Henin and Hantuchova Slug It Out On Day Three
by Priya Prasad
Tournament organisers had once again reason to regret scheduling
the best matches for last, as play ran nearly to midnight, leaving
less than ten spectators falling asleep in the stands. Qualifier
Cho Yoon-Jeong made short work of Irina Selyutina, playing steadily
to take the match 6-2 6-4. Silvia Farina-Elia also managed to move
into the second round despite having a tougher match against Emilie
Loit. Silvia had trouble taking control of the match against the
more aggressive play of the French lefty, but managed to get through
6-2 4-6 6-3 anyway. Always steady, the Milanese will come through
against Cho for a place in the quarterfinals.
The pace picked up with seventh seed Daja Bedanova finding herself in
deep trouble against Joanette Kruger, actually saving one match point
at 3-6 2-5 down to eventually win 3-6 7-5 6-2. The Czech simply had
trouble getting herself started for the year, and had not had the
benefit her opponent had of a long first-round match.
Taking her cue from the near upset, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova took
to court against second seed Justine Henin. Henin appeared to be her
calm and collected self, ready to put her new weapon to the test --
sparked off by her loss against Venus Williams in the final of
Wimbledon, the Belgian had started on a strength training program in
the past weeks to give her more of a fair chance against the power
players.
The Slovak's innocent angelic face belies a ruthless game and she came
out full speed ahead, serving beautifully and throwing all caution to
the wind. Blasting serves that kept Justine guessing and hitting full
swinging volleys from the middle of the court, Daniela made the
Belgian look like the underdog instead. Justine had made no assumptions
coming into the match, but certainly had not expected the shelling she
was receiving, and let the pressure of a repeat performance from last
year get to her. The first set went to Daniela 6-1, a good reflection
of just how well she was playing, and it would have been more than
reasonable to believe that the tournament was about to lose its defending
champion in her first match.
Justine spent the changeover deciding to focus on her game instead of
letting the panic get to her; she focused her energy on just winning
the match instead of thinking about the multitude of reasons for her
to come through. The slightly differed service motion had let her down
a couple of times, but she stuck with it and took the bad with the
good. Daniela continued to put the pressure on, but now had the burden
of a lead on her back. A couple of breathtaking passes from Justine
and a handful of missed opportunities from Daniela turned the match
around, and the Slovak struggled to recover from a high swinging
forehand dumped into the net from halfway inside the service line.
Justine had to work hard for her points, but took 11 games in a row
before Daniela finally broke the streak, smacking four huge serves to
hold at love. To be fair, line calls up to this point had been more
than questionable, and the Slovak had every reason to lose her cool
but did little more than pause for a couple of seconds after each
dodgy point, lips pressed into a thin straight line in controlled
rage.
Once again, the match turned around, and her serves finally landing
in instead of just past the service line as they had in the last set
and a half, the Slovak found her second wind. Hitting crisp clean
shots well out of Justine's reach, she fought back with a vengeance,
actually taking three games in a row despite coming close to losing it
all. Panic set in again in the Belgian, the threat of actually losing
the match after such a hot streak becoming very real, and the adrenaline
flowing through her veins materialized in a couple of booming serves.
A couple of mishits off Daniela's racquet left her facing two match
points, but absolutely gutsy play and a huge winner in the corner of
the court saved her the first. Stepping in to receive serve on the
next point, she took a huge swing and went for a down-the-line
forehand service return winner, but the ball landed just beyond the
service line, and it was a second or two before anyone in attendance
realized that the match was over and the Belgian had scraped through
by the skin of her nose.
Justine certainly had reason to be elated with her win, especially
with the way she had handled herself coming out of the first set, and
came away buzzing with confidence. While some players might shudder
at having such a tough first match, the 19-year-old going on 30
understood the benefits of coming through a tight situation, and held
on to the belief that if she could get through this, she can certainly
take on Venus in the final for a repeat performance here in the Gold
Coast.
Daniela Hantuchova, on the other hand, will be lying awake for the
next few nights thinking about what could have been, but the youngster
will certainly have many more opportunities ahead of her. Look for
the Wimbledon mixed-doubles champion to win her first career WTA
singles title this year.
Next up on court were fourth seed Meghann Shaughnessy and Nadia
Petrova in a match that was predictably power-orientated and in
don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it fashion. Meghann showed more versatility
and opted to play a more all-court game than engage in a muscle
contest with the Russian, but found it disheartening to see the balls
whiz past her time after time. Nadia had her serve well under control,
which made her service games go by fast enough, but other than that,
it was very much hit-and-miss. The errors that were coming off her
racquet suggested an injury, possibly in the shoulder, of some sort,
but the Russian stuck in there and took the match 6-4 4-6 6-3, with
the final set ending in a very convincing fashion.
Former champion Ai Sugiyama took to the court next against another
Russian, Anastasia Myskina, and both players were glad to be finally
seeing some action. Spectators were still in attendance despite the
late hour, although neither player is very dependant on crowd motivation
to get them going.
