New Pro Salerni Featured In Qualifying
by Prip
Late for the first day of qualifying, I managed to catch the end of
Katarina Srebotnik's match against Korean Jeon Mi-Ra. The
seventh-seed's year had hardly gone well, and her 10-23 record for
the year has left her in a blue funk. Her compatriots Tina Krizan
and Tina Pisnik have gathered 15-15 and 25-28 win-loss records for
the year respectively, although it should be noted that Krizan's
matches have been mostly in qualifying. Slovenia, which had looked
so strong not too long ago with these two most prominent players
leading the way and a handful more on the way, was now looking to be
struggling with their tennis players, no doubt starting with
injuries late last year.
With her current form and apparent lack of motivation, I wasn't
going to take anything for granted, even a match against an opponent
hovering around the 300-mark in the rankings. And it looked like
Katarina wasn't either. She had taken the first set 6-3, and was
ahead in the second set, playing seriously and trying to finish the
match as quickly as possible. Fortunately for her, the Korean wasn't
giving her the opportunity to come up with errors, and Katarina
managed to keep the ball in control and in play.
The match was soon wrapped up 6-3 6-3 in Srebotnik's favour, and the
Slovenian immediately headed to her chair, turned it around to face
the adjacent court and sat down to offer moral support to Tina
Krizan who was in the middle of her match. Katarina had kept an eye
on her best friend's match at every opportunity during changeovers,
when going for the towel, etc. throughout her match. Things just
weren't going as well for Tina, though, and despite a good effort,
ended up losing her match 6-4 7-5 to another Korean, Cho Yoon-Jeong,
who had received a wildcard into the qualifying draw.
Over on the other two courts, another double-treat was in store.
Jelena Kostanic would try to make up for her dismal performance
since Roland Garros this year. Her original target for the year was
to get into the top 50 in the rankings, which I had thought were
more than manageable for the hard-working teen, but a freak
accident earlier in the year which left her with an injured ankle
(if I had a penny for every injured ankle in the WTA...), and later
on a split with her coach Velimir Zerker has left her sliding down
the rankings to outside the top 100 instead of moving up. The
youngster had cruised through qualifying in this very tournament a
year ago as the fourth seed, but would certainly have a bit more
trouble getting into the main draw this year despite being seeded
fifth. Her first opponent would be Angelika Bachmann of Germany, who
has done rather well in getting through qualifying at Roland Garros
and the U.S Open this year, but fell just short at Wimbledon.
Jelena and Angelika finished warming up, and the Croat would start
the match serving. Jelena looked like she needed to warm up on her
serve a little more, but managed to hold anyway and went ahead 2-1.
Her serve wasn't the only thing giving her trouble, though. The Croat
seemed to be somewhere else from the court, and her shots looked
not only poorly executed but not thought out at all. The balls were
landing short, giving the German opening after opening. Angelika's
serve had a very big kick on it, and it worked very well for her
against the clay-courter. Jelena looked totally frustrated returning
serve, and came up with weak responses, giving Angelika 2 easy service
games.
Not surprisingly, at 2-all, Jelena's woes continued, and her serving
continued to be atrocious. First serve after first serve landed
nowhere near their target, and her second serve had nothing on it.
Angelika did well to put added pressure on, and the Croat
double-faulted to lose serve. Meanwhile, her older sister and new
coach were sitting in the stands, offering quiet support. She seemed
to need it a lot, and after nearly every lost point which she knew
she totally deserved, she looked up at them, a pained expression on
her face, to which they would nod as if to say, "come on, you know
what you have to do, and you know that you can do it."
Jelena not so much won the break back in the next game as Angelika
gave it up. The German played a little more tentatively, and a couple
of silly errors came off her racquet. A little vocal display in
Deutch showed her total disgust with herself. Both players held serve
without too much trouble, and the match went to 4-all.
