by Ed Toombs
Harkleroad hits the big time in Charleston The clay court season swung into high gear this week, as the genteel metropolis of Charleston hosted the year?s first important women?s event on the dirt. .Last year?s Charleston tourney produced a rather off-the-wall final between two unseeded players -- albeit accomplished clay-courters -- Iva Majoli and Patty Schnyder. This year logic was respected, as the top two seeds reached the final where second seed Justine Henin-Hardenne handed Serena Williams her first loss of the year, 6-3, 6-4.
The surprise of the week came from a seventeen-year-old American wild card named Ashley Harkleroad (pictured at right at the 2002 U.S. Open). A surprise semifinalist, Harkleroad made a strong statement that she will be a player to be reckoned with for years to come? as long as tennis remains her principal interest.
Harkleroad caught a bit of a break in her first round match in Charleston. Playing a good clay-courter out of France, Emilie Loit, the American teen won the first set, but was trailing 2-4 in the second when Loit retired with a foot injury. In subsequent rounds Harkleroad went on a rampage, beating top twenty players Elena Bovina and Meghann Shaughnessy by identical 6-2, 6-2 scores. Most impressively, Harkleroad committed just two unforced errors against Bovina.
Then, in her first WTA quarterfinal, Ashley shockingly blitzed Daniela Hantuchova, ranked number nine by the WTA, 6-2, 6-1. Hantuchova is having a rough season and made a whopping 41 errors in that match, but it was still a win over a top ten player. Harkleroad finally came back to earth in the semis, where she was victimized by eventual champion Henin-Hardenne, by a 6-2, 6-1 score, but had already made some impressive statements on the court.
So just who is this girl?
Ashley Harleroad had lived for part of her childhood in a Georgia hamlet named Flintstone (a fact that gave her the nickname ?Pebbles? during her junior days), and took up the game at the tender age of four. She now resides in the tennis colony of Wesley Chapel, Florida, where players such as Jennifer Capriati are among her neighbours and practice partners.
The young American entered the professional ranks with solid junior credentials. In 2001 she won the Wimbledon junior doubles title alongside Argentina?s Gisela Dulko, and last year she made it to the French Open junior singles final, where she lost to Indonesian star Angelique Widjaja.
Many fans know of Harkleroad primarily because of the media attention she received when she took the court as a wild card at the 2001 U.S. Open. Harkleroad was the main story in most of the day?s tennis articles, and not because of her tennis (an honourable 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 loss to veteran countrywoman Meilen Tu). It was her appearance in skimpy two-piece Nike outfit that attracted all the attention (pictured at right). The 16-year-old blonde was unfazed by the many questions she received during h er press conference about her attire. ?I think it was a little revealing, but I like that sometimes," she said. "So it was fine with me."
The media glare of New York quickly became a thing of the past, and in 2002 it was back to the grind of minor-league pro events. Although she played in some junior events last year, her focus was already on the pro circuit. Hiring former Argentine star José Luis Clerc as her coach, she shot up through the rankings, rising from 265 to 115 during 2002, notably winning two Challenger events. Clerc was impressed at the potential of his charge. ?She?s very, very strong,? said the Argentine. ?She hits everyt hing hard, deep and heavy. That?s what you have to do to be in the top 10.?
At the start of 2003 Harkleroad and Clerc parted ways, and the youngster began working with another former ATP star, Jay Berger. The coaching change has done nothing to slow Ashley?s ascent, as her impressive week in Charleston demonstrates.
Harkleroad, who stands 5?5?, turns 18 on May 2. After that date she will no longer be limited by WTA restrictions regarding the number of tournaments she can play. So the timing of her breakthrough tourney was perfect. In next week?s rankings she should be in the top 60, which means she will be able to compete in the main draw of most WTA events for the rest of the year, and will be able to play as often as she desires. ?I'll be able to go to any tournament I want to go to,? said Ashley in Charleston. ?It's not like I have to like plan out my schedule exactly the right way because maybe I might run out of tournaments. So it's going to be a lot of pressure taken off of me.?
Given that her success on the court is combined with continued media focus on her blonde good looks, the comparisons with Anna Kournikova are inevitable, and Harkleroad does little to discourage them. She has already done a number of photo shoots for tennis and lifestyle magazines, and her agents at the Beverly Hills-based Artists Management Group are better known for representing television and movie stars than athletes. She has already been labelled with nicknames like ?the American Anna?. In a profi le that appeared in Tennis Life Magazine late last year we saw this rather lascivious passage: ?Ashley Harkleroad is stunning, a perky package of muscle and curves that leaves ball boys and sports marketing executives drooling.?
Unlike other attractive players such as Daniela Hantuchova, who appear to bristle at being likened to Kournikova, Harkleroad embraces the comparison and speaks of her admiration for the Russian. ?I just take it as a compliment,? said the American teenager last week. ?I've been practicing with her a lot in Miami, and she's a very sweet girl, and we get along well. She's a very cool girl.?
As we know, Kournikova?s athletic career has suffered from the demands of her parallel career as ?celebrated beauty?. Ashley Harkleroad, who would clearly not mind replicating Anna?s off-court status in her own way, will be judged largely on her ability to maintain her tennis level if her celebrity increases. In view of the sorry decline in Kournikova?s tennis, the nickname ?American Anna? can also be interpreted as a cautionary tale.