind of tennis, keeping Basuki away from the net by hitting hard, deep groundstrokes. That pattern continued in the next game, a Van Roost hold for 5-1. Basuki got down set point in the following game, but survived by putting great spin on a high risk, high reward drop shot. Van Roost advanced to set point twice more in the game, but Basuki fought both off with service winners and finally held with a nifty half-volley winner. At 5-2, Gavin Hopper arrived, undoubtedly to scout the match for his charge Monica Seles, who will be facing the victor on Thursday.
Van Roost got herself into a 0-40 hole with a double fault, rallied back to 30-40, and promptly double faulted again to lose the next game. Basuki threw in a double herself at 30-30 in Game 9, giving the favorite a fourth chance to win the set. However, Basuki came through with an ace out wide to stave off the set point. Van Roost got a fifth break chance soon after, but lost it as well when her forehand service return hit the tape. Basuki eventually hung on with a service winner and was right back in the match at 5-4. Van Roost did little with her second opportunity to serve it out, getting down 15-40 and losing the game on an unreturnable Basuki forehand.
The dizzying fall from 5-1 to 5-5 left Van Roost frustrated and Basuki invigorated. Yayuk held serve for 6-5 and stormed out to a 15-40 lead against the perpetually suspect Van Roost serve. On her very first set point, Basuki left no doubt -- a backhand pass down the line gave her the set 7 games to 5. Dominique's sudden tailspin continued into the second set. She lost its first four games in short order, making it a total of ten in a row for Basuki. Van Roost appeared to be in a daze and the way she buried her head in a towel throughout each changeover spoke to her lack of confidence. Never one to give up, though, Van Roost got one of the breaks back, smacking two consecutive return winners at deuce and getting back to within 4-1. She then put together one of her best service games of the day, holding for 4-2.
Basuki nearly squandered a 40-0 lead in Game 7, but at 40-30 she ripped a timely forehand winner. Van Roost held for 5-3 and appeared to meditate between games, standing very still and holding her racquet to her forehead. Whatever she was thinking there couldn't stop her opponent's serve. Basuki hit aces on the last two points of the match, completing a 7-5, 6-3 upset. 1998 has been largely disappointing for Yayuk Basuki, but she may very well be turning things around here in Montreal.
Anke Huber vs. Florencia Labat
Singles: 2nd Round
Court 2
After missing four months of the season after foot surgery,
Anke Huber's ranking has slipped and her serve is in tatters. At
least her short hair has grown out attractively in the interim. Even
her game looked good in the early stages of this du Maurier Open rematch
with Florencia Labat (whom Huber clobbered last year in Toronto). Huber
scored a quick break to open the match and held at love for 2-0. What
followed was similar to her first round match against Vanessa Webb --
Huber kept missing serves, but compensating with big groundtrokes.
Huber was even hitting some nice volleys, such as the one that clinched
a 5-2 lead. Huber followed that up by holding at 15, completing the
6-2 set with a service winner.
Labat smartly changed tactics in the second set. Apparently convinced that she couldn't out-hit Huber, she went more and more to looping the ball back with a variety of slices and spins. That approach was initially successful -- Labat drew some key errors in holding for 1-0, then broke for 2-0 and held at love to lead the set 3 games to zip. Huber was nothing if not resilient, though. Game 4 featured a pair of deuces and Game 5 featured four. Both players failed to convert a number of opportunities to close out those games and were loudly voicing their displeasure. Labat unleashed one tirade in Spanish which was obviously self-directed, since the one word I understood was "Florencia". Huber also found interesting ways to vent her frustration, kicking a ball all the way back across the court and smacking herself in the head with her racquet.
Huber made a gritty comeback from 0-40 in Game 6 to hold for 3-3. She blamed the sun for a pair of errors in Game 7, which saw her fall behind 40-0. Once again Labat failed to capitalize on a trio of game points. Huber was staying focused when she needed to, refusing to make errors on big points. Since Labat does not have the firepower to hit many winners against Huber, she was essentially helpless in many of the rallies. She finally did hold for 4-3, but Huber matched that with a hold of her own in the fifth consecutive game to go to deuce. Game 9 was no different and provided a telling microcosm of the hotly contested set. Huber lost four break points, while Labat -- who had to expend so much energy just in fending those off with deft retrieving -- failed to convert a game point. In the end, Huber's power was just a little too much. She nailed a backhand winner, breaking for 5-4.