While Jelena's shots continued to look sloppy, Angelika's were just
streaky. The German tried to up the level of aggressiveness to
pressure her opponent's already shaky serve, and started nearly every
point with the upper hand. Her shots were landing very deep, and she
ran Jelena all over the court. Fortunately, the Croat still has her
footspeed, although a slight increase in muscle mass has left her a
little less quick than before, and her stamina. She ran for every
ball, and got to most of them. She knew that she couldn't keep going
like this and expect to win the match, though, and after every
exhausting point, looked annoyed that she kept letting herself get
into these positions. It didn't help at all that she wasn't too sure
about a couple of line calls either. It was at this point that I
realized that the two linesmen at the baselines were the very same
2 guys who had been the source of much controversy the previous year.
Of course, linesmen aren't expected to be right all the time, but the
close calls seemed to have come at tight points, and one of the
incidences that I remember clearly last year was when Anastasia
Myskina was reduced to tears due to dodgy line calls.
All of Jelena's running paid off, though. Angelika would set up the
point well, be in full control of the point, finally manage to pull
her opponent way out of the court, and then miss the putaway shot.
Maybe she was too wary of her opponents speed and tried to go for
too much, but I think she could have gone for a lot less and even
Venus Williams would have difficulty sending the ball back. Jelena
narrowly held serve, and Angelika found herself serving to stay in
the first set. The match now looked a little less one-sided, with
Jelena hitting the ball well and cleanly again, with a lot more
conviction and confidence. She also looked a lot less troubled
returning serve, and earned herself a set point. This time, Angelika
was the one to succumb to pressure, and double-faulted the first
set away.
The second set started badly for Jelena, who double-faulted and lost
her service game on a close line call to give the early break to
Angelika. Angelika once again blew the advantage and lost serve, but
Jelena continued to serve atrociously, losing serve yet again on
another close line call. The German finally managed to hold serve to
go up 3-1, and had a chance to get another break in the next game.
Jelena managed to keep her head on straight and played an aggressive
point to save it, but a careless forehand landing way long from her
and a nice winner from Bachmann gave the second break to the German.
Down 4-1 in the second set after taking the first set -- an all too
familiar scene with Jelena Kostanic. The question now was, would she
pick up her game now or would it take a whole set for her to get
back into the game. Grumbling loudly to herself after missed shots
and careless mistakes, the Croat gradually started hitting the ball
a little better, instead of just pushing it back across the net.
Angelika was still doing a good job of running her around the court,
and a lot of shots Jelena hit were on the full run, but her backhands
were now harder and flatter while her topspin forehand were skimming
over the net with a lot more pace. With the help of an unforced
error from Angelika, Jelena got one break back to put a stop to her
losing streak.
Sure enough, once the Croat had found herself losing the set, she
picked up her game. Little by little, made to work very hard for
each point by Bachmann, Jelena chipped away at the deficit, and
finally managed to even it at 4-all. Her serves were still going
very badly, making it easy for Angelika to take early control of the
point, but two things were on Jelena's side: the youngster's
never-say-die attitude gave her the strength and stamina to run after
every ball, no matter how obscure her chances were of saving the
point; and her considerable speed which got her to those balls.
Angelika herself was very respectful of her opponent's court
coverage, and preferred to take the risk of going for the lines
instead of having the ball come back across the net. Unfortunately
for her, she missed as often as she hit.
Drenched in sweat from the hot and humid climate, and looking more
tired than Jelena despite having covered a lot less distance, the
German found herself down 4-5 and serving to stay in the match after
having held a 4-1 lead. She came in after her serve and brushed a
beautiful drop-shot volley which Jelena didn't even bother to run
after, and proceeded to hold serve at love. Jelena's baseline play
continued to improve, and she was visibly getting more confident,
creating good angles and opening the court up well. She herself
went up 40-love, when another double-fault came off her racquet,
but a service return error off a second serve gave her a 6-5 lead.
