Top Seed and Defending Champion Both Ousted
by Prip
First match of the day saw the second casualty of the tournament.
Iroda Tulyaganova, playing against Pavlina Nola after
coming through qualifying, had to retire at 5-7 0-4 with a hip
injury.
The other match between Patricia Wartusch and Tina Hergold
was a nightmare. The Austrian looked asleep in the first set, and
Tina had come into the match knowing that she’d have to make a quick
start and take all the chances she had. The Slovenian took the first
set 6-3, before Patricia finally started to wake up, and looked like
she was actually aware of being on a tennis court, let alone playing
in a WTA tournament. The set was closely contested by both players,
but the points were coming mostly from errors than anything else.
Patricia got lucky and took the set 7-5, but then totally spaced out
again in the third. At one point, the Austrian served 3 double-faults
in a row, and looked like she’d rather be anywhere else than on
court. Not trying at all in the points, she totally gave up and
bowed out meekly to Tina Hergold. Next up for her would be Martina
Sucha, who had been in the stands for most of the first part of the
match and then promptly left to book her practice court.
Soon enough, Sandra Kleinova took to the court against
Joanette Kruger. The match wasn’t particularly exciting, both
players playing a bland baseline game. Joanette managed to avoid any
errors long enough towards the end of the sets, doing a better job of
keeping her head on straight, and took the match 7-5 7-5 despite
coming off with a slow start and having to work her way back into the
match. Joanette played a much smarter game than the Czech girl, and
her experience got her through the match this time. She’ll have to
clean up her game considerably in her next match, probably against
Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, to have any hope of getting through
that one. She simply cannot afford to make so many silly unforced
errors against the hard-hitter.
A much better match was instead going on next door. Another South
African, Liezel Horn, was playing against Jana Nejedly, and the
Canadian found herself with a much tougher job than anticipated. She
herself was coming up with a huge number of errors, and let the match
drag on for longer than it should. Liezel didn’t play as aggressively
she had in qualifying, in direct opposition to what she should have
done. She stayed on the baseline more often, and engaged the baseliner
in her own game. Jana took the first set 6-4, and got a good start in
the following set as well. Liezel, however, soon realized that she
wasn’t doing all that she could in the match, and went back to
playing more aggressively. She made a good effort to keep moving
forward, and got herself back in the match. Joanette, who had already
finished her match and showered by then, came in to offer her
compatriot support. The second set saw a much better effort from
Liezel and even blander tennis from the Canadian, who looked either
tired or disinterested in the match. She certainly wasn’t throwing
the match away, but neither was she playing like she’d done much
preparation at all. The set went into a tie-breaker which could have
gone either way, but once again Liezel couldn’t handle the pressure,
and unforced errors gave Jana the match 6-4 7-6(4).
Meanwhile, top seed Silvija Talaja finally found herself in
action after hanging around tournament grounds for 4 days now. Coming
into the event injured and unprepared, she wasn’t expecting much at
all. To make matters worse for the Croat, she was suffering from
cramps today. The only word I can think of to describe her tennis is
weak, and Corina Morariu, looking fully determined after her
disappointment in the doubles the previous day, really took it to
Silvija. Even after taking the firsts et 6-2 and leading 4-1 in the
second, Corina didn’t let up, and finished the match off 6-2 6-2.
Silvija didn’t look too concerned, as she hadn’t expected anything at
all from herself. In fact, she had probably come into the match with
a losing mentality. The first set saw her simply pushing the ball
back across the net, but she gradually started hitting the ball with
more conviction in the second set -- too little too late.
As Asa Carlsson warmed up on court against Henrieta Nagyova, Maria Salerni
and Tina Hergold were struggling in their match against lucky
losers Sandra Kleinova and Anne Kremer. Iroda Tulyaganova had
earlier withdrawn from her singles match with a hip injury, and even
had she been fit to play the doubles match, tournament rules are such
that she wouldn’t be allowed to anyway. In any case, that meant that
the two teams would be playing against each other for the second
time in the tournament.
The match looked to be a repeat of the previous one. The youngsters
came out blasting, and Anne and Sandra had hardly time to blink
before they’d lost the first set 2-6. The second set was a different
story, though. Salerni started to lose her concentration and
became a bit dreamy at net. Her loss of focus soon started to infect
her partner, and seeing the Achilles’ heel, Anne and Sandra played
their percentages better. Just as quickly as the first set had gone,
the youngsters found themselves even at 1 set all. It should be
noted that Sandra had called for the trainer early in the match,
with a problem with her right shoulder. The Czech had struggles
with a shoulder injury more than a year ago, and I wonder if it’s
not the same one plaguing her career in tennis.
