Italy Vies for Second Place on Day Four
by Prip
The final day of Week One's Federation Cup play. Spain was already
through to the final round to be played in America, and with Croatia
suffering losses to all three countries, Italy and Germany would
battle for second place. Both teams chose to play their usual players,
and the first match of the day would be crucial in determining
whether Italy would have a chance at second place. Tathiana Garbin
would take on Andrea Glass in the first match, and with Anke almost
sure to take her match against Silvia Farina, it would most likely be
up to the doubles match to decide it.
While there had been several 30-second light showers in the previous
day and a half, the morning looked like Circolo Tennis would see real
rain today. Sure enough, there was rather heavy rain just over an
hour before play was scheduled to start, and play was delayed for an
hour. The courts are certainly well taken care of in Circolo Tennis,
and grounds crew are quick to cover the stadium court, but it was
inevitable that the court would get wet, and this would definitely
favour the Germans.
Tathiana Garbin (ITA) versus Andrea Glass (GER)
Germany won the toss, and elected to serve, with the knowledge that
breaking the Italian's serve is a very daunting task. While the umpire
was having the usual few words before the start of the warmup,
Tathiana had a good look at the clay, feeling the surface with her
foot. The groundskeeper called from the side of the court, assuring
her that the court was dry.
Tathiana started terribly, and 4 quick errors gave the German her
service game. Still slow to start, Tathiana struggled a little on her
serve at first, but finally started to get into the match towards the
end of the game, and managed to escape with her service game.
What followed was by far the longest game of the four days, and I
wouldn't be surprised if it was the longest game of the year so far.
Andrea's service game went to 8 deuces, that is, a total of 22 points
were played with the advantage swinging to and fro before Tathiana
finally managed to get the break on a winner.
For some reason, Andrea had been making the mistake of going for the
Italian's strong forehand. The few times Andrea did finally decide to
hit to her backhand, the ball did not have enough on it, and the
Italian who had gained momentum by then would run around the backhand
easily to smack a forehand winner.
Finally, after finding herself down 1-4, either something clicked in
Andrea's head or Markus Schur drilled it into her head that she was
playing the wrong side of Tathiana's. She started to hit everything
to the Italian's backhand, but her shots didn't have enough on it to
trouble the Italian much. With strong serving, Tathiana held serve
without too much trouble.
Andrea continued to play Tax's backhand with considerably more
success, and the Italian found herself having to put in a lot more
effort in the rallies. The game went to deuce, at which Andrea hit an
ace. Tathiana questioned the call, but didn't get the overrule. Not
satisfied with the call, she was about to continue disputing the
call, when Rafaella Reggi told her to get on with the match. Somewhat
unnerved by the call, she made an unforced error to give Andrea her
second game of the match. Tathiana had another strong service game,
and dropped only one point en route to taking the first set 6-2 in 38
minutes.
The beginning of the second set was pretty much like the end of the
first, with Andrea growing increasingly unnerved at the number of
balls that came back across the net. Tathiana continued to serve well,
and took full advantage of the short response from the German.
Tathiana has worked on and improved her return of serve in recent
months, but at times has a tendency to become a little sloppy. She
needed 5 break points at 2-all before she finally managed to get the
break.
In the driver's seat for just about the whole match, Tathiana had
grown a little over-confident, and was even running around serves
going out wide on the ad side in favour of her forehand. While she
did get a couple of good returns in, the move was more likely to
result in a weak return or leave her out of position, nearly outside
the doubles alley. Almost as if she were playing a game testing
herself, she continued to run around the serve, and gave up the
opportunity for a double-break. Similarly at the Aussie Open this
year, Tathiana had served a game or two standing practically at the
doubles alley in her singles qualifying match against Rennae Stubbs,
giving Rennae the option of either catching her moving the wrong way
on a cross-court return or an open court down the line.
Anyway, the Italian powered and scrambled her way to a 6-2 6-3
victory, keeping the hopes alive for Italy. As usual, the crowd went
wild for her, and a number waited in the stands while she did a
television courtside interview with a camera. For the second time in
as many days, one fan handed her a stalk of dried rose coloured
entirely dark blue, while another took the opportunity to get her
autograph. As she left the court, she was mobbed by adults and kids
alike, asking for autographs and photo opportunities. She obliged,
and pretty much found it impossible to get to the locker room which
seemed miles away. Her teammates had long left for the locker room to
see how Silvia Farina was doing in preparation for her match against
Anke Huber.
Silvia Farina (ITA) versus Anke Huber (GER)
Anke had so far steamrolled over her opposition, including world's No.8
Conchita Martinez, and there was little reason to believe that her
match against Silvia Farina would be any different. Italy won the
toss, and Silvia elected to receive. Anke started well, and took her
service game on an ace to open the match.