Jelena continued to have trouble returning Angelika's big kick
serves, and was reduced to hitting the ball around the height of
her head on nearly every service return in the match. Still feeling
less than comfortable with the shot, she gave her opponent early
control of the points, and the first point of the game saw fantastic
running from the Croat. The effort paid off, and she took the point
for a 15-0 lead. Angelika wasn't ready to go away just yet, though,
and she played a good next point, hitting a couple of very deep shots
which pushed Jelena way back in the court, followed by another nice
drop-shot. She wrong-footed her opponent on the next point, and
threw in yet another drop-shot which Jelena got to in plenty of time
but pushed the inside-out forehand just wide.
Jelena opened the tie-breaker, and for once got a decent serve in,
she played aggressively and came in to net, but Angelika could only
throw up a defensive lob on the full run, which Jelena simply hit
what I can only describe as an overhead touch drop-shot. A couple
of hard rallies brought it to 1-2. An attempted passing-shot from
Angelika Bachmann landed just wide, and Jelena played another solid
point to get an easy inside-out forehand winner to go up 3-2. A
strong serve from the German forced an error off Jelena's racquet,
but the mini-break finally came when she double-faulted at 3-all.
A silly unforced error from her put Jelena up 5-3, and an even
sillier service return straight into the net gave Jelena 3 match
points.
Angelika refused to give up, though, and took possession of the
point with a strong serve, getting the point by wrong-footing the
Croat. That saved one match point. She saved the second by
wrong-footing her opponent yet again, and took the third by pulling
the Croat way outside the court before hitting a volley that hardly
bounced down the middle of the court. Only having one match point
left, the Croat pulled out all the stops and kept her shots deep.
One ball landed very close to the baseline, and Angelika was
half-expecting a call that didn't come, but her concentration was
lost and she pushed a forehand long to finally give the match up.
The German came off the court extremely dejected, and sat down alone
in a corner to think long and hard about the lost match. Meanwhile,
Jelena and her sister Marina looked extremely happy to have gotten
through the match, while her coach looked more relieved than anything.
In any case, this was a match that had very little reason to have had
gone on for so long.
Youngster Maria-Emilia Salerni was in the meantime playing her
first professional match of her career. The Argentinian junior #1
had taken the singles title at Wimbledon and was runner-up in the
doubles, and is the current title holder of both the singles and
doubles events at the U.S Open. Her introduction to the tour wasn't
going to be a picnic, though. Luck of the draw pitted her against
the second seed of the qualifying draw, Vanessa Webb. Salerni
had already had a big match experience, though, defeating Natasha
Zvereva and quite nearly upsetting Barbara Schett at the recent
Sydney 2000 Olympics.
For some reason, the Argentinian started very tentatively, and
Vanessa Webb, more than wary of the youngster's capabilities,
started off aggressively. Admittedly, her position wasn't very
enviable -- the pressure was solely on her, despite the youngster
having much to prove yet. Playing aggressively and coming in to net
at every opportunity, Vanessa jumped to a quick 4-0 lead. Maria
played far from what she had showcased just 6 weeks before, showing
poor shot selection and camping out on the baseline. And then
things started to turn around. A few more errors started coming off
Vanessa's racquet, and Maria stopped pushing the ball around the
court, instead raising the level of aggressiveness of her game and
gradually started beating Vanessa to the net. Bit by bit, she
clawed her way back into the set, and held serve to go up 6-5 for
the first time in the match.
Vanessa was still playing very hard, determined not to let the game
slip away so easily. Her service game went to deuce, but she lost
the next point to face set point anyway. Keeping with the do or die
attitude, Salerni played aggressively, and went for a gutsy
down-the-line winner from the doubles alley. The ball landed in the
corner of the court to give her the first set 7-5.
The second set started more evenly, Salerni showcasing a little more
versatility in her game than she had in the first set. Games went
on serve, most of them going to deuce. Vanessa continued to play
aggressively and came in to net at the drop of a hat, while Salerni
was still contented to stay back, although she managed to do well
when she came in to net. Her passing shots were serving her well,
though, and continued to frustrate Canadian. The score went to 4-all,
and neither player had the momentum on their side. Salerni played a
very streaky game, continuing to get herself into jams, throwing
silly drop-shots that left her a sitting duck on court, and simply
making poor decisions. On the other hand, she was also coming up
with brilliant shots, forcing Vanessa to make good plays. The
youngster is also another one with a good set of wheels, and many a
time, Vanessa would hit a crisp, short, tight-angled volley that
could easily have been given up on, only to see the ball come back
at her.