In any case, Maria and Tina snapped to the present, and slowly
picked their games up against in the end of the first set. This is
very typical of younger players, who need to learn to maintain their
focus throughout matches. In the juniors, players on both sides have
the tendency to fluctuate in focus, but among the professional
players, there is no room to relax. Fortunately, most junior players
are aware of this and the better ones are very aware that they have
far to go in terms of mental stamina. Once the ball got rolling,
though, and aided by a slight drop in performance from the more
experienced team, Maria and Tina took the last six games in a row to
chalk up their second victory in as many matches against Joanette
Kruger and Sandra Kleinova, two very capable tennis players.
Back to the Asa Carlsson vs. Henrieta Nagyova match.
As the players finished the warmup, I got the
feeling that the tournament would lose both its top seed and
defending champion in the span of a few hours. Asa
had looked very unmotivated throughout the tournament, and has played
very little all year. Having played in only 17 tournaments all year,
I’m not sure if she’s simply become complacent after winning her
first singles title or is struggling with injuries. Her ranking’s
actually improved from last year, but mostly from her third round
showing in the Australian Open and fourth round defeat at Roland
Garros by Mary Pierce. Nagyova carried a good attitude with
her, exuding the aura of a player who knew that she had every
reason to come out on top over the sixth seed and defending
champion of the tournament.
Henrieta had had a bad start to the year, but suddenly came
through in Poland to take the title (she had gone into the
tournament with a 1-6 win-loss record!). She then had another
slow period, gathering a 1-4 win loss record before suddenly
taking another title at Palermo. Since then, the Slovakian has
had a pretty good time of it at tournaments, and most recently
got through qualifying in Linz to reach the quarterfinals before
finally falling to Chanda Rubin.
Henrieta started strong, while Asa looked very dormant, and got the
break easily to go up 2-0. Asa picked up her game from there, but
played a very, very streaky game throughout the match. The match
was full of fast and furious baseline rallies, both players fighting
for control and neither one finding success. The rallies would
start in favour of one player, and then the other would turn the
tide around, and so on. Most of the rallies could have gone either
way, and most games went the distance. The important ones, however,
were going the underdog’s way, and she deserved them. She’d played
harder, made the plays, and wanted it more than the Swede.
Much to the delight of the crowd, who had started out cheering for
the defending champion but turned to the other side when they saw
how much more effort the other girl was putting in, Henrieta took
the first set after a huge battle, and then had an easier second set,
taking it 6-4 6-2. Would this be yet another consistency in
inconsistency from the Slovakian, or would she suddenly find herself
with another singles title? Not if Tammy and Dokic have anything to
say about it. Besides, waiting for her in the next round is Corina,
who has a mission to accomplish herself.
Singles main draw first round:
- Tina Hergold def. Patricia Wartusch 6-3 5-7 6-2
- Jana Nejedly def. Liezel Horn (Q) 6-4 7-6(4)
Singles main draw second round:
- Corina Morariu def. Silvija Talaja (1) 6-2 6-2
- Henrieta Nagyova def. Asa Carlsson (6) 6-4 6-2
- Tamarine Tanasugarn (3) vs. Dragana Zaric
- Joanette Kruger def. Sandra Kleinova 7-5 7-5
- Tatiana Panova (5) vs. Jana Nejedly
- Tina Hergold vs. Martina Sucha (Q)
- Pavlina Nola def. Iroda Tulyaganova (Q) 7-5 4-0 ret.
- Jelena Dokic (2) vs. Iva Majoli
Doubles main draw first round (bottom half):
- Bachmann/Dyrberg def. Li Fang/Tong Ka-Po 6-4 6-1 Horn.Webb (4) def. Farina/Kandarr 6-2 7-5
- Hergold/Salerni (Q) vs. Zaporozhanova/Tulyaganova 6-2 2-6 6-0
- Krizan/Srebotnik (2) vs. Basuki/Vis
Doubles main draw second round:
- Hiraki/Yoshida (3) def. Majoli/Talaja 2-6 6-1 6-2
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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