Anna scores another win; Venus remains the woman to beat
by Alex Dimitrov
Round of 16 matches began early Thursday morning at the Acura Classic.
Fifth seeded Kim Clijsters opened up on Center Court against
Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria at 10:00AM sharp. Clijsters was
not playing her best tennis, nor did she need to as Maleeva was missing
serves and overheads left and right. Clijsters, who has decided not to
have surgery to correct a re-occurring shoulder injury, took the first
set 6-3 despite inconsistent play. Her groundstrokes lacked depth
and placement, not to mention the fact that her balls were quite loopy
and had no sting on them. Maleeva, however, was playing even worse
despite taking a 3-0 lead in the second set. Both seemed to be making
lots of errors and not nearly enough first serves to accommodate their
baseline game. Clijsters stepped up her level of play and quickly
dug herself out of trouble by pulling ahead 4-3 in the second.
Maleeva was simply not converting on her break point opportunities.
Her play on the big points was very sloppy and she appeared to be
in a foul, irritated mood. Kim prevailed 6-3, 6-3 in what had to
be the most boring match of the day.
Up next was Jennifer Capriati versus Meghann Shaughnessy
in what promised to be a very hard hitting match. It was interesting
to see if there would be any bad blood between the two due to the
entire Fed Cup fiasco earlier in the year. Both seemed to be tense
as the match began. Neither could find their rhythm on serve as they
broke each other consecutively leveling things at 1-1. Finally
Meghann held for 2-1, after which Capriati took a short bathroom
break. Jennifer was very aggressive on her serve despite not really
getting any good placement on it. Her forehand seemed to go off at
times, yet she played the big points very well, as she has during the
past two years. The match went on serve until Capriati finally broke
to go up 4-3 and with that she held for 5-3. Meghann held comfortably
and made Capriati serve out the set at 5-4. Jennifer seemed to get a
bit nervous as she quickly went down 0-30 on her serve but won the
next four consecutive points and with them the set at 6-4 thanks to a
few untimely errors by Shaughnessy.
As in the first set, both broke each other to start off the second
but that was the only game Shaughnessy would see for the rest of the
match. As Jennifer pointed out in her press conference, Shaughnessy's
backhand was the shot really holding her back as she couldn't hurt
Jennifer with it. It consistently landed loopy and mid-court, giving
Capriati an easy target. Jennifer prevailed 6-4, 6-1 in what was
another showcase of Shaughnessy's unfulfilled talent. During her
press conference Jennifer talked about how much she loved playing in
San Diego and how happy she was to be playing matches in a row. She
hadn't played since Wimbledon and was excited preparing for the Open.
Surprisingly, she made it through without once talking about the
Williams sisters.
Anna Kournikova was Conchita Martinez's next victim...or so it seemed
after Martinez took the first set 6-1. Kournikova would later go on
to say that she was still stiff in the first set referring to a
stomach and thigh pull injury, which has affected her play all week.
Kournikova said she was cautious at first, as she was scared of
injuring herself any further. Anna did pick up her play, however, and
with it came the crowd's support. Conchita Martinez (who is a San
Diego resident) felt like the underdog as the crowd cheered and jeered
in support of Anna, who took the second set 6-2 when she finally
converted on her third set point.
The third set was a display of Kournikova at her best. Drop shots,
backhand slices, falling backwards backhand volleys, half-volley
winners, top spin moon balls, crisp overheads, and wickedly placed
serves gave Anna an early 4-1 edge in the third. At one point she
had worked so hard to construct a point that she sat down in the
linesperson's chair between points. Anna had clearly found her mojo
and she used it on Conchita Martinez to take her out 1-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Her matches were looking more like her practice sessions with new
coach Harold Solomon -- fierce, yet patient and consistent. These
days Anna was willing to work the points rather than worrying about
how to get rid of the ball faster. There's definitely something about
Anna, and it's not her sun block congested face.
Venus Williams's press conference interview was much more
entertaining than her Round of 16 match versus Anne Kremer.
Williams quickly disposed of Kremer 6-3, 6-2 and came to speak to
the press before even Kournikova had come in for her press conference.
It was unusual to see Williams so happy and talkative. Rather than
giving her usual one-sentence answers Venus talked about her addiction
to Lifetime television and her eating habits. She confessed losing
the remote control to her T.V. and therefore having to stick to one
channel due to being too lazy to go up to the T.V. and manually flip
through channels. That channel happened to be Lifetime, as she
proudly recited their usual programming schedule and her obsession
with watching. "My time has gone down the drain," she said as she
talked about spending more time in front of the T.V. when she could
be training or studying. She said she'd tried to read a book during
Wimbledon but had gotten bored so she skipped the middle and went
straight to the end.
Another thing Venus shared with the press was her
love for popcorn, which according to her was the reason she wanted to
go to the zoo. Williams also reflected on classic matches in her
career, citing the '97 US Open semifinal versus Irina Spirlea and
the '00 US Open semifinal versus Hingis as two matches she considered
timeless. When asked about her next opponent Kim Clijsters, Venus
said she felt Kim had done everything she could have in the finals at
Stanford so there really wasn't much else she could do against her
this time around.
The evening match featured Lindsay Davenport and Chanda Rubin. This
time Davenport looked sharper than she had in her second round match.
Her one-two punch combination (serve and forehand/backhand) was
working brilliantly as she drilled Rubin 6-2 in the first set. However,
Chanda managed to bounce back in the second by taking care of her
service games and pouncing on Lindsay's second serves. Rubin took
the second 6-2 and looked to take a 1-0 lead in the third having four
game point chances on her serve. Davenport, however, broke Chanda on
the very first break point opportunity she got and never looked back.
Lindsay was confident enough to come into net, hit a few tough
overheads, and still dictate from the baseline. All in all it was a
good evening for Davenport, who is looking better and better with
every match she plays.
At the end of the day it was still Venus Williams standing out as the woman
to beat. She is in fact the only player who seems to be able to have
her cake and eat it too...or as she would prefer, have her popcorn and
eat it too.
|
|
The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine.
https://tennis-ontheline.com/02sd02.htm © 2025
Last updated 26 September 2015
// -->
|