Down 4-5 and serving to stay in the tournament, Vanessa came up to
net as usual, and tried to finish the point early with a drop-shot,
but the youngster managed to run it down in plenty of time. What
seemed like a good idea at first had turned into suicide, as
Maria-Emilia was now standing a mere 3 feet in front of her and
winding up for a big forehand drive. The Argentine did have a bit
of compassion, though, and drove the ball to Vanessa's left. Being
left-handed, Vanessa moved away but managed to hit the ball with
the back face of her racquet. The ball was still in play, but the
point was most definitely lost for her. Perhaps a bit rattled by
the near-death experience, the second-seed double-faulted on the
next point, putting Salerni 2 points away from her first
professional win. A lazy forehand from her sailed way long, setting
up 3 match points. She saved the first with a good strong lefty
serve that swung out wide, forcing a service return into the net,
but finally bowed out after pushing a volley long.
Maria-Emilia Salerni had finally won her first professional
tournament, but her performace was far from convincing. The
brilliance and all-court game that she had showcased in Sydney
was nowhere to be found, and instead she played a bland
baseline game that could easily have been reproduced by the
top 20 juniors in the world. If the youngster is to come
through qualifying, she'd have to pick up her game considerably.
The rest of the matches went as well as expected. Martina Sucha
had a little trouble closing out her match against Jolanda Mens
of the Netherlands, and never looked to be in trouble throughout the
match. She and Salerni had a potential clash in the third round, and
would pose a serious threat to the Argentine's bid for a place in
the main draw. The first casualty of the tournament, fourth-seed
Marlene Weingartner, had pulled out against Alicia Ortuno after
having lost the first set 6-4 and found herself down 0-3 in the
second. Sixth-seed Ana Isabella Medina Garrigues looked pretty
impressive in her 6-4 6-1 dispatch of Kim Eun-Ha, and looked like
she'd progress to the main draw comfortably.
- Iroda TULYAGANOVA (1) (UZB) def. YUIN Keng Bei (MAL)-WC 6-2, 6-0
- CHO Yoon-Jeong (KOR) def. Tina KRIZAN (SLO) 6-4, 7-5
- Saori OBATA (JPN) def. Eva DYRBERG (DEN) 6-3, 6-2
- Katarina SREBOTNIK (7) (SLO) def. JEON Mi-Ra (KOR) 6-3,6-3
- Zsofia GUBASCI (HUN) def. Nadejda OSTROVSKAYA (3) (BLR) 6-2, 5-7,6-1
- Evgenia KOULIKOVSKAYA (RUS) bye
- Liezel HORN (RSA) def. Rika HIRAKI (JPN) 6-1, 6-4
- Jelena KOSTANIC (5) (CRO) def. Angelika BACHMANN (GER) 6-4, 7-6(5)
- Ana Isabella MEDINA GARRIGUES (6) (ESP) def. KIM Eun-Ha (KOR) 6-4, 6-1
- Julia VAKULENKO (UKR) def. Pichaya LAOSIRICHON (THA)-WC 6-1, 6-0
- Yuka YOSHIDA (JPN) def. Benjamas SANGARAM (THA)-WC 6-4, 6-3
- Alicia ORTUNO (ESP) def. Marlene WEINGARTNER (GER) 6-4, 3-0 ret.
- Martina SUCHA (8) (SVK) def. Jolanda MENS (NED)-WC 6-1, 6-3
- TONG Ka Po (HKG) def. Alienor TRICERRI (SUI) 6-4, 6-2
- Anna ZAPOROZHANOVA (UKR) def. Stephanie FORETZ (FRA) 6-0, 1-6, 6-1
- Maria Emilia SALERNI (ARG) DEF. Vanessa WEBB (2) (CAN) 7-5, 6-4
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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