Anke and Jelena had by far been the hardest workers of the tournament,
playing their maximum number of matches and being the pillars of
their respective teams. Anke had especially surprised me in terms of
how well she managed to keep a high level of concentration pretty
much throughout her matches. Today was a different story, though, and
Anke came up with a ton of errors.
Anke obviously plays a very high-risk, hit-or-miss game, and would
come up with breathtaking winners only to follow up with a string of
unsightly errors. Silvia herself was doing well to keep the balls
deep, running Anke corner to corner at every opportunity. While Anke
had a dismal percentage, she was serving better, and actually got 2
aces in a row in her second service game. Silvia was also having a
good day on her serve, despite knowing full well that she had to come
up with nothing less than a decent serve.
Both players didn't have too much trouble on their service games,
until 5-6 in the first, when Anke herself felt that she shouldn't
have to be playing a tie-breaker with Silvia after totally
demolishing Conchita the previous day. She came on court looking
fully determined to break serve, but couldn't keep her shots in. She
got her first point of the game off a double-fault from Silvia, but
Silvia got the next point for 2 game points. She threw the first one
away on another double-fault, and Anke got a solid return in to save
the second, bringing it to deuce.
Anke got the advantage, setting up set point, but Silvia got a clean
ace, Anke not even moving from the spot she was standing in. The ad
swung a couple of times before Silvia finally got her game, taking it
to a tie-break.
By this time, Anke got pretty fed up, not happy to be having to go
the distance when she still had a doubles match to go. To add to her
stress, the Italian team, including Rita Grande and Giulia Casoni
were by now ready for a post-tournament party, and were having a
ball of a time, laughing, talking and cheering between points. Giulia
was shaking a bottle of effervescent water as hard as she could at
every opportunity, making as much noise as possible (perhaps also
ready to douse Silvia should she come up with the victory), while in
stark contrast, Rafaella Reggi sat very seriously, with her arms and
legs crossed barely 5 feet in front of them.
Anke held serve to open the tie-breaker and got a mini-break
immediately, wanting to put a quick end to the fiasco, but was
promptly broken back. At 3-all, Anke broke again, and this time
managed to hold on to both her service points to go up 6-3 and hold 3
set points. The crowd sighed when Silvia netted her first serve,
expecting Anke to jump all over her second serve. In a very brave
move, Silvia went for a very strong second serve, getting the weak
response, and followed it with a beautiful dropshot to stave off one
set point. An unforced error from Anke gave away the second set
point, but Anke made no mistake on her serve, and finally took the
tie-breaker 7-5.
The first game of the second set was a struggle for Silvia, but she
managed to hold on anyway. Anke also had to work really hard in her
service game, but she didn't have as much success as Silvia and found
her serve broken to start the second set. Silvia had an absolutely
dismal service game, though, hitting 3 doubles faults to give the
break back. Anke held serve to even it at 2-all, and got her second
break in a row to go up 3-2, but a double-fault of her own helped
Silvia get the break back.
Silvia got her service game at love to finally consolidate the break,
but failed to capitalize on a chance to get a double-break in the
next game, and Anke narrowly escaped having to either get three
breaks or play three sets. Not playing as urgently as before, and
taking her time throwing in deep loopy topspin shots, Anke came from
behind to get the break back, going up 5-4. By this time, the Italian
team were increasingly vocal, and Rita and Giulia orchestrated a
Mexican Wave through the crowd.
Spurred on by the excitement around her, Silvia got in some very good
return of serves, and broke Anke back to even it up at 5-all, to the
delight of the crowd. Their joy was short-lived, however, as the
thought of having to play 3 sets gave Anke the boost she needed to
finish off the match. Anke dropped only one point in each of the next
two games to take the match 7-6(5) 7-5, keeping her country in
contention for second place. Now the final match of the tournament
would decide the standings, and who would win an extra $35,000 for
their effort.
Rita Grande / Silvia Farina (ITA) versus Anke Huber / Barbara Rittner (GER)
After Barbara's disappointing effort the previous day, Markus Schur
had originally intended to play Andrea Glass instead. But halfway
through Anke's match, Barbara had left courtside (unnoticed by me)
and I was surprised to see her warming up on the practice court. I
headed back to find out what was going on, and found that he had
changed his mind, and would play Barbara against instead of Andrea.
On the opposite team, Rafaella decided to replace Giulia with Silvia
Farina (rather appropriately, since Giulia had played the first
singles match for Italy on the first day), hoping that this would
improve their chances of winning.
If the Italians had been acting more like they were at a party
instead of a tennis match during the singles match, things were about
to become considerably louder - Tathiana Garbin was in the house. She
was pretty quiet at first, unable to clap her hands because of her
broken finger, but she soon got restless, desperate to join her
teammates and the cheering spectators in urging her compatriots on.