Still getting the kinks worked out of her game, Huber double faulted for 15-30 and missed a forehand for 15-40, mumbling to herself in German. Obviously not wanting to go three sets with a well conditioned athlete like Labat, Huber hit the rest of her shots with authority. She fought off the break points, earned a match point, and made it count with an overhead smash returned into the net by Labat. Just barely squeaking out some incredibly close games, Anke Huber took a 6-2, 6-4 victory which was closer than those numbers would suggest.
Jana Novotna vs. Elena Likhovtseva
Singles: 2nd Round
Centre Court
Reigning Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna drew a tough customer in her first match back from vacation. The opponent would be Elena Likhovtseva, an intense Russian with a good history on hard courts. Likhovtseva started off strong, a forehand volley winner ending a 15 hold. Novotna got a hold of her own for 1-1, but once again could only manage one point against Likhovtseva's serve. Striking some really sharp passing shots, Elena broke for 3-1 and held for a rather surprising 4-1 lead. Novotna got right back in it, holding at love for 4-2 and running Likhovtseva around in a break for 4-3. Novotna's backhand was really letting her down. Three errors from that wing helped give Likhovtseva a break for 5-3. Likhovtseva was having her own problems with the wind, though, and she got broken again, cutting her lead down to 5-4.
Anna Kournikova's press conference was scheduled to start in a few minutes. Never having seen the much-celebrated phenom speak in person, I abandoned the rather sloppy Novotna-Likhovtseva match and wound up missing Jana's comeback. She won the last four games of each set in a 7-5, 6-2 victory. After the match, I asked Novotna if she felt like she had needed a set to shake off the rust and find her rhythm. "Well, I think that I need more than a set just to get the feel. Don't forget that after Wimbledon I played only one tournament right the week after Wimbledon, and since then it's been four weeks without a tournament or without a match. So I wasn't really surprised with that. I mean, it's very natural that if you don't play for some time, and especially at a tournament like this, it's very difficult to get your game back right away. So I am not surprised because of a slow start. I didn't expect much from this match, and I'm just happy to have this one behind me."
Martina Hingis vs. Silvia Plischke
Singles: 2nd Round
Centre Court
Making her Montreal debut, #1 player in the world Martina
Hingis wasn't expected to have much difficulty against little known
Silvia Plischke. The young Austrian has stepped up in big occasions
before, though. Playing in only the second Grand Slam tournament of
her career, Plischke ousted Irina Spirlea in the first round of this
year's French Open. Martina Hingis is not Irina Spirlea, of course,
but Plischke made her case early on. She fought off two break points
in the opening game and had an easy hold for 2-1. Hingis held for
2-2 and Plischke doggedly fought through Game 5, but she eventually
lost it on a backhand into the net. Taking advantage, Hingis went up
4-2 with an ace and broke again for 5-2.
For some reason, Hingis played an atrocious eighth game, botching a routine volley and double faulting. Plischke accepted the invitation back into a competitive set, holding at love with a backhand winner down the line. Now leading just 5-4, Hingis was more steady in her second attempt to serve out the set. Her backhand made the difference, creating a winner at 30-30 and forcing a weak Plischke error on set point. It took longer than expected -- 39 minutes to be exact -- but "the Swiss Miss" had a 6-4 set under her belt. That was the end of Plischke for a while. Hingis broke at love and held at 15, finally looking like the #1 seed she is. The next break was tougher, but the next hold wasn't. Controlling play with her groundstrokes, Hingis led 6-4, 4-0.
A love hold for Plischke made things a little more respectable and she even got to 30-30 in Game 6. Hingis won that game behind her second ace of the evening and a vicious backhand winner down the line. The ace was one of several big serves she came up with on critical points. Hingis's ace total hit double figures in the final of last week's Acura Classic, so I asked her tonight whether she thinks her serve is becoming a real weapon. "Yeah. I've been working on it, for the last two or three weeks especially, when I started playing with this new racquet. I didn't have any rhythm at all in the first two or three practice hours, so I was like, OK, I gotta improve something."
Plischke made one last stand down 5-1. Hingis earned a match
point with a drop shot which just barely eluded the Austrian, but she
delivered a backhand winner to stave off the match point. The problem
with fighting off a match point down 5-1 against the world's #1 is that
another match point is likely to be close behind. Indeed it was --
Hingis won the match two points later when Plischke`s attempt at a
tricky backhand overhead landed wide. It was a pretty good 63-minute
workout for Martina Hingis, who advances to face Ai Sugiyama in the
third round.
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