Anastasia, or Nastya as her friends call her, started strong, hitting
the ball confidently and knowing that her opponent had the ability not
only to send the balls back, but to send them back with strategic
purpose. Games started out on serve, Nastya playing well, but her
shaky serve got her into trouble at 2-all, and she soon found herself
trailing 2-4. She got her serve under control again and took advantage
of some shaky serving from Ai this time to get the break back. Both
players worked hard to take the first set, but with the way the Russian
was playing, it wasn't long before the line calls started to get to
her, and despite her small protests, the line judges failed to be
intimidated. When an extremely obvious call left her struggling to
hold serve at 5-all, she took it up with the umpire, who couldn't
overrule on a far line and left the Russian's face glowing red with
frustration. Her game fell apart, and the Japanese quickly took the
first set 7-5.
The theme carried into the second set, and Nastya soon resigned
herself to having line calls go against her and stopped questioning
them, although her facial expression belied her facede. The
frustration also showed in her game, which quite decidedly had fallen
apart. Some unforced errors were just shocking, and after the closely
contested first set, the second set was a letdown. With her 7-5 6-3
win, Ai set up her eight meeting against Venus Williams, and will
look to keep her quarterfinal record here at the Gold coast
unblemished.
At 10 in the evening, Tina Pisnik and Elena Likhovtseva finally made
it on court. Apart from Elena's husband, Tina's coach, and a couple of
players who hadn't either gone to sleep or headed out to party to
make up for a disappointing New Year's Eve, stopped by from the hotel
(the Royal Pines Resort is a complete facility for the players and
apart from entertainment, they have no need to leave the structure)
for a couple of games. There were about four people half asleep as
well as three people definitely fast asleep in the stands.
Tina won the toss and opted to serve. Serving well, she got a 2-0
lead, but promptly had her serve broken (thanks to Elena taking the
ball early and taking the early offensive) to even up the match again
at 2-all, but got the break again to take a 4-2 lead. Elena's usually
steady groundstrokes were a little errant, which was surprising
considering the lack of pace on Tina's shots. With the same crew
having been on court for a while now, the line calls started becoming
questionable, and Tina took up one particularly bad call with the
umpire before losing serve yet again. Her goal always to focus on her
own game, she kept her head straight, and kept the attack on to take
three games in a row for the first personality across the net.
Annoyed but still under control, Tina waited patiently, and used her
emotion to put a little more sting in her forehand instead of just
top-spinning it across the net, and at 5-3, held two match points. She
lost the first one on a loose shot, and lost the second when Elena
put the attack on, finishing the point with a huge winner from the
net. Continuing the aggressive play, Elena took the game and
threatened to turn the match around. She led 15-0, 15-all, and then
30-15 when she got a passing shot past an set.
Elena continued to have trouble keeping her backhand under control,
while her opponent was struggling as usual with her forehand, but the
serves made the difference, and Elena once again found herself down a
break at 1-2. She started to take her time between points, breaking
the Slovenian's rhythm and particularly aggravating the extremely
volatile increasingly alarmed Pisnik, even holding break point at
40-30, but couldn't break the resolve of her opponent, and lost three
points in a row to give the Slovenian her second big upset in a row.
Reminiscent of her first match, Tina was on the phone as soon as she
sat down on her chair to inform her mother of her win.
One step closer to proving that her capability to keep her
concentration in her previous match was no fluke, the future looks
increasingly bright for the top Slovenian talent. With her performance
here, it is likely that she will reach her highest ranking at around
50, and it looks imminent that bar injury, she will crack the top 30
by the end of the year. She next faces a quarterfinal showdown against
former junior rival Daja Bedanova, whose performance earlier today
might just hold another big upset in store for the Slovenian.
Singles Main Draw Round 1:
- Q-Yoon Jeong Cho (KOR) d Irina Selyutina (KAZ) 62 64
- 5-Silvia Farina Elia (ITA) d Emilie Loit (FRA) 62 46 63
Singles Main Draw Round 2:
- Nadia Petrova (RUS) d 4-Meghann Shaughnessy (USA) 64 46 63
- 7-Daja Bedanova (CZE) d Joannette Kruger (RSA) 36 75 62
- 2-Justine Henin (BEL) d Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 16 60 63
- 8-Ai Sugiyama (JPN) d Anastasia Myskina (RUS) 75 63
- Tina Pisnik (SLO) d Elena Likhovtseva (RUS) 63 64
Doubles Main Draw Round 1:
- Bedanova/Majoli (CZE/CRO) d Q-Stewart/Wheeler (AUS/AUS) 64 64
- 2-Testud/Vinci (FRA/ITA) d McShea/Miyagi (AUS/JPN) 16 64 63
Doubles Main Draw Quarterfinals:
- Carlsson/Oremans (SWE/NED) d 3-Callens/Pratt (BEL/AUS) 63 36 64
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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