Top Seed Gets A Scare On Tuesday
by Priya Prasad
With matters of the qualifying draw over and done with, main draw play
became the focus of the tournament, but because of Bianka Lamade's
absence, a bit of shuffling around was done in the singles draw. Ana
Isabella Medina Garrigues was promoted to the 9th seed and moved into
the appropriate slot, while lucky loser Nathalie Vierin was shifted
into her previous one.
With local crowds generally caring little about non-Italian players,
Magui Serna sent the first wave of excitement through the tournament
grounds -- the top seed would see action in the first match on centre
court. Not that it would be much of a match: surely Klara Koukalova
would present little more than a warm-up for the Spaniard. The Czech had
other ideas, though. Playing in only her fourth WTA tournament, she
not only got through qualifying but had also reached the final in
Antwerp this year before finally falling to Barbara Rittner in
straight sets.
Magui Serna soon found her hands full with a player playing like she
had nothing to lose. The first set went to the Spaniard 6-3, but the
second didn't go as well for her. Being one set down with even
less to lose meant that Klara could let loose and blast away, while
Magui couldn't keep control of the points. Klara took the second set
by the same score, and evened the match up again. Typically, once the
Czech realised that she had actually taken a set against the top seed
and could actually win the match, the invincibility wore off, and on
the other side of the net, Magui quickly realised how wrong things
could turn out. As she turned up the volume a little on her game, the third
set went by quickly. The top seed could breathe easily again with
a 6-3 3-6 6-2 win.
On the other side of tournament grounds, Maria Jose Martinez was
having trouble with Rossana de Los Rios. Martinez fell behind in the
first set and soon had the trainer on court tending to a problem with
her shoulder. The problem was deemed worthy of a full medical timeout,
and a lot of pulling and stretching later, the two players got back on
court. The shoulder was still hurting, though, and the first set went
by 6-2. Showing exceptional heart as she always does in her matches,
Maria Jose fought hard, and despite being unable to capitalize on her
breaks several times, continued to play hard, hitting winners and
drawing errors from her opponent. On the other hand, Rossana was
playing physically aggressively, but chose her moments carefully. She
let the other player do the brainwork more often than not, and played
more of a retrieving game than anything. Fortunately for her, her
opponent was missing as much as she was hitting, and eventually gave
the match away 2-6 7-5 5-7.
The Spaniard was understandably disappointed after the match, but was
quick to return to the same court to watch her good friend Ana Isabel
Medina Garrigues after receiving the proper medical attention. Of
course, Gala Leon Garcia helped put a smile back on her face, and by
the end of the 6-3 7-5 win over qualifier Eleni Daniilidou, the
group of Spaniards were their usual rambunctious selves again. On one
of the lighter moments in the match, Ana was about to serve when a
mobile phone rang. Mobile phones had been ringing throughout the
tournament so far, and with the second set being at 5-all, Ana got
annoyed, stopped her service motion to locate the source of the
disturbance...only to find that it was actually one of the coaches in
her group! A sheepish smile and chuckles all around the group was
followed by the umpire's warning for mobile phones to be switched
off -- the first such warning of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Maria Emilia Salerni was struggling with
herself in her match against Catalina Castano of Colombia. The
youngster more often has problems dealing with her own game than
anything else, and Catalina's crafty play didn't help. With a keen
court sense and an eye for openings in her opponents' games, Catalina
kept mixing up her shots and the pace, not allowing the youngster to
find her rhythm in taking the first set 6-1. But once she managed to
get some focus on what she was doing on court, the Argentinean made
it all look too easy, and in the blink of an eye, she took the second
set 6-1 amid a sigh of relief from coach Mercedes Paz.
Sporting a poker-face throughout the match Catalina didn't let the
losing streak change her resolve or demeanor, and continued to push
the right buttons. She threw everything but the kitchen sink at Maria;
half the time, she let the youngster come up with the error and the
other half, she bided her time before finishing off with a strong
forehand. Maria, on the other hand, would set up beautifully but miss
the finishing shot, compounding her frustrations. The final score:
6-1 1-6 6-3 for Catalina Castano. With new sponsorship and the eyes
of the world on her, perhaps a bit more time should be allowed for
Maria Emilia Salerni to reproduce the quality of play she had first
shown.
No sooner had Mercedes Paz dealt with the post-mortem of one
protégé's match than she had to prepare for another -- Alexandra
Fusai would take on a rather lethargic Nuria Llagostera.
Nuria had been rather nonchalantly walking around in the last couple
of days, looking a bit too relaxed. She looked a it more energetic on
court, but couldn't keep her mind on the court, and after struggling
to take the first set 6-3, found it difficult to string 2 points in a
row. Alexandra Fusai made good on her entrance into the main draw and
took the last too sets 6-1 6-3.
In the final interesting match of the day, Evgenia "pepperoncino"
Koulikovskaya became the second qualifier to advance to the
second round, taking out Emmanuelle Gagliardi in three sets.
Emmanuelle, having had a very up-and-down year so far, continues to
struggle with physical problems. Having finally getting over a
shoulder injury early this year, this time, the Italian-Swiss residing
in Monaco suffered from stomach problems and minor black-outs due to
the heat and humidity. Evgenia Koulikovskaya instead managed to hold
steady despite looking like she was going to evaporate in the heat,
and played out the match to win 6-1 1-6 6-0.
In the other matches, Maria Elena Camerin defeated Martina Sucha 6-3
6-2, Christina Torrens-Valero defeated wildcard Gloria Pizzichini 6-2
6-3, Virginia Ruano Pascual defeated Adriana Serra-Zanetti 6-0 6-2,
and Lubomira Bacheva defeated lucky loser Nathalie Vierin 6-2 6-2. In
the night match, second seed Tatiana Panova had little trouble taking
care of Giulia Casoni, leaving Elena Camerin the sole Italian survivor
of the day. Giulia managed to come close to taking the match to three
sets, but fell 6-3 6-4.
In doubles action, Asa Carlsson and Sylvia Plischke managed to move
into the second round despite having to play perhaps the toughest
first-round match of the four seeded teams. They defeated the
wild card pair of Magui Serna and Francesca Schiavone 6-3 4-6 6-3,
while tournament favourites Tathiana Garbin and Janette Husarova
finished their match off dropping only three games against Eugenia
Chialvo and Conchita Martinez Granados. I arrived at the court, along
with a couple of other players, only to see the Italian-Slovakian
pairing in matching red tops and white skirts shake hands with the
other pair. Seeing the Salerni sisters, I asked them the score, only
to be told that they didn't know. I teased them, asking them what
they had been doing standing there if not watching the match, and
their answer perfectly characterised the match: "No, we arrived, and
then 'Game, Set and Match'."
Game, set and match indeed, and it was time to finally head off for
the day.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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