Barbara Rittner was thankfully awake on court today, and was doing a
very good job for her team and serving a lot better than she had the
previous day.
With both German players active on court, the Italians were going to
need all the cheering they could get, and they lost the first set 6-3
before long. At first simply yelling encouragements at her best
friends, Tathiana soon found a better way to make noise - finding an
empty ball can, she started bashing it against the rail in front of
her when applause roared from the crowd. The can got pretty bent out
of shape, and she looked at it, very amused at herself. By the time
several rounds of applause had gone by, the can was totally mangled,
and laughing and giggling, her teammates were looking at it in
amusement. With it no longer effective as a noisemaker, they soon
found another empty can sitting nearby and handed it to her. Needless
to say, that can soon became as mangled as the first, and the German
team jokingly offered her another can, but she decided that the can
was not a very good idea.
The second set looked better for the Italians. Anke by now looked
very tired, and was making quite a number of unforced errors. On the
other hand, Silvia and Rita were working better together. Both teams
held serve to open the set. Anke had grown increasingly sloppy as the
match went on, and after her unsatisfactory performance in the
singles match in which she had grown increasingly annoyed with
herself, Anke continued to become frustrated with her tennis. At
1-all, Anke actually netted a reasonably high volley standing
2 ½ feet away from the net, and kicked the ball in frustration. But
instead of kicking it hard, she juggled it with her right foot, to
the delight of the soccer-crazy residents of Bari. She got a
fantastic round of applause from everybody, including the Italian
team and her teammates.
With Rita and Silvia growing comfortable with each other's games, the
Italians found themselves up 5-4, with a good chance to take the
match to 3 sets. With the noise the crowd was making between the
points, the match might well have been a soccer (or football, if you
will) match and not tennis. Sitting on metal bleachers, spectators
were stamping their feet, causing the stands to rattle loudly. Of
course, it didn't help that Tathiana was giving them the thumbs up
for their show of support, and she soon led the cheers of "Allez,
O-oh, Allez, O-oh," during the changeovers.
Anke had enough experience to maintain her composure, though, and I
suppose Barbara either couldn't care or had gotten used to the crowd.
By now, Barbara Rittner was calling the shots and was doing well to
keep her team going. Anke walked out on court looking very composed
despite the ruckus around her, and picked up her percentage, blasting
the ball like she had earlier in the tie. The Italians put up a
brave fight, but couldn't keep up with the German pair, and Anke and
Barbara took the match 6-3 7-5, earning their team $110,000 for their
effort. The crowd gave both teams a hearty round of applause, and
after some celebration and lots of autograph signing, headed off to
the locker rooms, thinking about the long week ahead of them. The
Germans would head off on the next flight to Hamburg for the Betty
Barclay Cup. On the other hand, the Italians, who had just earned
themselves $75,000 would have the week off, with the exception of
Silvia Farina who will play in the Croatian Bol Open.
As the temporary facilities were being taken down, and staff were
relaxing and watching football on the huge TV in the bar, the German
captain congratulated organizers for their wonderful effort in
running the event. The ballkids, linesmen (yes, they were all men)
and umpires were having a small gathering of their own, and VIPs
milled about, talking amongst themselves. I felt reluctant having to
leave the cozy place, and for a relatively small (and unimportant to
some) tournament, things were run very well (thanks Monica and Max
"Recchio di Gomma"!), and every effort was made to ensure that
players, team members, officials and media were well taken care of.
Meanwhile, the last day of play in Group C saw Belgium complete its
improbable run to November's Final Four. Russia looked to be the
spoilers and got off to a good start when Elena Likhovtseva scored a
6-4 6-4 win over Laurence Courtois. However, Belgium evened the tie
when the ever-impressive Kim Clijsters upset Anna Kournikova (winless
in her singles matches this week) by a 5-7 6-2 6-4 count. The
Belgians won the deciding doubles match, with Courtois and Els
Callens defeating Kournikova and Likhovtseva, 6-4 6-3. Even without
Dominique van Roost (mourning the death of her mother), Sabine
Appelmans (opting not to play Fed Cup this year), and Justine Henin
(still recovering from an injury), Belgium knocked off Australia,
France, and Russia to advance.
Belgium will be joined in the semifinals by Spain, the Czech Republic,
and the defending champion United States. With the Czechs having
already clinched their invitation, Group B's fourth day was
anticlimactic. Switzerland's 2-1 record gave them second place, so
the only business left was for winless Austria and Slovakia to battle
for third. The Austrians prevailed by scoring a pair of straight
set singles victories. Marion Maruska won the opener 6-4 7-6(1) over
Daniela Hantuchova and Barbara Schett beat Karina Habsudova 6-4 7-5.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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